SARA GRAHAM

The smoked kielbasa sandwich at Mothership, now open inside Earthbound Beer.

Even as the rest of us got ready for Christmas, St. Louis restaurateurs kept busy, with a fleet of high-profile openings and a few closures as well. Wine lovers were sad to learn that Remy's would be closing its doors after service on New Year's Eve — and Tim Horton's closed its final St. Louis-area locations after a legal dispute between the Canadian company and its local franchisee.

But there were plenty of buzzy openings to take the sting out of those departures. Zoe Robinson opened her long-awaited Billie-Jean, Dave Bailey opened L'Acadiane, and the dream team behind Louie, in the De Mun neighborhood, also opened their spot. As for Chris Bork of Vista Ramen, he's now running a much different food operation inside Earthbound Beer — Mothership. Meanwhile, Honey Pit Smokehouse brought a new kind of barbecue to Kirkwood, while the Clover and Bee brought a breakfast and lunch spot to Webster Groves.

Oh, and did you happen to hear about that little burger spot in the heart of the Central West End ? Maybe one of these days the lines will die down; for now, we'll have to settle for salivating on Instagram!Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments.