......

The fourth New York City location of The Palm restaurant opened on Friday in Tribeca. This outpost is located in a luxury condo on 200 Chambers Street, and some residents there are none too thrilled about their proximity to the popular steakhouse. One gripes on the Wired New York board: "The Palm Restaurant is ruining my life...The entire lobby smells of the exhaust of the Palm Restaurant. Also certain hallways in the building and interiors......

OH: Don't expect the Times's Frank Bruni to review it—Portfolio theorizes he HATES going to Harlem—but for everyone else, this three story restaurant/bar seems worth a try. Well, maybe not everyone; the top floor is a member's only club where $500 gets you "top notch service" and discount food and drinks. ($1000 gets you "full VIP access" to the cigar terrace.) Greasy Guide has a full review and reports that the menu features mini catfish......

......

When Sam Buffa, co-owner of the Freemans Sporting Club Barber Shops, went on his first impromptu date with his bride-to-be Jean Adamson, who was then head chef at Freemans, their night ended in Vinegar Hill, the quaint little neighborhood bordering DUMBO. So it's kind of sweet that their new labor of love is opening in a 19th century carriage house right where they started, and now reside. They've spent the last four and a half......

Dardanel: Salt crusted fish is the star of the reasonably priced seafood menu at this new midtown east restaurant (pictured), named for the strait that connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. As such, the high number of seafood dishes are complemented by Turkish classics like halvah pie. The fish is imported daily from the Mediterranean, and entrees include Brook Trout Casserole with grilled vegetables ($19); brick oven baked Black Sea anchovies with rice, pine......

......

In Role Models, Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott play bad-boy salesmen who travel to schools pushing an energy drink called Minotaur. When Rudd's character over-imbibes and totals the company truck, they're forced to do court-ordered community service in a mentoring program for troubled youth. Hilarious hi-jinks ensue? Not so much, says Joe Morgenstern at the Wall Street Journal: "This furiously raunchy, occasionally bright and eventually benumbing comedy...is a prototypical summer release dropped into......

Photo courtesy Vero Midtown. Vero Midtown: The little amber-hued nook seen here is nestled inside this warm and inviting wine bar on East 53rd Street that boasts a 2,200-bottle wine cellar. This is the second Vero location, and while the uptown original emphasizes panini, this iteration has a full kitchen serving dishes such as short rib tacos, gnocchi with foie gras and truffle sauce, and pan-roasted quail. The romantic scene is set by raw wood......

Nightlife impresarios Cornelis Craane and Paul Coleman Drohan, whose pedigree extends to old school clubs like Palladium, The Roxy, and China Club, have just opened this new venue that hearkens back to the messier '80s era of NYC nightlife, before the hedge fund bros took over with their $1,000 bottles of Absolut. Located in the Flatiron District, the duo hopes The Imperial will "recreate a fantasy playground reminiscent of the Warhol-Basquiat club days where art......

Aspen Social Club: The big opening this week is this "modern‑rustic" evocation of Colorado ski-lodge chic in the heart of Times Square. Gold plated antlers hover over the bar like an inverted middle finger to the recession, and another $100,000 worth of illuminated antlers cover the dining room. The 3,000 square foot restaurant and lounge will serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with delicacies like Bison Sliders with smoked cheddar, bacon & “gonzo” sauce. The "gonzo"......

Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut; the ambitious, surreal and expansive Synecdoche, New York, stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a regional theater director who moves to NYC from Schenectady after his wife Adele (Catherine Keener) leaves him. Using money from a MacArthur fellowship, Caden rents a huge warehouse and spends the next decades directing a never-finished theatrical epic based on his life. Manohla Dargis at the Times loved it (ditto Gothamist): "It’s extravagantly conceptual but also......

The Chestnut Bar: Carroll Gardens neighborhood restaurant Chestnut has expanded into the space next door with a “cozy, rustic bar.” We're told it’s got exposed brick, tin ceilings, a U-shaped bar, tall snack tables made of recycled Chestnut, and a collection of antique "chestnuts" (bottles like these, from which the restaurant got its original name). Chef and co-owner Daniel Eardley is all about the farm-to-table, sustainable agriculture thing, and his $30 three-course prix fixe menu......

Earlier this week, it was announced that 9 to 5: The Musical, adapted from the movie and eponymous Dolly Parton song, will open on Broadway April 30th, the last day that a show can open and still be eligible for a Tony award. Broadway g'nerds rejoiced, but according to the Times, there's just one problem: The Broadway production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, starring Bill Irwin and Nathan Lane, had already planned to open......

