Now they’ve really made it. A southern-style restaurant in Ravenna called JuneBaby has been getting nothing but praise since it opened last year. Now that a guy named Pete Wells gave it a glowing review, it’s hard to know just how much better things could get for the restaurant and its now celebrity chef, Edouardo Jordan (who is, on top of everything else, a semifinalist for a coveted James Beard best chef award). Why is Pete such a big deal? He’s the all-star food critic at The New York Times. And when he gave JuneBaby three whole stars last week, says Seattle Met, it was the first time he’s given stars to any restaurant in Seattle. Also cool: chef Edouardo might be the first black chef to get that kind of NYT love in 20 years. (The New York Times)

More salmon. That’s an order. Our local orcas are in trouble and our governor just told everyone to help. Three pods of orcas live nearby in Puget Sound and their numbers have been plummeting in the last several years. What do we do? Governor Jay Inslee signed an executive order’s calling for us to give the whales get more space, cleaner water, and oh yeah — lots more fish. 🐟 (Associated Press)

Still connected. About 8,500 of our neighbors don’t have a safe, secure place to call home in Seattle. More than 800 of them live in one of the city’s seven sanctioned tent camps, and that’s where Seattle librarians have been giving away something precious: WiFi. The library’s set aside 50 portable WiFi hot spots just for the city’s tent camps, and while it’s making a difference in the lives of the people who live there, some people worry it’s making the camps feel permanent when they really shouldn’t be. “You sort of hate to see the infrastructure around that hardening,” Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, told The Seattle Times. “It’s accepting it. It’s really not acceptable.” How are people in tent camps using the Internet? The same way anyone else would: to connect with people they love, look up good resources and info, and oh yeah — have fun. “Every day is hard when you’re homeless,” said the library’s Hayden Bass, “and it’s nice to just come home and watch a movie.” (The Seattle Times)

Good one, zoo. Our own Woodland Park Zoo was one of many around the country that got in on a fun game earlier this month: tweeting about their animals in the style of an Amazon product review. The #rateaspecies hashtag went — predictably — very viral. “MISLABELED,” begins our zoo’s review of its sloth bear. “This is a straight up bear. Not a sloth. Not a sloth/bear hybrid. Very good quality bear, as long as you know what you’re getting into.” (Twitter)

The weather’s getting warmer — and our city’s bursting into full color. As the Seattle bloom approaches, we wanted to take a moment to get a little geeky about one of the heralds of Seattle spring: the cherry trees in University of Washington’s quad, which reached peak bloom this week.

Here’s a little horticultural history on this Seattle spring destination to share with friends the next time you find yourself talking about this lovely season:

» The number of cherry blossoms depends on the weather. The trees, which are a Yoshino cherry varietal (Prunus × yedoensis) from Japan, flower faster when it’s warm, according to UW reps. If the temperature drops below 50 ºF, the buds open more slowly.

» They’ve been around since before World War II. The trees were planted in 1936, making them nearly 90 years old. The United States’ first-ever Japanese cherry trees arrived just 24 years prior, first landing in Seattle before being sent by train to Washington D.C.

» The trees weren’t always on campus. When construction on Highway 520 began in the ‘60s, the trees were transplanted from the Washington Park Arboretum to the quad. Wanna make a day of seeing the flowers? Use this handy map to guide yourself to more than 200 cherry trees on the UW campus.

» The UW quad’s trees have been cloned. Arborists took cuttings from the trees around 2005 to grew them in a greenhouse in Skagit Valley. Seattleites can see those clones today — right on campus. The newer cuttings are growing on the lawn outside Parrington Hall.

» You can watch the trees bloom even if you can’t make it in person. Watch the trees bloom without making the drive (or having an allergy attack) by checking the university’s live cherry blossom cam.

» UW’s cherry trees send tweets. Follow them on Twitter at @uwcherryblossom for all the flowery updates.

WANT TO SEE ALL THE SEATTLE SUNSETS? 🌅

A guy named Alan Hussey’s recording them every night and posting them as handy sped-up time-lapse videos. Don’t want to miss another great sunset ever again? Follow his Twitter account @goldenhourSEA, and check out the story in The Seattle Times.

😎 — The Evergrey