Harold Ford, Jr. wants to be the next Senator from New York. We've mapped out his barnstorming tour of the state, which has taken him from the luxury hotels of midtown Manhattan to the exclusive restaurants of downtown Manhattan.
• Star chef Alain Ducasse weighs in on New York's best french fries. [GS]
• Daniel Boulud is planning to open an outpost in Singapore next year. [NYDN]
• More on the city's lawsuit against Tavern on the Green. [NYT, Crain's]
• Ninth Street Espresso serves NYC's best coffee, according to GQ. [GS]
• A couple of roundups…
Michael's, the Midtown eatery popular with moguls and media machers, now appears to be using Twitter to publicize who's lunching at the restaurant—much to the dismay of Mediabistro's FishbowlNY. [Twitter, MB]
Sarah Palin is in New York, have you heard? She's supposedly in town to meet with HarperCollins about the book she's supposed to write (and which you're dying to read, of course). But she threw everyone through a bit of a loop by dining at Michael's yesterday, power center of the media elite and hardly a venue known…
Sarah Palin—allegedly accompanied by her family—is in New York meeting with HarperCollins. And she took the opportunity to dispel those internet rumors.
• A roundup of restaurants that may close in the near future if you don't do your part and patronize them. Like soon. Thanks for your cooperation. [CS]
• One thing to look forward at Keith McNally's revamped Minetta Tavern: A $26 Black Label burger that doesn't even come with fries. For shame! [TONY]
• Frank Bruni's…
Paging Miss Manners! The recession is now eroding the very cornerstone of our society's system of etiquette: the willingness to pay for a business lunch. Literary agent Larry Kirshbaum says that people have turned into such tightwads, he's often reduced to conducting business over lunch at a cheap diner instead of…
Anna Wintour and Ralph Lauren had lunch together today at Michael's, reports Mediabistro's Diane Clehane. And the two looked, like, totally bummed out: "The pair looked downright anguished. We watching in fascination as the pair leaned over the table with their foreheads practically touching as Ralph propped his…
A few years ago, Vanity Fair columnist and author Michael Wolff announced that he would never dine at the media hotspot Michael's ever again. Did he suffer a horrible case of food poisoning? Get attacked by an elderly socialite with her Hermès handbag? Actually, his outrage stemmed from the fact that he'd been…
♦ Sasha Petraske's Mercury Dime won't be serving alcohol (it was denied a liquor license yet again last night), although Petraske is hoping to rebound by turning Milk & Honey into a "private social club." [Eater]
♦ Cocktail king Dale DeGroff is working with Marriott to create cocktails for the hotel chain. [NYT]
♦ …
Lots of people are coming to the defense of Michael's, the media hangout that was subjected to a bruising review by Frank Bruni in the Times last week. Caroline Bankoff of the Observer chatted with David Patrick Columbia who says he found the review "ridiculous" and thought Frank Bruni was being excessively…
It's a good thing Times dining critic Frank Bruni reviews food for a living, which only relies on his sense of taste and not his eyesight. The photo that accompanied his takedown of power lunch spot Michael's yesterday included quite the collection of moguls in the background, not that Bruni—or anyone else at the Times…
The ultimate confluence of a prestige media restaurant reviewer and prestige media restaurant has finally occurred: Frank Bruni has reviewed Michael's for the Times. At this point we should skip all the background, because those who don't appreciate the import of this moment will never be invited to Michael's anyhow.…
The Times metro section ran a story this morning about Joe Armstrong, and how he's "the Mayor" of Michael's, the media power-lunch sport, and a ubiquitous presence there and friends with all the regulars and, according to Carly Simon, "probably the most loved person in New York." It was the same sort of atmospheric,…
Michael's, the midtown "institution" for media types, continues to be accused of abusing waiters. Echoing a server's scathing review last year, two posts on an industry message board said the restaurant's "douchey" general manager likes to yell, cut shifts at the last minute and, best of all, put waiters in "time…
Gossip gal Liz Smith chats with Michael's owner Michael McCarty over at Radar. (What goes into a $35 burger? Uh, "Really good meat," allegedly. More accurately: "The price of real estate in Midtown Manhattan?") And then Michael gets to finally knife Vanity Fair writer Michael Wolff over his boycott of Michael's.
Cosmopolitan editor Kate White threw a book party of sorts at Michael's today? The hostesses, who—for the record—didn't look too abused, asked why I was there. "For that book thing whatever," I said. They pointed me to the bar. The first thing that caught my eye was Elizabeth Hasselbeck. She was still wearing the…
Michael's, the less-literary Elaine's and less-cool Waverly Inn, seems to have taken some management cues from its clientele of magazine editors and publishing brass. On a restaurant industry message board, one ex-employee writes:
