Anna Wintour has been campaigning against the Jamaican restaurant Miss Lily's, which is hoping to open near her Village townhouse. The Vogue editor claims that because restaurant/club owner Serge Becker is involved, it's guaranteed to turn into a shitshow. Really?

Restaurateurs of New York, beware: Do not open a late-night spot anywhere near Georgette Fleischer. The downtown scold, a Barnard professor, has just successfully had hotspot La Esquina closed down because of code violations. And this isn't her first victory.

♦ Frank Bruni of the Times visits Bobo this week, and awards one star to new chef Patrick Connolly for his "ambition" and "good intentions," although he also points out that the restaurant "hasn't wholly surrendered its attitude and put service before sheen." [NYT]
♦ The NYPD shut down Serge Becker's "guerilla"…

Serge Becker's nightlife portfolio includes the perennially hip Joe's Pub, the now-closed Area, and the snooch-magnet Bowery Bar. Recently his properties have expanded to include virtually all of the Lower East Side hotspots: Club 205, La Esquina and the Box. The last week has been a tough one for Serge. The Box was…

• Thank God for Wolf Blitzer. There's no way we could get through this plane-in-a-building nightmare were it not for his soothing voice and probing questions, such as, "How could this happen just five years after 9/11?" We don't know how! Tell us, Wolf! Lead us out of the darkness and into the light of…

Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni makes his way to downtown pseudo-speakeasy La Esquina, where entry is acheived via all sorts of exotic hoop-jumping:

In Sunday's front page Styles article about not-so-secret secret bar beneath La Esquina, the Times inadvertantly answers an age-old question: Who is responsible for the Ronsons, those omnipresent DJ-designer-scenester siblings Mark, Charlotte, Samantha? We always assumed that RonsonBots were harvested in the back…

First Thrillist, then Daily Candy, and now new foodie blog Eater are all fluttering about the secret-but-not-really opening of speakeasy La Esquina, located beneath the Corner Deli at Kenmare and Lafayette. Entry into the bar has a semi-complicated, three-step procedure in which one must enter the Corner Deli and…