♦ The Observer picks its favorite pizza joints around town. [NYO]
♦ Andrew Carmellini has a new restaurant in the works, although he isn't sharing too many details. [GS]
♦ Trader Joe's may open a store on 72nd and Broadway next year. [GS]
♦ The meltdown is having an impact on the restaurant biz. Duh. [Time]
♦ The Times travel section spends 36 hours in NYC and offers up "plenty of reasons not to stay at home watching CNBC." [NYT]

Bobby Flay turns 44 today. You can wish him a happy birthday in person: He'll be the featured attraction at the NYC Wine & Food Festival event this evening at Chelsea Market. Also celebrating: Sean Lennon is 33. Trent Lott turns 67. Sharon Osbourne is turning 56. Pro golfer Annika Sörenstam is 38. Actor John O'Hurley is 54. Actor Brandon Routh is 29. Jackson Browne is 60. Director Guillermo del Toro is 44. And Randy Spelling, son of Aaron and brother of Tori, is turning 30.

♦ And some have suggested that no one wants to ring the closing bell these days? Bobby Flay turned up at the NASDAQ this afternoon to handle the honors as part of the promo campaign for the New York City Wine & Food Festival. [Eater]
♦ A first look at Chloe on Ludlow Street. [GS]
♦ Recession special! The five-course game dinner at Daniel is $495 per person. [Zagat]
♦ Comfort food: It's what's for dinner. [NYDN]
♦ Anthony Bourdain's fantasy party? A barbie with Marco Pierre White and Keith Richards, among others. [P6]
♦ A look inside the new Magnolia Bakery in Rockefeller Center. [Eater]

Flay doesn't spend much time in the kitchen any more, but chances are one of his half-dozen television shows is probably on the Food Network right now.

Bobby Flay's semi-adequate Spanish restaurant Bolo will close, a victim of the ludicrously insane real estate market. The building in which it is housed has been sold for $12.5 million and will be knocked down and replaced by a luxury condo tower—one that this city sorely needs. [NYT]

American's most powerful corrupt gossip column today passes along the moving tale of a celebrity couple supporting each other's projects:

To be filed under things we never knew we wanted to know but still find ourselves strangely intrigued by: