Babbo, Mario Batali's three-star restaurant on Waverly Place, is now offering lunch service. It's a good thing Batali clarified his comments that sort of seemed like he was comparing bankers to Hitler and Stalin (he loves bankers!, especially when they spend $4,000 on a truffle dinner). more ›

A former waiter at Mario Batali's ever-packed West Village restaurant Babbo has filed suit, alleging that Batali and business parter Joe Bastianich stood by while he was subject to merciless sexual taunting. more ›

Mario Batali would like you (and more importantly the banking community) to know that he does not actually believe most bankers are like Hitler or Stalin. After bankers started canceling reservations and threatening to boycott his many restaurants, the Croc-loving chef took to Twitter (and his press team took to e-mail) for some serious damage control. "To remove any ambiguity about my appearance at yesterday’s Time Person of the Year panel, I want to apologize for my remarks," he tweeted. And then, just in case that wasn't clear enough, he followed that up with: "It was never my intention to equate our banking industry with Hitler and Stalin, two of the most evil, brutal dictators in modern history." more ›

Published earlier this month, Sara Barron’s book People are Unappealing, Even Me is what happens to a bildungsroman in the Craigslist age. It follows the author on a mad-as-hell/not-taking-it-anymore complaining spree through the dregs of thankless, low-wage jobs. Along the way, Barron makes several keen observations about the strange things people do, and also manages to canonize John Stamos as “the most flawless man who has ever lived,” which had to be done by somebody. We asked her primarily about a waitress-nightmare story told in one of the book’s chapters, which recently garnered the author some major Page 6 column space: Up until recently, Barron worked at a restaurant not-to-be named (she calls it, simply, “Hell”) where she had the opportunity to wait on a rock star who didn’t tip after an epic and fully comped, after-hours meal (for 19 people total) that dragged on until 5 a.m. No longer a waitress, Barron is the host of The Moth; her next gig is March 30 at The Bitter End. more ›

is an incredibly thorough and well-researched reference guide for home and professional cooks alike. more ›

As you can see from the screenshot on the right, someone has been screwing with random bits of code that comprise the website for Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich’s immensely popular restaurant, Babbo. The end result is empty calories in the form of malicious code that could steal your credit card info or even harness your CPU power in service of cyberevil. more ›

Jason Denton has made his mark in the New York restaurant landscape with well loved favorites like Lupa, 'ino, and ‘inoteca. His latest endeavor, Bar Milano, opened in April, serving not only lunch and dinner, but brunch and weekday breakfast. This upscale tribute to Northern Italy is housed in a Gramercy Park space that has been described as "cursed" due to the short lifespans of former restaurant tenants. Hopefully Denton's talent, pedigree, and strong partners will make the notion of a curse laughable and succeed where others have failed. more ›