• Tonight is the last night for Elettaria on West 8th Street. [Eater, GS]
• La Goulue on Madison Ave. was dismantled and packed up yesterday. [P6]
• David Burke's eponymous restaurant reopened its doors last night. [GS]
• Due to the economy and not-so-spectacular weather, this hasn't turned out to be the best summer for restaurants in the Hamptons. [EH Star via Curbed]
• Charles on West 4th Street begins brunch service this weekend. [GS]
• Graydon Carter is collaborating with someone new at Monkey Bar. His 83-year-old mother's butter tart is now on the dessert menu. [P6]

Last Friday, David Paterson insinuated that he was the victim of racial bias, suggesting that a racially motivated campaign had been organized to keep him from running for governor this fall. A good deal of criticism immediately followed (and today Paterson attempted to back away from his remarks). But if Paterson had been planning to stick with that line of attack over the weekend and possibly coordinate a march on Albany with Al Sharpton, well, that doesn't appear to have been on his agenda. A few hours after raising the race issue on Friday, he cruised out to Water Mill to attend a country western-themed fundraiser at the home of author Jay McInerney and heiress Anne Hearst, where he had an opportunity to play a little charity blackjack with the likes of Kathy Hilton and Countess Luann de Lesseps. And you were thinking that the Hamptons tended to be exclusionary! A few more photos of Gov. Paterson's fun-filled Friday night below.

The Way We Live Now: In a cul-de-sac in Moreno Valley, California.The NYT has made it the national headquarters of recession-oriented media interest! Meanwhile, back in New York, the Hamptons crumble, and everyone's ready to kill to be a plumber.

• Billy Joel is looking for a buyer in Sagaponack. Now that he and wife Katie Lee Joel are splitting up, the singer is planning to sell the two oceanfront properties he bought for her in 2007. The four-bedroom mansion (No. 1) and smaller beach bungalow (No. 2) will be listed with Corcoran's Biana Stepanian for a combined $35 million. [NYP]
• Richard Bressler, the former CFO of Viacom and now a managing director at the private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners, went into contract to sell his duplex at 850 Park last month. Now he's picked up a new place. Bressler paid $7.15 million for a four-bedroom condo at 170 East End Avenue. [Cityfile]
• Mariann Florio, the widow of former Condé Nast CEO Steve Florio, has paid $1.65 million for a three-bedroom apartment at 235 East 73rd Street owned by former Bear Stearns exec Leo Tilman. She's still trying to sell her vacation home in Key Largo, Florida, which has been on the market for $8.9 million since last October. [Cityfile]

Last week, the Post reported that the wife of retired Goldman Sachs honcho Ray Iwanowski had smashed her BMW into a tree and was later arrested for DWI. On Wednesday, the owner of a Bentley Arnage watched as his car mysteriously rolled into Lake Montauk and plunged to the bottom. Could there a trend here? Who knows, but since these things usually come in threes, you may want to be a little extra cautious if you're cruising around the East End in a luxury car today. [EHPress]

• Stephen Daldry, the director of The Hours, The Reader, and the Broadway production of Billy Elliot, The Musical, has picked up a new home: He paid $3.8 million for a five-floor townhouse in Chelsea. Daldry clearly has some work ahead of him. The 4,600-square-foot property located at 347 West 21st Street is currently configured as a three-unit house, according to the listing, and is in need of renovation. But he scored a pretty decent discount in the process. The home had been on the market for $4.775 million. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• Actress Kristen Johnston has found a buyer for her duplex at 296 West 10th Street, just one month after she first put it on the market. The two-bedroom apartment with solarium and terrace had been listed for $1.795 million when it went into contract late last month. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• Real estate mogul Aby Rosen has raised the price of his townhouse at 3 East 94th Street. Rosen purchased the 11,700-square-foot manse for $8.8 million in 2005 and first listed it for $29.5 million in September 2008. He chopped the price down to $23.75 million in February. Now it's $1 million more expensive. The luxe home is currently listed for $24.75 million. [Cityfile, 3E94th]

Were you thinking that what the Hamptons really needed right now was another magazine with party pictures and "inside info" on cool things to do? No? Well, too bad. The Observer reports there's a new kid on the block called The Hampton Spy. Edited by a former Hamptons editor and Hamptons Style contributor, it bills itself as "a digital publication and community." Most exciting of all: Countess LuAnn de Lesseps has already attended one its parties in the flesh. And you can't do much better than that, can you? [NYO]

