• Today in restaurant reviews: Frank Bruni gives Zak Pelaccio's new Fatty Crab two stars; the Post's Steve Cuozzo is pretty pleased with Josh DeChellis's La Fonda del Sol; and Jay Cheshes hits up Minetta Tavern. [NYT, NYP, TONY]
• The good news/bad news about the Cooper Square Hotel's Table 8. [Eater]
• Ryan Sutton on Monkey Bar: "A-listers and alcohol are the main event" while the "food is a simian sideshow." All things you knew, undoubtedly. [Bloomberg]
• It's what every chef dreams of: Tom Colicchio is on the new cover of Guitar Aficionado magazine. Yes, the mag exists and, yes, Tom loves guitars. [GS]
• It looks like the space once occupied by Florent/R&L will reopen as 69 Gansevoort Cafe shortly. It will probably remain a 24/7 diner, too. [Eater]
• NYC will look like LA pretty soon: A second Baja Fresh is on the way. [ML]

• Sasha Petraske's Dutch Kills opens tonight. [Eater]
• The Sant Ambroeus team is taking over the lease at Lever House. [GS]
• Sumile Sushi, Josh DeChellis's former haunt, has closed its doors. [Eater]
• Hotelier Jason Pomeranc, who recently parted ways with chef Todd English, is now starting his own restaurant management company. [HC, NYO]
• The restaurants that opened—and closed—during the month of April. [Eater]
• A roundup of restaurants and bars slated to open by May 13. [TONY]
• Can people tell the difference between pâté and dog food? Not usually! [LAT]

• Frank Bruni takes on La Fonda del Sol and Txikito in the Times, giving the former two stars for Josh DeChellis' "less forced and more exuberant" cuisine, and the latter a single star for its "complicated" cooking. [NYT]
• The Post's Steve Cuozzo likes the murals, mirrors and lighting at Monkey Bar. But he thinks Graydon Carter could be doing a better job with the food. [NYP]
• Bradford Thompson, formerly the chef at the late Lever House in Midtown, is now behind the stove at Terrance Brennan's Bar Artisanal in Tribeca. [TFB]
• More on the Gates, the over-the-top lounge "with the attitude of Soho House, Rose Bar and GoldBar rolled into one marble-encrusted crazybox." [UD]

• It's not just high-end restaurants suffering due to the recession. Take a moment to think a good thought for Applebee's in Times Square. [NYT]
• NYMag's Adam Platt visits La Fonda del Sol, giving it one star for Josh DeChellis's "inherent talent" and another for its tapas. [NYM]
• Graydon Carter's Monkey Bar now has a reservations line. [NYT]
• The secret to Marquee's longevity, at least according to a Harvard Business School case study on the subject. [NYP]
• Jimmy Fallon took to Twitter after getting kicked out of Posto. [Slice via GS]
• Good World has closed its doors. [BoweryBoogie]
• A sushi spot in Midtown has a new roll: the Natalie Portman. [ML]
• Kate Moss may have a cookbook in the works. [Mirror]

• Silvano Marchetto is opening Scuderia across the street from Da Silvano on Sixth Avenue off Downing St. on March 9. It's a trattoria, naturally. [GS]
• Doug Psaltis is Danny Abrams' new partner at Smith's on Macdougal. [Eater]
• Starbucks' latest effort to to reinvent itself as an affordable brand? The chain's new value meal (or "breakfast pairings"), which run $3.95. [NYT]
• The News gives Josh DeChellis' La Fonda del Sol four stars this week. [NYDN]
• Bamn, the Automat-themed spot on St. Mark's, appears to have closed. [GS]
• Tribeca's Dennis Foy has closed, too. [Zagat]
• The yellow waffle truck known as Wafels & Dinges is on its last legs. [Eater]
• Bar Veloce, which became Bar Tonno and then turned into Room4Dessert, before reopening as Bar Veloce, is now named Veloce Club. Got that? [GS]

♦ In this week's issue of New York, Adam Platt gives two stars to Brooklyn's Char No. 4. David Bouley's Secession isn't quite as lucky, coming up star-less for its "jumble of tired brasserie conceits." [NYM]
♦ Josh DeChellis has signed on to become executive chef at La Fonda del Sol, the Spanish restaurant inside the Met Life building that is slated to open in January. [NYT]
♦ David Burke's Fishtail opens this week; the soft launch is tonight. [Eater]
♦ Page Six mag takes a look at the city's "smoking speakeasies," spots where the city's smoking ban is almost never enforced. [Page Six Mag]

Wunderkind chef Josh DeChellis is 35. Blackstone co-founder Pete Peterson is 82. Fashionable art advisor Kim Heirston is 45. Personal finance queen (and power lesbian) Suze Orman is 57. The Post's Andrea Peyser is 49. And Teen Vogue's Amy Astley is nearly a quarter century older than her demo. She's 41 today.

Josh DeChellis