Avert your gaze from the rabble on Wall Street to the real victims of the modern economy: highly successful restaurateurs. It's really difficult to manage a restaurant empire when you're getting sued for back pay and lost tips by your staff, says Joe Bastianich, who co-owns Eataly, Babbo, and Del Posto. "Money-hungry lawyers, through frivolous lawsuits, are shaking down the very foundation of Manhattan's restaurant industry," the money-hungry businessman tells the Post. "Someone in Albany needs to understand the agenda, what this is really costing the greatest restaurant city in the world." Despite this harshest of anti-business climates, restaurants in New York City grew by 42% in the last decade. more ›

Richie Notar, the co-owner of acclaimed sushi chain Nobu, took a pill and drank a glass of wine before his Monday night red-eye flight from LA to New York. Then he was "out for the count"—at least, from his point of view. But before the flight was over, he'd be trying to bite his way through a pair of flex cuffs. One witness from the flight gave this account:

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The New Yorker runs a profile (preview only) of Nora Ephron in advance of Julie & Julia, a film she directed, wrote, and co-produced right here in NYC. In parallel narratives, the movie depicts the lives of chef Julia Child and blogger Julie Powell, who set out a few years ago to circumnavigate every recipe in Child's first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking in much the same way a road-weary pilgrim might approach a sacred temple. Valuable life lessons about love and liberation ensue. The New Yorker details a bit about how Meryl Streep filled Child's large shoes (right) for the film, and also a few anecdotes about the famous chef's dining excursions to NYC. "Julia Child ate at Nobu once," Drew Nieporent tells the New Yorker. "She's sitting there, she's looking at the sushi, she goes like this," the restaurateur says, then pretends to pass out. Guess she didn't like the miso-glazed black cod, either. In other news, Slashfood recently ran an interesting post about a Greenpoint warehouse liquidation of vintage culinary props used in the film that took place a few months ago. Julie & Julia hits theaters August 7. more ›

Despite its well established, over-fished status and repeated toxicological demonstrations of dangerously high mercury levels, slices of bluefin tuna are still very much highly prized on menus all over town. Last night, organization Greenpeace staged an action at Nobu in TriBeCa, where activists "dressed in blazers and billowy dresses like any other weekend-night patrons," according to the Times. Keeping with the near-extinction vibe, activists "carried make-believe menus with endangered-species dishes, like 'Rack of Mountain Gorilla Seasoned with Powdered Rhino Horn' ($32.00)." When Nobu's management figured out what was going on, the protesters simply left the restaurant; some apparently "even tipped the wait staff". One activist also claimed to the Times that others had stayed on at the restaurant for an hour more, affixing fake menus to bathroom stall doors. more ›

Last night at the somewhat not completed luxury condo project 15 Union Square West (guests rode a construction elevator up to the entrance), chefs Daniel Boulud and Marco Moreira hosted a book party for Dining in New York City, a new, compact hardcover guide to the city’s restaurants by Dutch photographer Jan Bartelsman. Proceeds from the evening benefitted Citymeals-on-Wheels. Fifteen local restaurants—plus the 3 Michelin starred De Librije (Netherlands)—were on hand, offering small plate cityscapes of their best dishes. As the night progressed, chef Daniel Boulud appeared smiling, apparently happy with the four star re-review of Daniel published yesterday in the Times. Elsewhere, food writer Josh Ozersky—who announced to the world yesterday he has gout—showed up wearing a foot brace, albeit triumphantly. more ›

A veteran of Nobu and Ruby Foo’s, Chris Cheung was hired 5 months ago to replace Patricia Yeo at Monkey Bar, the red satin and black lacquer midtown institution known primarily for its, well, monkey theme. In an effort to reemphasize the food quotient of the restaurant, the 38 year-old chef maintains an inventory of global tastes and reassembles them using the template of traditional Chinese food: The curly fries, for example, that come with the burger are made with taro, and the burger itself is served on a bao bun made in-house. The result is not fusion, or an eclectic cook-by-numbers approach to food; Cheung seems to spend a lot of time thinking about ingredients, so the food at Monkey Bar isn’t really served with anything added for dramatic effect, and the plate presentations are relatively uncomplicated. Cheung calls his style “Evolutionary Chinese Cooking.” more ›