Tory Burch must be in a good mood today. Sally Spanburgh reports that Burch's proposed plan to tear down her house in Southampton—the one she bought from her ex-husband earlier this year for $22.5 million—has been approved. Small sacrifices were involved, however. Town officials gave her the green light after her architect agreed to lower the height of the house he's planning to build in its place by three and a half feet, so it won't block her neighbor's view of the ocean. [SVR, previously]

• Julianne Moore's West Village townhouse is up for sale. Moore picked up the five-story, six-bedroom home on West 11th Street for $3.5 million in 2003. It can now be yours for $11.95 million. [NYO, Sotheby's, Curbed]
• Emeril Lagasse has closed on the purchase of developer Penny Bradley's 6,900-square-foot townhouse at 158 East 61st Street for "around" its most recent asking price of $11.5 million. Now that he's found a new place to store his pots and pans, the chef and Food Network fixture has put his condo at the Beekman Regent up for sale for $5.995 million. [NYP, BHS]
• Chris Burch, the entrepreneur and ex-husband of Tory Burch, has picked up a new Hamptons home. Burch paid "around $9 million" for the Southampton estate of disgraced Bear Stearns exec Ralph Cioffi. The property had been listed at $10.7 million when it went into contract last month. [NYP]

• Private equity exec Chandler Evans has dropped the price of his duplex penthouse at 1165 Park Avenue (left) for the third time since listing it for $24.9 million last September. The four-bedroom spread, which Evans bought for $23 million in June '08, is now listed for $17.95 million. [Cityfile, BHS]
• Developer Gerardo Capo gone into contract to sell his 12th-floor condo at 15 CPW. The two-bedroom pad, which Capo bought for $3.5 million in April 2008, was most recently listed for $6.25 million. [Cityfile, IT Properties]
• Famed choreographer Paul Taylor has put his longtime home at 27 Vandam Street up for sale so he can move closer to his dance company's new rehearsal studio on the Lower East Side. Taylor's 20-foot-wide townhouse, which he purchaed for $140,000 in 1970, is listed for $4.75 million. [NYT, PDE]
• A unidentified buyer is picking up the 2009 Hampton Designer Showhouse. The home was listed for $8.495 million. [Newsday]

• A sixth-floor apartment at The Dakota, which is owned by an unidentified "Wall Street executive," has been cut for the third time since hitting the market in June 2008 with a $24 million price tag. The four-bedroom co-op is now listed for a mere $12.5 million. [Cityfile, BHS]
• Investment banker (and onetime deputy mayor) Peter J. Solomon is reportedly the buyer in contract to buy the former East Hampton estate of the late actress Mary Howard de Liagre. Solomon is paying "close to" the $22.5 million asking price for the estate, which includes a 3,500-square-foot home, 300 feet of waterfront, and a dock. [NYP, Sotheby's]
• Investor Enrique Foster Gittes has once again cut the price of his 13,000-square-foot mansion at 12 East 63rd Street. The six-floor townhouse, which Gittes bought for $8.8 million in 2005, put on the market for $28.75 million in April, and reduced to $24.95 million last month, is now on the market with Brown Harris Stevens' Paula Del Nunzio for $23.5 million. [Cityfile, BHS]

• Arlene Farkas, the ex-wife of real estate heir Bruce Farkas, has dropped the price of her 14-room duplex at the River House, which she first put on the market in November for $15 million after a state appeals court turned down her ex-husband's appeal to retain ownership of the apartment. The co-op is now listed for $13.5 million. [Cityfile, BHS]
• The apartment where Josh Hartnett had been living until recently is up for sale (or rent). The 2,200-square-foot pad at 237 Lafayette Street, which is owned by music execs James Dowdall and Rose Noone, is available for $2.1 million. Or you can rent it for $7,995 a month. [NYO, Citi Habitats]

• Developer Charles Yassky has put his townhouse back on the market—and he's looking for $2 million more than he was seeking last fall. Yassky purchased 122 East 78th Street in mid-2008 for $13.2 million. He put it back on the market with Paula Del Nunzio just two weeks later for $18.9 million, before dropping the price to $16.9 million in November and eventually taking it off the market altogether in April. The 36-foot-wide manse has returned to the market with broker Carrie Chiang for $18.9 million. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• Roberta Campbell, the wife of former Intuit CEO William Campbell, has paid $17.5 million for an 11th-floor condo at 15 Central Park West. Campbell bought the apartment from Paula Lascano, who paid $14.2 million for the four-bedroom pad in March 2008. [Real Deal]

