Yesterday, food service sage Gastrodamus over at The Feedbag predicted the imminent demise of sprawling bi-level UWS restaurant Bloomingdale Road, and today it has come to pass. The eclectic American restaurant, which opened last fall and is helmed by chef Ed Witt (pictured), will close after Saturday night’s service. In an interview last November, Witt described his approach as “less conceptual, less ‘ego food.’ It's more about what fits into the neighborhood.” Bloomingdale Road joins the ranks of several other restaurant closings this week, including The E.U. and Isabella's Oven. In the comments over at Eater, the corpse of Bloomingdale Road is still warm, so to speak, and wishlists are being posted for the next restaurant to take the space, which prior to Bloomingdale Road was the brasserie Aix. The names Florent, The Spotted Pig, and Blue Ribbon are being bandied around. Don't stop believin', UWS. more ›

Chef Ed Witt is a veteran of several acclaimed kitchens. He was part of Jardinière’s opening team, was also there for restaurant Daniel’s move to 65th Street, and he helped open Nicole’s at Nicole Fahri, which garnered two stars from the Times in 1999. Witt was executive chef of Varietal, the Chelsea wine bar/seasonal American number that ultimately closed in June of last year after a one star Bruni bedazzler, a few kitchen shakeups, and the general knell that sounds for an empty, Jetsons-style restaurant at dinnertime. more ›

This week Frank Bruni double-fists it with a review of two sushi places: Kanoyama, in the East Village, and Sushi Azabu (pictured), in TriBeCa, that both "stand out in part because they’re navigable in ways that aren’t too financially wounding." Kanoyama’s "brimming, glistening combination platter...is first-rate, and doesn’t give you the sense you sometimes get at other restaurants that what you’re saving in money you’re sacrificing in freshness." The clandestine Sushi Azabu, accessed via a secret staircase in the meh Greenwich Grill, is "erratic. Get the scallop sushi or the spicy tuna roll, lavished with sesame and a chili-spiked mayonnaise, and you’re in heaven. Get the crispy fried squid and you’re in a strip-mall sports bar." more ›

This week the Times's Frank Bruni has a mouth-watering rave for Southern Italian restaurant Convivo (pictured), chef Michael White's revision of the stuffy L'Impero in Tudor City. He declares that Convivio has emerged from the transition "as a pasta lover’s dreamland...soulful and unpretentious...Mr. White can do it all...and is doing even better work with pasta at Convivio than he has done at Alto." Skip the seafood, though: "Roll-ups of fried swordfish with a yogurt sauce tasted too much like some tarted-up refugee from Long John Silver’s." more ›