This is a post by N&O restaurant critic Greg Cox:

J.P. LaRussa and his wife, Gwynne, opened Acme Pizza Co. (204 Village Walk Drive; 919-552-8800; acmepizzaco.org) last week in the former All Aboard Pizza space. They’re still offering the New York style pies that were that restaurant’s calling card, but Acme’s specialty is Chicago-style deep dish stuffed pizzas.

The style fills an underserved niche in the Triangle, and is a natural for Acme’s owners. The LaRussas hail from the San Francisco Bay area, where J.P. worked for more than 20 years for a small chain called Zachary’s Chicago Pizza.

“They brought Chicago-style to the Bay area,” says LaRussa. “It’s like a real pie, baked in a two-inch deep pan with the filling between two layers of thin dough, and sauce on top.”

It’s a lot of filling, too, whether you opt for the Meat Head (pepperoni, sweet Italian sausage, sliced meatball, crumbled bacon and mozzarella) or something “lighter.” The Greek, say, with roasted red bell peppers, marinated artichoke hearts, green olives, feta and Monterey Jack. Novices are advised that these hefty pies take 30-35 minutes to bake.

Ordering ahead is encouraged, but you could also profitably fill the half hour wait with a glass of wine or a draft beer from a soon-to-be-expanded selection that already includes local brews from Aviator, Carolina Brewing and Natty Greene’s.

The menu also lists calzones, stromboli, grinders, half-pound grilled-to-order burgers and a modest selection of appetizers and pastas. Given LaRussa’s experience and the paucity of Chicago-style pizzerias in the area, though, it’s a good bet that transplants from the Windy City are already setting their GPS for Holly Springs.

Acme Pizza Co. is open for lunch and dinner daily.

Send restaurant news to Greg at ggcox@bellsouth.net. Be sure to tune in to Greg's radio show at 11 a.m. Saturdays on WPTF.

UPDATED:Mystery Brewing is celebrating its one year anniversary this week with a number of big events. Tonight, Mystery will release it's latest concoction at Beer Study in Chapel Hill. The Litwow Grodziske is a traditional Polish beer made with oak-smoked wheat. (I tried a sample from the fermenter weeks ago and it was light but hoppy and deliciously weird.) It's a limited batch as part of the brewery's Novella Series.

Click below for the other Mystery anniversary parties and other beer events this weekend in the Triangle.

View Triangle Expressway in a larger map

The Apex Bypass -- better known as the third leg of the the Triangle Expressway -- opens to traffic Thursday morning.  Toll collection (and maybe E-ZPass use, too - see 12/18 Road Worrier with reader comments) starts Jan. 2. (12/18 update: new toll-rate map attached below. Eventually, it'll be available at ncquickpass.com, too.)

It extends the 540 Outer Loop another six miles from U.S. 64 at Apex to N.C. 55 at Holly Springs, providing an alternative to the worst rush-hour congestion in southwestern Wake County. (See 12/20 story Triangle Expressway gives more Wake residents a choice, starting Thursday with reader comments.)

Is this what you've been waiting for? Do you have your transponder?  Do you plan to drive the new section of TriEx?  Please let me know: email me with your daytime contact info, or call me at 919-829-4527.

Documents:

Novartis announced Wednesday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the flu vaccine that the company will produce at its plant in Holly Springs.

The influenza vaccine, Flucelvax, is the first vaccine made from animal cell culture rather than chicken eggs.

The billion dollar Holly Springs plant is designed to supply emergency vaccine to one in every four U.S. residents during a pandemic. Once it's completed, the plant will be able to provide 150 million doses within six months of the declaration of a pandemic.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services paid $487 million toward the 430,000-square-foot complex as part of a national public safety program.

The plant employ's 480 full-time Novartis employees and 120 contract employees.

