November 19, 2008 - THE name of David Bouley's new "French-Italian brasserie" is Secession, not "Recession" as foodie jokes have had it. But you'd never know that from a succulent veal chop priced at $28 when the damn things run to $40 anywhere else, and luscious, inch-thick halibut...

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• IN SEARCH OF CAFÉ SOCIETY

  NEW CHEF HIDES HIS LIGHT UNDER PLYWOOD

  November 12, 2008 - CAFÉ Boulud disappeared just in time for its 10th birthday. Is there really a restaurant behind the gut-renovating Surrey Hotel's plywood barricade, which completely hides it from the street?more >

• FRENCH RISE

  PROVENCAL FARE: SQUARE WITH CARE

  November 5, 2008 - ALLEGRETTI rekindles your love affair with the sweetest kind of Manhattan-French dining. Not terrine-grazing or brasserie hopping, but the thrill of herb-and-sun-drenched dishes from a Provencal-born...more >

• TABLE FOR WHO?

  FOODIES HOPE NYC STILL HUNGRY FOR $100 PRIX FIXE

  October 29, 2008 - PRIX-FIXE menus starting at $76 in TriBeCa. Entrees up to $75 in the Plaza Hotel. A rarefied French-Asian menu behind a scaffold on Broad Street. Is this what terrified New Yorkers really...more >

• CROWN ROYAL

  DOUBLE DOWN WITH LES' DOUBLE CROWN

  October 22, 2008 - YOU'LL comb many a downtown alley to find a restaurant "concept" more geo-culinarily kooky than Double Crown's. I mean, the "new aesthetics and cuisines born of the...more >

• BENOIT'S NO BALL

  UNLESS ALAIN IS COOKING FOR YOU

  October 15, 2008 - OK, Alain Ducasse and the folks at Benoit: It wasn't my idea to go back and see how the West 55th Street bistro was doing four months after a rugged opening. I was nudged to return by The...more >

• LE CIRQUE'S PERKS

  COMFY BAR, CAFÉ REAL DEALS

  October 8, 2008 - A young woman watching the Sarah Palin-Joe Biden debate at Le Cirque's Wine Bar Lounge last week was fed up with Girls-in-Groups yakking and politely asked one table to pipe down. She was put in...more >

• GOO, GOO, BAD, BAD!

  DINNER'S A TAD TOO TOT

  October 1, 2008 - THERE'S popcorn on the plate with lamb "julep" at new Bloomingdale Road. It isn't a bar snack, but a $24 "main" dish. Welcome to Dining Out 2008, an ordeal that can...more >

• BLISS ON A BUN

  MEET THE NEW BURGER KING

  September 24, 2008 - Five Napkin Burger 626 Ninth Ave., at 44th Street 212-757-2277 FIVE Napkin Burger came along just in time for the End of the World as We Know It. No $40 rabbit or ostrich "3 ways." Just...more >

• KING OF NYC

  THE BEST DINER EVER?

  September 17, 2008 - DANIEL Boulud wants it known: His upcoming Bowery restaurant won't be a burger joint, no matter what the blogs say. "It isn't a hamburger place," he says, lauging off innumerable...more >

• ITALIAN TUDOR PRETTY - & PRETTY GOOD

  September 3, 2008 - ONE night at Tudor City's Convivio (nee L'Impero), executive chef Michael White, who doesn't have a drop of Italian blood, spoke fluently to a table of Italians in their language. A few...more >