♦ Tom Colicchio is opening two more 'wichcraft locations in Midtown. [GS]
♦ Despite an appearance on Kitchen Nightmares last week, Black Pearl on West 26th Street has closed its doors. [Eater]
♦ An update on the UWS branch of Shake Shack, which remains under construction. [Eater]
♦ Not only is Daniel Boulud not worried about the recession, he also happens to be opening a new restaurant called Secession. [WSJ]
♦ Is Frank Bruni leaving the Times? Possibly, although he says he's not. [Eater]
♦ Eli Zabar has slapped an "energy surcharge" on all purchases at Eli's and some customers aren't happy about it. [NYT]
♦ A look inside Citrine, the new Flatiron club opening in late October. [DBTH]
♦ Now there are two Spitzers down for the count. The Department of Health has shuttered Spitzer's Corner, the LES bar/restaurant. [Bowery Boogie via Eater]
♦ Pork nut/amateur psychic David Chang says in the future we'll make do with less meat and eat more veggies. [Esquire via GS]
♦ Meet the five finalists in the annual Vendy Awards, which celebrates the city's finest food carts. [GS]
♦ Restaurants are adjusting to the economy by lowering prices and offering coupons. Coupons? Things are worse than we imagined. [NYM]
♦ A handy map of the bars on Bowery. [DBTH]
♦ An armed robber stole $7,000 from Dylan Lauren's Dylan's Candy Bar this weekend. [NYDN]
♦ Rocco DiSpirito is happy to talk about the chicken minestrone he's downing by the quart to get ready for Dancing with the Stars. He's a little less eager to talk about his "primping regimen." [TONY]
♦ Cain is either shutting down this Friday or just closing temporarily for renovations. [DBTH]
♦ Sam Talbot may move from Montauk to his own restaurant in Chelsea in the near future. [Bottomless Dish via GS]
♦ Ten places to feed your midnight cravings, including the usual suspects like Blue Ribbon and the Spotted Pig . [NYO]
♦ Jean-Georges isn't the only restaurateur who landed in hot water for skimming tips: A roundup of the dozen or so big-name venues that have faced similar legal trouble over the past year. [Reuters]
♦ The Food Network is looking for a "young, irreverent chef" with a "Yoga-like ability" to host a new show. [Eater]
♦ Frank Bruni offers up his take on Williamsburg's Marlow & Sons. [NYT]
♦ Sweet & Vicious is back in business. [Eater]
♦ Lucky Cheng's might be leaving the East Village for a new spot in Times Square. [GNML via DBTH]
♦ A peek at the new menu at Grayz. [GS]
♦ A very modest Daniel Boulud says his restaurant on the Bowery will be "the greatest diner on earth." [NYP]
♦ Serge Becker's new Swiss restaurant, Cafe Select, is finally open to the public, albeit only for lunch for the moment. [Eater]
♦ Frank Bruni says he doesn't understand the concept of bottle service. This might have something to do with the fact that he's 43. [NYT]
♦ Apparently you can find some decent food in Little Italy. [Metromix]
♦ Photos from Little Italy's festival of San Gennaro. [GoaG]
♦ Marco Pierre White thinks fellow Brit chef Gordon Ramsay is boring and only interested in money. [NY Sun]
♦ A round-up of the best bagels in New York. [VV via Eater]
♦ Alaskans really do eat moose meat. They serve it as steak, make it into hamburger meat, and even use it as a pizza topping. Yum. [NYT]
♦ Frank Bruni of the Times heads to Brooklyn to pay a visit to James and awards ths spot one star for "sophisticated" food that locavores can "feel especially virtuous about." [NYT]
♦ The Daily News' Danyelle Freeman takes on Allegretti this week, giving the "upscale, yet accessible" resto three out of five stars. [NYDN]
♦ TONY's Jay Cheshes isn't a fan of the Sheridan Square. The food is inconsistent and the place lacks personality, according to Cheshes, which explains why he gives it two stars out of six. [TONY]
♦ Paul Adams of the Sun hits up Sheridan Square, too, although he prefers chef Franklin Becker's food ("exceptional") much more than the service. [NY Sun]
Frank Bruni's takedown of Michael's last week is the gift that keeps on giving. Following up on his interview with the Observer yesterday, today David Patrick Columbia offers up a few more thoughts on the media hotspot on New York Social Diary, sharing a few details on his eating habits, because you know that's what you've been waiting for: "I am not a gourmand although I have a large and ongoing appetite. However, unless something is giving me attitude when I'm eating it, I tend to like what I am eating when ordered in a restaurant. Occasionally at one restaurant or another, I’ll have something that speaks to me, sings to me, but otherwise I am not persnickety. I rarely go to a restaurant for the food, but for the company." And there you have it. [NYSD]
It's a good thing Times dining critic Frank Bruni reviews food for a living, which only relies on his sense of taste and not his eyesight. The photo that accompanied his takedown of power lunch spot Michael's yesterday included quite the collection of moguls in the background, not that Bruni—or anyone else at the Times—seemed to notice. In the audio interview that accompanied the review, Bruni says that the eatery "seems to draw in particularly large measure from the publishing, literary and journalistic worlds. You know, you might see someone like Graydon Carter there. Apparently, you do see some celebrities there. I didn't spot them, but maybe I just missed them as I was hustled to Siberia." Carter isn't much of a Michael's devotee, actually, but perhaps Bruni should have taken a closer look at the picture that accompanied his review.
The ultimate confluence of a prestige media restaurant reviewer and prestige media restaurant has finally occurred: Frank Bruni has reviewed Michael's for the Times. At this point we should skip all the background, because those who don't appreciate the import of this moment will never be invited to Michael's anyhow. Suffice it to say that the city's most famous critic visited its most famous media power lunch spot, and, in a blinding flash of meta-media honesty, declared that it sucks big time:
