After an email circulated saying that Barrow Street restaurant Annisa had been "destroyed" by a fire on the morning of July 4, Serious Eats' Ed Levine sent a quick note to Anita Lo, the restaurant's acclaimed chef and owner. It turns out the rumor is true: while no one was present at the time, a fasting moving blaze has in fact destroyed the restaurant. "The fire marshall hasn't come yet, so we don't know what started it," Lo tells Levine. "And yes, we are going to rebuild--hopefully better than before." You may remember that a fire temporarily shut down another restaurant owned by Lo, Bar Q, which has since closed for good. While Annisa does its whole phoenix/flames thing, you can catch Anita Lo compete on this week's Top Chef Masters. Neil Patrick Harris is guest judging. more ›

Anita Lo, the chef-owner (interview) of Bar Q in the West Village has “definitely, 100% for sure closed” her 10-month-old restaurant, according to a source close to the chef. There are also signs on the front door saying as much, reports Eater, which has managed to aggregate an angry, anti-Bar Q neighborhood mob of sorts in the comments section of a post about the closure. Despite the hate, Bar Q received two stars from the Times last summer; Lo is one of the city’s most-experienced, high profile chefs. Last fall, chef Andrew Carmellini talked about a fantastic meal he ate at Bar Q (after walking in, not pre-coordinating a chef-to-chef “hookup meal”); Carmellini described Lo’s cooking as “very masterful.” Earlier this month, the NYU-area location of Anita Lo’s Rickshaw Dumpling Bar also abruptly closed. more ›

Today the Times’s Frank Bruni relates his multiple visits to West Village Asian barbecue restaurant Bar Q, and by the sounds of it you’d never guess print media is in any kind of financial trouble – an initial trip with one group of ungrateful friends prompted so much "grumbling" he had to "unruffle their feathers" by being “especially profligate with the wine” on his paper’s expense account. The hangers-on who shared his second visit tasted a better side of Bar Q; after passing over chef Anita Lo’s “cloying” baby back ribs for her “gorgeous” steamed lobster, he decides that Lo’s “triumphs, more than her wobbles, stayed with me.” Two stars. more ›

Today the Times’s Frank Bruni reviews The Harrison (pictured) in Tribeca; the paper gave it two stars in 2001 and Bruni maintains status quo with two stars today. There’s a different chef in the kitchen, Amanda Freitag, and Bruni digs the restaurant’s “populist bent, its awareness that breaded or fried objects are a sure path to many a diner’s heart.” But don’t get him started on the ambiance: “The Harrison’s visual evocation of a country inn in the big city still strikes me as more stodgy than cozy. And its soundtrack, too heavy on pop rock from 15 to 25 years ago, needs help. It’s neither classic nor cool. Just odd.” more ›

On behalf of the Village Voice, critic Robert Sietsema dines at chef Anita Lo’s newish Bar Q and deems the tuna-rib appetizer “mouth-worthy.” But then things go wrong, and Anita’s mom gets caught in the crossfire: “An appetizer of baby back ribs ($11) with ‘my mother's BBQ sauce’ tastes like it's been dumped out of a white carton from the local Chinese carry-out… The spicy pork wings remain flightless because they're heavily coated with cloying Korean ketchup.” Yet Bar Q “thrilled” the Post’s Steve Cuozzo on “all visits but one when Lo happened not to be in the house.” more ›

Chef Anita Lo, whose intimate and sophisticated Barrow Street restaurant Annisa has been a hit for years, has now opened a bigger venture in the West Village. It’s a 120-seat Asian barbecue restaurant called Bar Q, which specializes in dishes like baby back ribs made with Lo’s mother’s “special sauce.” more ›