Iron Chef contestant and unapologetic bouncer Marc Forgione gets a glowing and well-deserved review of his eponymous Tribeca restaurant in the Times today. "There are elements of Italian cooking on the freewheeling and often-changing menu, and French and Southeast Asian notes as well," writes Sam Sifton. "You might start with a hiramasa tartare with avocado and Sichuan buttons, flower buds with a fiery, numbing taste, then move on to scallops in a Thai curry, and finish with pumpkin pie. Really, you might. Mr. Forgione’s food is sometimes sweet. Other times, it is salty, sour or spicy. Sometimes it is all four — and loudly so. The brashness is deeply and above all American: an augmentation of international cuisines in a land of plenty." more ›

When edgy chef Marc Forgione (pictured) opened up his urban-rustic restaurant last summer in a former TriBeCa dairy warehouse, he decided to call the place Forge, after his nickname. But, oopsy, there's already a Forge restaurant in Miami Beach, and in due time owner Shareef Malnik accused Forgione of trademark infringement. So this month he re-christened his place "Marc Forgione" to avoid a costly lawsuit and spare potential customers the confusion of getting lost in Florida on their way to his restaurant. more ›