Is the crowded, uncomfortable and noisy communal dining moment in the New York restaurant scene almost over? No, it appears to be more popular than ever—with the kids, at least. With the grownups, though? Both the Times and Post today argue in their own ways that restaurants that don't take reservations, stuff their diners into one big table under dim lights and blast loud music at them are effectively practicing "legal age discrimination." They've got points. more ›

There's a pretty interesting article in the Times Dining section today about the increasing number of restaurants that don't take reservations, and why they insist on wasting your precious time. Did you know it costs a lot of money to take reservations? Besides having to pay someone to answer the phone and act peppy, most restaurants feel compelled to use OpenTable.com, which lets diners to make reservations 24/7 online. And that service isn't free. more ›

For some people, food is a means of sustenance, or at least a way to pad the stomach before a night of binge drinking. For others, it's a passion, and for a smaller minority, a career. But for celebrity "Chef-at-Large" Anthony Bourdain, it's clearly become a problem. To hear him tell it on his blog today, the man could use some help scoring primo stuff in NYC: "How come I gotta go halfway across the earth -- to like, Singapore, or Hong Kong (or Spain), for instance, to really get MY culinary jollies these days?... I'm like a full-bloom junkie, the honeymoon period over, needing a higher and higher dosage to get off in MY home town of New York!" It's only a matter of time before he bottoms out, face down in a plate of Chimichangas at Caliente Cab Company. At this point only a very special "foodie" episode of Intervention can save him. more ›

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist. more ›

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist. more ›

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist. more ›

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist. more ›

EVENT: Earlier this year Holly Hunter encountered an interesting situation with an interviewer for a news station (we highly recommend watching the YouTube video of this). She discussed her tv series Saving Grace at the time, and she'll be doing the same tonight at the Paley Center (old Museum of TV and Radio). There will be a Q&A as well as a screening of one of the episodes. 6pm // The Paley Center for Media... more ›

What’s worth watching on food-TV this week? We're definitely setting our DVR to record The Martha Stewart Show. She’s got a three great New York Italian chefs on today: Odetta Fada of San Domenico, Lidia Bastianich of Felidia and Del Posto, and pastry chef Gina DePalma of Babbo. On Tuesday she’s got cookbook editor Judith Jones, and on Wednesday, New Orleans chef Susan Spicer (Monday-Friday, 1pm, NBC). But the prime time highlight might be a... more ›

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? This Wednesday on Kitchen Nightmares (9pm on Fox), Ramsay does his thing on Finn McCool’s in West Hampton. Are we the only ones who wonder if his advice actually does any good? Most places that he revisits after his makeover revert—at least in part—to their prior ways. But if you own a restaurant you want Ramsified, now’s your chance. Download an application to be featured on the... more ›

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? Next Sunday is the finale of The Next Iron Chef (9pm on the Food Network). Michael Ruhlman has a comment from Chef Chris Cosentino on his blog about the airplane episode—he was clearly getting crowded by cameras, but for him the crowding was to the degree that he couldn’t work, and he wanted to clarify that fact “now that 1/2 the country thinks i am an asshole.”... more ›

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? more ›

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? more ›

A confession. In general, we’re not big Food Network Fans. We do make an exception for Iron Chef (it always sucks us in), and we love it’s latest incarnation. Last week on the premiere of The Next Iron Chef (9pm on the Food Network, Chef Traci Des Jardins got the ax, brought down by her salmon roe dessert (ick). Read the Amateur Gourmet's unique and often hilarious take on things on his blog on the Next Iron Chef site (“We all know the whole Iron Chef universe is a fabrication, right? That the chairman is an actor? What? You didn’t know that?”). Judge Michael Ruhlman is happy with episode one; says the kitchen was so hot during filming that one of the chefs had to be hospitalized afterwards for dehydration. more ›

What’s worth watching on food-relatedTV this week? more ›

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? more ›

What’s worth watching on food-TV this week? more ›

What’s worth watching on food-TV this week? more ›

This week on food-TV, we've got: more ›

What’s worth watching, food-wise, on TV this week? more ›

What’s worth watching, food-wise, on TV this week? Be warned: it’s the dog days of summer, so there’s not much new on the air… more ›

What’s worth watching, food-wise, on TV this week? more ›

This week on food-related TV, we’ve got: more ›

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? more ›

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? more ›

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Languishing in cardboard boxes near the mushroom sections in local Fairway stores these next few weeks are Sea Beans, mysterious short stalks of a dark green vegetable, looking like something you might find washed up on the beach, but maybe a bit more edible. According to Elizabeth Schneider’s Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini, Sea Beans (aka Salicornia) grow wild in warmer months all over- in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. “Salicornia is not seaweed, as it is often described,” she writes, “nor is it a cactus, which it slightly resembles.” Eaten raw or cooked, its flavor can best be described as sea salty intense, with a sort of grassy asparagus aftertaste. When fresh, Sea Beans are crunchy like snap peas. At the tail end of their one-week refrigerator shelf life, older sea beans can be revived with a five-minute soak in ice water. In addition to their current availability at Fairway (a pricey $8.99 per ½ pound), farm-raised boxes of the vegetable show up every June at NY greenmarkets, often leaving perplexed customers headed for more conventional items like pretty garlic scapes, or local strawberries. more ›

- Cash Only more ›

STOP what you're doing and program your TiVos or mark this down in your Outlook calendars or PDAs... Anthony Bourdain's new show, No Reservations, is premiering on the Travel Channel on Monday, July 25 at 10PM. Here is Bourdain's description of what the show is about:

"It means that I just don't care what happens, you know, in the sense that there are things I want to do, there are things I want to see, there are things I want to experience before the time that I can't do those things. We get so little time at the table. I guess it means I'm not doing anything in a half-hearted way. No reservations, meaning we're going all the way, baby. No fear. My whole life, cooking has been about control. About being on it, every minute. About controlling everything and everybody around you. Traveling and eating are about letting things happen.