Eleven Madison Park
Photo: Courtesy of Eleven Madison Park
- As a follow-up to his three-star review in 2007, Frank Bruni upgrades the "indefatigable" Danny Meyer's Eleven Madison Park to four stars, praising the dishes of "young and hungry and undistracted" chef Daniel Humm and the restaurant's atmosphere as "louder, looser, and more in sync with most diners' temperaments." [NYT]
- Like other restaurateurs, Gordon Ramsay is facing a lot of risk with his various eateries, troubles that stem from the slump in revenue and the economic downturn's impact on corporate entertaining. [WSJ]
- According to a source, Sam Chang will sell his three hotels on West 39th Street to the Hersha Hospitality Trust, a company that operates the Duane Street Hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn in TriBeCa, and several Hampton Inn properties throughout Manhattan. [Real Deal]
- Dans Le Noir, a Paris-based company that runs restaurants where blind waiters serve diners in the dark, is planning to open a New York location with at least 3,000 square feet of space. [NYP]
- New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff may not love the new design plans for the Parrish Art Museum, but he claims the space will be "a perfectly nice place to view art—or host a party." [NYT]
- A new hotel on Great Jones Street in NoHo is scheduled to open next year. [Curbed]
- Chef Todd English will run the food and beverage at the aforementioned hotel and has confirmed plans with his staff that he is planning to open a nightclub in west Chelsea. [Eater]
- After closing late last year, the TriBeCa performance venue Knitting Factory is expected to reopen in Brooklyn on September 9. [NYT]
- NoHo bar Antik will become a private event space. [Eater]
- Upper East Side brasserie and society favorite La Goulue will close on August 26; the owners of the restaurant plan to reconstruct the eatery within the neighborhood. [NYT]
- For Steve Cuozzo, the Standard Grill is "the right eatery at the right time," where chef Dan Silverman serves up a "crowd-pleasing menu" with the "best dishes you'll see at these prices." [NYP]
- Danyelle Freeman appears to agree with that assessment and adds that the Standard's in-house restaurant "is dressed-down food for a downtown crowd." [NYDN]
- Bruni's brief review of Upper West Side newcomer Bar Luna is mostly positive, highlighting that the restaurant is "worth noting." [NYT]
- Adam Platt's review of Monkey Bar complains that the restaurant "is a perfectly constructed celebrity flytrap" that "lacks the kind of solid, crowd- pleasing cooking that makes the Waverly Inn such a hit downtown." [NYMag]
- Despite the "awful music" and feel of a "corporate hotel restaurant," Sho Shaun Hergatt serves an "almost-excellent selection of French-Asian fusion fare" to Ryan Sutton. [Bloomberg]
- At Aureole, Jay Cheshes finds that the "new incarnation is the younger chef [Christopher Lee]’s show," with a menu that "strikes a fine balance between the big-ticket opulence of the original Aureole and the more homespun inclinations of a new generation of American chefs." [TONY]
