It was only a year ago that mini blog mogul Dan Abrams and Men's Health editor and serial plagiarist Dave Zinczenko signed on as investors in The Lion, a new downtown Manhattan "hot spot" that aspired to be the next Waverly Inn: a place where media people and minor celebrities go to hang out, and brag about it the…
• How did the Tavern on the Green auction turn out last week? It could have gone better. The sale brought in a total of $3.5 million, which is considerably less than the $8 million the restaurant owes its creditors. [NYO, GS]
• Tom Colicchio's Craftsteak replacement, Colicchio & Sons, opened its doors last night. And …
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.
Like the Tim Curry song says, anything can happen on Halloween. Paris Hilton can get choked, Real Housewives can bury the hatchet, Tinsley Mortimer can tape a reality show, Elton John can get sick. It's Monday morning's leftover gossip candy.
"Socialitopoly," from Vanity Fair. Its unbiased rankings: Graydon Carter's Monkey Bar has above-average prestige, but the disgustingly easy-to-enter Waverly Inn is nowhere to be found. Take heed, board game-playing social climbers. Click to enlarge. [VF]
It's a good thing that author Fran Lebowitz is so tight with editor/restaurateur Graydon Carter that she can walk into Monkey Bar (or the Waverly Inn) without a reservation and get a table a moment's notice. If she had to use the phone—or Monkey Bar's email reservations system—she'd be in serious trouble. WWD asked…
Caricature-coiffed Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter co-owns two restaurants where Manhattan's most insufferable douchebags go to get their "look at me" on. Each day these establishments field "thousands" of table requests and Graydon alone decides where the arses will park.
• Graydon Carter's Monkey Bar is no longer accepting reservations by phone. In other Carter news, Carter's Vanity Fair has very nice things to say about Carter's Waverly Inn, which you'll no doubt be surprised to hear. [Eater, VF]
• Celebrity settings: A roundup of restaurants where celebs were spotted eating this…
From Steve Fishman's chat with Vanity Fair editor-in-chief (and restaurateur) Graydon Carter in this week's issue of New York:
• A roundups of restaurants opening this week. [NYM, Eater]
• Scuderia, Silvano Marchetto's two-month-old restaurant, has ditched its chef, Claudio Cristofoli, after a handful of not-so-good reviews. [GS]
• Not much has changed at Soho's Delicatessen, reports The New Yorker: "If Topshop were a restaurant, it would be…
Someone went to eat at the Waverly Inn (finally!) and they came back with the strangest "celebrity" dinner grouping ever: Raisin Rachel Zoe, Oasis' Noel Gallagher and Fab 5 Freddy. What did they talk about?
• The Four Seasons may be having its moment as it celebrates its 50th, but things aren't so cheery across the street. John McDonald and Josh Picard's Lever House closes on Friday, supposedly for "renovations." [TFB]
• Jim Lahey's Co. gets a one-star from Frank Bruni in today's Times. [NYT]
• The Post's Steve Cuozzo…
While the other Inn, the Beatrice, faces an uncertain future, and Graydon Carter is getting ready to open his approachable Monkey Bar, his Waverly Inn restaurant sounds easier to get into than Marc Jacobs' pants.
We have no idea if this works, but you're walking down 57th Street today and have nothing better to do, feel free to give it a try and report back. "Want a impossible Babbo, Le Bernardin or a Waverly Inn resy last min (or any rest)? Easy and free... Go to the Four Seasons Hotel on 57th Street. Pick up a house phone…
• Hope you're ready to go through it all over again: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis have all agreed to participate in a Sex and the City movie sequel. [Us]
• Graydon Carter should really consider writing a nutrition cookbook: It seems Madonna's secret to eternal youth is the…
Danger Graydon Carter, your oh-so-exclusive Waverly Inn brand is slipping. The West Village paparazzi-magnet restaurant just seated a blogger. Who walked in off the street.
SCANDAL: George Washington doppelganger Graydon Carter is reportedly wooing his West Village neighborhood critics by giving them reservations at his Waverly Inn and putting their pictures in his Vanity Fair. Yes, and?
• Did Lindsay Lohan split up with Samantha Ronson? Is she now in "complete denial" about it? And what's going on with her and Sean Penn? All good questions! [P6]
• Graydon Carter's plan to win over neighborhood critics of the Waverly has been revealed: He gives them tables at the restaurant and puts their pictures…
The Waverly Inn was crawling with Condé Nast insiders earlier tonight, some of whom had been waiting as long as 20 years for the appetizer: The hot, delicious rumor that Si Newhouse was meeting in Paris with Carine Roitfeld to work out the final details of the French Vogue editor's move to New York, where she is…
It was something of a coup when Vanity Fair, in May, did what its Condé Nast sibling Portfolio couldn't and poached Fortune's winsome star writer Bethany McLean. If Portfolio's uncertain editor Joanne Lipman was annoyed then, she must be really steaming now that rival Graydon Carter snagged his latest catch from her…
