Are you that person who can never seem to put their phone down, even during meals? Yes? Well, you're obnoxious. And a majority of Americans agree, according to a new Zagat survey. Taking pictures of your meals is annoying too.
Behold, the power of the Park Slope Parents! Do you dare to open a restaurant in Park Slope without a kid's menu? Oh, you will have a kid's menu. You most certainly will.
Ron Lieber writes a financial column for the New York Times. He is also a self-appointed Regulator of Restaurant Noise. Which is how he got himself kicked out of a restaurant last weekend, with good reason.
Just in time for the Grammy's! An awesome gossip item today about Warner Music co-chairman Michael Fleisher, who cheated on his wife with a young waitress, and then stalked her. But one thing stuck out about Fleisher's exploratory-prone penis.
We've all been in this situation: a group dinner and there's confusion over the bill. Splitting the bill is a powderkeg capable of tearing apart a group. Delve into the potentially awkward side of group dynamics in this educational video.
Reviewers on Yelp aren't very discerning: They award four or five stars 69 percent of the time (see chart). The local ratings website could combat this by grading on the curve, but would rather force you to click around.
The Web was supposed to disintermediate business, replacing corruptible middlemen with accurate information fed directly to consumers. But judging from the restaurant industry's experience, it may have just made corruption more widespread and louche. Just look at this receipt:
Eater has pulled the restaurant charges from the Madoffs' AmEx records. They weren't horrible tippers.
[Diners are served an alfresco meal at the summit of Latrigg, in England's Lake District, as part of the Keswick Mountain Festival; image via Getty]
Celebrity chef Tom "Tom" Colicchio, of Top Chef fame, is going to be back in the kitchen, cooking food! Not for you, of course—for 80 lucky people per month who score reservations to his crazy new momentary pop-up restaurant. Which is really just an idea of a restaurant, existing only in the minds of those who can pay…
Nobu—the sushi restaurant chain co-owned by Robert Deniro that caters to celebrities like Madonna, Leo DiCaprio and Sean Combs—has been busted in an undercover sting for selling critically endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna while concealing it from customers. Greenpeace sent spies to three London Nobu franchises, where…
You know the night is not going to go smoothly when your frazzled blonde waitress still hasn't brought your wine out, despite the fact that it's been 20 minutes since the second time you checked in on it. Thanks to this oversight, now your bladder is full from drinking water and you're about to eat the table…
The economy is tanking and everybody is foraging for grubs rather than spending their hoarded nickels eating out at casual dining establishments. Poor Bennigan's just went under. Ruby Tuesday is vowing not to suffer the same fate! So the Bennigan's-like chain, which is hanging on by a thread (deep fried thread, Ranch…
A restaurant owner in DC writes an essay about the experience of hosting the Pope's birthday party. He started planing the event six months in advance. He ordered a 12 square-foot cake in the shape of St. Peter's Square that was too beautiful to cut. He even flew to Italy just to get the plates made! The lunch menu…
Restaurants are calling in expert consultants to help them give you less food for the same amount of money. This clearly goes against the American way, which is embodied by the $5.99 Denny's Grand Slam Breakfast. The Washington Post reports that the tough economy is hurting restaurants' revenue across the country,…
BusinessWeek has a slide show of the "The World's Most Expensive Restaurants." Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas is the priciest of all in the US, at $360; Masa wins in New York with its $350 tab. But the most expensive restaurant in Palm Beach is only $95? That place has really gone to hell. [BW]
Recently-divorced food critic Alan Richman parted ways with his Bloomberg job a few days ago and now his week has gotten even worse. An Internet food writer reviewed dinner at Richman's house in Mamaroneck and filed a review filled with references to burnt sprouts, overdone tempura and processed meat wrapped in…
The hard part about writing News You Can Use isn't finding the solution; it's proving there's a problem to be solved. Consider today's Times, wherein dining reporter Julia Moskin has a nice Thanksgiving Eve article (accompanied online by a thrilling instructional video) about a new low-stress, expert-approved way to…
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]
