Hot Sake - Food News You Can Use

- Is New York going to go the way of LA with posted letter grades for restaurant health inspections?

- If you are getting your Seder meal planning underway, feel free to ping the experts over the NY Times with any questions you may have. Click here to email them a question or send it direct to diningqa [at] gmail.com. Funny how the Times even knows Gmail has great spam protection.

- Sometimes not eating out has its benefits, in advance of summertime here is a recipe developed for delicious Bourbon Sugar Cookie Crunch Ice Cream by Catherine at Not Eating Out In NY.

- Read carefully, this is not a joke - Tara Reid is opening a fast food restaurant called Ketchup. Strangely we are most surprised that the name was not taken already for another restaurant.

- Interested in learning about wine, try Grand Cru Classes run by some dedicated oenophiles. Browse the site to find out about Spring/Summer classes, how to sign up for the newsletter and the upcoming open house.

- Openings:
+ The new Whole Foods - Bowery is set to open on Thursday with a pre-opening party on Tuesday.
+ Ed’s Lobster Bar was off to a bustling start when we popped in this week, still a step behind the competition at Pearls and the Black Pearl based on some limited sampling.

- Closings:
+ While we hope it is temporary potentially the city’s best pizzeria Di Fara's was shut last week by the DOH. They were scheduled to reopen this weekend, any word would be appreciated in the comments.

- Delayed:
+ Mercat is still not open for business, non-official official word from people like Restaurant Girl was a “gas problem”, but even that excuse ended last Wednesday. After snapping the below picture showing a large industrial rat trap, we wonder if it has more to do with staying ahead of the DOH. Lord know that Bond Street has been experiencing serious rat problem due to the construction of two huge luxury buildings on the block.

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