• David Bouley has shuttered Secession, which he opened last fall (and which he'd hoped to save by hiring Christian Delouvrier as chef recently). In its place, he's planning to open a Japanese restaurant called Brushstroke. [NYT]
• Manhattan's Water Taxi Beach debuted this weekend. [GS]
• Noah Tepperberg's new "gastropub/ultralounge," Avenue, will open on June 1 with a party for Mandy Moore. In the meantime, Marc Jacobs held a 30th birthday party there recently for fiancé Lorenzo Martone. [NYM]
• Ruth Madoff is a fan of the steak at Donohue's on Lexington, it seems. [P6]
• The new Baja Fresh opened in Midtown today. [ML]

• Smoky drinks are all the rage right now. Go figure. [Gourmet]
• The guy intent on visiting every Starbucks in the world has been thwarted by the fact many of them are closing before he's had a chance to stop by. [WSJ]
• VF checks in with dining icon Elaine Kaufman, who turned 80 recently. [VF]
• Danny Meyer on the future of the biz: "The bottom line is that there are too many restaurant seats relative to the number of people able to dine out. We’re seeing a shedding of restaurants. This has to happen." [WSJ]
• The fro-yo wars are heating up just in time for summer. [USA Today]
• What is Red Bull's secret ingredient? Cocaine, apparently. [AP]