• David Burke's chauffeur is accusing the chef of "punching him in the face and slamming a car-trunk hood on his head" after he asked to take time off for his wife's birthday. Burke faces six months in prison if convicted. [NYP]
• Beatrice Inn's chances of reopening? Slim to none, it seems. [P6]
• It looks like it's the end of the line for Jeffrey Chodorow's Ono. [GS]
• A roundup of places that just opened, or will be open later this week. [Eater]
• A roundup of what will be new in the meatpacking district this fall. [GS]
• The Hamptons scene is a little less decadent this year. Surprise! [NYP]
• The ice cream of the future isn't cold and doesn't melt, apparently. [NYM]
• Coke is testing out a new carbonated milk drink called "Vio." [Fox News]
• Try to block this out when you go out to eat later, but an audit of restaurant inspections finds that 22% of city eateries weren't inspected last year. [NYDN]

If you were worried it was too late to secure a spectacular rental in the Hamptons for the month of August—just 10 days left!—rest assured there is plenty of inventory to choose from. Curbed Hamptons has a roundup of the ten most expensive Hamptons rentals still available for the month, a list that includes Philip Johnson's Farney House in Sagaponack (above), which is available for $450,000 for the month. You may have some difficulty sleeping as you obsess over the fact it's costing you $604.84 an hour to stay there. But your insomnia should be eased a bit by the truly stunning ocean views. [Curbed Hamptons]

Ali Wise won't go down as the only member of the social set to spend time in handcuffs this month. Jules Kirby, the "champagne-swilling" party girl and perennial favorite on blogs like Park Avenue Peerage and Guest of a Guest—and ex-girlfriend of Nevan Donahue, Olivia Palermo's layabout cousin from The City—was arrested in Southampton over July 4th weekend. For attempting to steal an American flag. By the way, did we mention it was July 4th weekend?

• Ralph Cioffi, the former Bear Stearns hedge fund manager who will stand trial this fall for securities fraud and conspiracy in connection with the collapse of the fund, has gone into contract to sell his 7,000-square-foot home in Southampton. The estate had been listed most recently for $11.875 million. Given Cioffi's desperate circumstances, it's expected that the final price will be below the $10.7 million that Cioffi paid for the home in 2007. [WSJ, Sotheby's]
• The couple who paid $9 million for hedge fund manager James Torrey's East 66th Street duplex in April, former Merrill Lynch exec John Heimann and his wife Maria-Cristina Anzola, have sold their old apartment at 141 East 72nd Street. The four-bedroom co-op was purchased by Ada Zambetti, the widow of Stella D'Oro CEO Felice Zambetti, for $5.625 million. [Cityfile]
• Billionaire pharmaceutical mogul Michael Jaharis has paid $6.7 million for a 3,335-square-foot apartment at 1049 Fifth Avenue. [NYO]

• Lee Neibart, a partner at Apollo Real Estate Advisors, and his wife Joyce, have closed on the sale of their 16th-floor apartment at 15 Central Park West, which they went into contract to sell back in May. The three-bedroom condo sold to a company called J & K Park Properties for $7.5 million, or $500,000 more than what the couple paid for apartment in January. [Cityfile]
• Real estate heiress Melissa Kushner—she's the daughter of Murray Kushner, niece of Charles Kushner, and Jared Kushner's first cousin—has paid $2.225 million for a three-bedroom condo at 534 Hudson Street with her husband, Jeremy Kaplan. [Cityfile]

If Tory Burch is feeling the effects of the economic downturn, she certainly isn't showing it. The designer and social fixture is now petitioning Southampton's Architectural Review Board for permission to demolish the Meadow Lane home that she purchased for $22.5 million earlier this year.

• More than 200 places will be taking part in New York Restaurant Week, which kicks off on Sunday. Here's a list of some of the notable newcomers. [Zagat]
• The outdoor courtyard at Locanda Verde has opened. [GS]
• A rendering of what the "sophisticated cocktail lounge" on the ground floor of the Empire State building will look like when it eventually opens. [Eater]
• Scandal! "Law enforcement officials are investigating several restaurants in the Hamptons where cheaper booze is poured into top-shelf brand bottles and served to clueless customers who can't taste the difference. [P6]
• A Q&A with Klaus Ortlieb of Table 8 and the Cooper Square Hotel. [Eater]
• Bottled water may be worse for you than tap water. Who knew? [Reuters]
• Rachael Ray had minor surgery to remove a benign cyst from her vocal cords. The good news/bad news, depending on what you happen to think of her: She'll be able to speak again in about a week or so. [People]