View Triangle Expressway in a larger map

The 540 Outer Loop will grow 12.6 miles longer in western Wake County when the N.C. Turnpike Authority opens two more sections – next week, reaching from Research Triangle Park to Apex, and in January, continuing south to Holly Springs. You’ll find more about this in stories Sunday (see 7/29 story) in The N&O, and later in the coming week.

And here are the new TriEx toll rates.

Readers submitted questions about TriEx.  Here are answers.

Q: How long is the Triangle Expressway?
A: TriEx will cover 18.8 miles from Holly Springs to RTP, N.C. 54 and Interstate 40.

Go HERE to read Greg's review.

To learn more about the restaurant, go to www.mywaytavern.com.

In a sign that new home construction activity in the Triangle could finally be picking up, the number of single-family building permits issued in Wake County increased 26 percent in the first quarter.

There were 967 permits issued in the first three months of the year in Wake, up from 768 during the same period in 2011, according to data compiled by the Home Builders Association of Raleigh-Wake County.

Holly Springs and Garner posted the largest percentage increases.

Holly Springs issued 98 percents compared to 56 during the first quarter of 2011, a 75 percent increase. Garner's permit activity jumped 480 percent, from 5 to 29.

Permit activity declined 16 percent in Cary and was up 45 percent in Raleigh. Apex was also a big gainer with a 42 percent increase.

As the number of both new and existing homes has continued to drop in the Triangle, real estate professionals have been waiting for it to correspond to an uptick in new home construction.

There were just 1,603 new homes on the market in March in Wake, Durham, Orange and Johnston counties, Triangle Multiple Listing Services data show. That was down 27 percent from the same period a year ago and off 40 percent from two years ago.

New home construction has historically been a major source of employment in the Triangle, and the lack of activity has made it harder to bring down the unemployment rate.

Target has purchased the land for its new store at New Hill Place, the Holly Springs mall now under construction near the N.C. 55 Bypass.

The Minneapolis-based retailer paid $2.4 million for the property, according to Wake County property records.

The seller was Kite Realty Group, which is building the 550,000-square-foot retail center that is to be anchored by Target. The center will also include 10 large stores, 29 smaller stores, a movie theater and a bowling alley.

Holly Springs officials recently approved a road plan for the development that includes 15 traffic signals and thousands of feet of new lanes around a junction on the N.C. 55 bypass.

Kite Realty is funding the construction of four intersections along N.C. 55 at its junctions with Green Oaks Parkway and Holly Springs Road. Kite also plans to install similar designs at the bypass intersections of two new roads to be built near the shopping center.

There will also be a new four-lane road that will begin at N.C. 55, skirt the back of the mall and end at Old Holly Springs-Apex Road.

Target bought portions of five different parcels that all total include 46 acres.

Three of the state's largest health systems are carrying their battle over hospital beds into overtime.

Earlier this month, regulators approved Rex Healthcare's plan to build a 50-bed hospital in Holly Springs and add a new tower on its main Raleigh campus for a heart and stroke facility. They also said WakeMed could add 51 beds — 22 at its Cary campus and 29 at its main campus on New Bern Avenue in Raleigh.

But regulators with the Department of Health and Human Services denied Rex's request to build a 40-bed hospital in Wakefield and WakeMed's application to add 79 beds on its main Raleigh campus.  And Winston-Salem-based Novant, which has been trying to enter the lucrative Triangle health care market, was shut out completely. It had hoped to put a 50-bed hospital in Holly Springs.

Now all three are appealing the ruling, a move that sets up a long legal fight that could postpone a final decision for several years.

Holly Springs will finally get the hospital it wants.

On Tuesday, state regulators told officials at Rex Healthcare that they had been approved to build a 50-bed hospital in the Wake County community.

Rex will also be allowed to build a new tower on its main Raleigh campus for a heart and stroke facility.

State regulators had 101 beds to grant. The other 51 went to WakeMed — 22 for its Cary campus and 29 for its main Raleigh campus.

Novant, who has been trying to enter the Wake County market by building a hospital in Holly Springs, was denied its request.