Yesterday approximately 2,000 ravenous foodies converged under a massive tent across the street from Shake Shack on Columbus and 77th Street for the "Best of the West" tasting, part of the "New" Taste of the Upper West Side. People paid $115 a pop for unlimited samples of all the neighborhood's best restaurants, from Dovetail to Ocean Grille to (naturally) Shake Shack, which dished out their classic hamburgers and root beer custard floats. Here are our five favorites, for which we would schlep to the Upper West Side any day. An honorable mention goes to Whole Foods, which appeared to be the only purveyor serving samples on biodegradable plates—all the others used plastic, which didn't seem to be recycled and probably caused thousands of Upper West Siders to supress even more liberal guilt than usual. more ›

The NY Times reports that Michael Ronis, the chef who helped develop the Carmine's concept, died at age 60 last week from brain cancer. "Carmine’s was the brainchild of Arthur Cutler, who asked Mr. Ronis, who had previously worked with him, to come up with a menu and concept reminiscent of Dominick’s, a famed Italian restaurant in the Bronx. The idea they reached was to serve every meal in the style of an Italian wedding feast, offering piles of spaghetti and meatballs and other Italian-American standards in a nostalgic environment...[the] first location opened in 1990 on Broadway near 91st Street, and its medium-budget fare struck a responsive chord during a lingering recession." more ›