Oliver Stone's latest president biopic W. opens today, and stars Josh Brolin as 43, Richard Dreyfuss as Vice and Thandie Newton as Condoleezza. Ornery Armond White at the New York Press calls it "the best example of American filmmaking courage since Munich." Then again, here's a man who thinks that "for the past eight years, the media elite have fought back against Bush." Right! The press sure gave Bush hell when the administration was......

"M" by Megu: Expensive Tribeca Japanese restaurant Megu has redone its upstairs space (formerly Kimono Bar) into a swank nightclub (pictured) with a "small bites" menu. The dance floor has been expanded, fancy cocktails like “Death in the Afternoon” (Absinthe, Champagne, Rock Sugar) have been concocted, and the waitress have been attired in swimsuits custom designed by Keiko, who we're told is kind of a big deal. Menu options include Kobe Beef Sliders, Crispy Cod......

Ridley Scott's Body of Lies stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a high strung CIA operative and Russell Crowe as his duplicitous supervisor who spends his days scheming covert ops from the ironically banal environs of his suburban home. A.O. Scott at the Times wonders: "If terrorism has become boring, does that mean the terrorists have won? Or, conversely, is the grinding tedium of this film good news for our side, evidence of the awesome might......

Corton: One of the most anticipated openings of the season, this modern French restaurant, formerly Montrachet, is the love child of big shot restaurateur Drew Nieporent (Nobu) and chef Paul Liebrandt, who dreams of owning a cryogenic freezer "for freezing the cooks when they misbehave." Located in Tribeca, the 65-seat space serves a three-course prix fixe for $76 and a tasting menu for $110. What financial crisis? Appealing options for the not-broke-yet include Ocean Trout......

The trailer for Beverly Hills Chihuahua was a thing of wonder, with a small army of dogs rapping in a spectacular Mayan Busby Berkeley chorus number. But cuidado: the finished product, which features Cheech Marin and Luis Guzman voicing Latino stereotypes for mucho dinero, has no rapping! The Detroit News says it's "not the apocalypse-signaling, cultural abomination its trailers make it out to be. The bad news: That's pretty much the best thing that......

Philippe Express: Don’t let the name throw you; the cuisine here is Chinese, not French, and Seth Rogen has no connection with the place. Chef Philippe Chow is all about Chicken Satays, Crispy Beef, and Salt and Pepper Prawns, which has worked well for him uptown on 60th Street. This downtown satellite, opening tonight, features red banquets and automated touch-screen ordering. And in a “Big Brother’s Watching You Eat” twist, the touch screens will remember......

The film adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's satirical novel Choke concerns a sex-addicted med-school drop-out (Sam Rockwell) who works as an Irish indentured servant in a Colonial-era theme park to help pay for his Alzheimer’s-afflicted mother's (Angelica Huston) stay in an expensive private medical hospital. The movie's creepiness gets under your skin a little bit, but it also has a lot of heart to temper all the black comedy. Rex Reed begs to differ: "I......

Have you heard? Everyone is so excited about the new Trader Joe's coming to town! Brooklyn's first branch of the grocery store opens up this Friday, and if you thought that in a city like New York it would take a little more than reasonably priced organic milk to get people excited, then you'd be wrong. OTBKB has a source deep inside the establishment who reports back that the Court Street store's opening will include......

A rendering of the lobby of Cassandra Cinema. Except for the avant-garde Ocularis screenings in the old Galapagos, North Brooklyn has been a dead zone for movie theaters for years. Why, just the other day the Greenpointers blogger could be heard begging the world to open up a movie theater near her: "I know it will take you years and hundreds of thousands of dollars, but I promise you I will go every Sunday......

Sycamore: A Flickr user named Finstr took this atmospheric photo at the opening night of Ditmas Park's newest bar. The opening of yet another bar in Brooklyn hardly merits mention, but Sycamore's a bit unique in that it's located within a flower shop. Or rather, one walks through a flower shop on the way in. Or you could also just buy your flowers and leave. Flatbush Vegan went all the way with the thing, though,......

Samuel L. Jackson—who, as Anthony Lane at the New Yorker notes, is about to turn 60—stars in Lakeview Terrace, a suburban noir featuring Jackson as an L.A. cop and single dad who cannot stand the liberal mixed-race couple next door. It's directed but not written by Neil LaBute, though Lane thinks "it sounds a lot like him, in the lethal simmer of its conversation...It’s a shame, then, that the later stages of Lakeview Terrace......

One of the (many) new venues taking root in Gowanus will be opening its doors this week. Back in June we checked in on the progress of The Bell House (run by Union Hall and Floyd owners Jim Carden and Andy Templar, along with Union Hall booker Jack McFadden). To recap, there will be a huge bar in the performance space as well as a front lounge bar, and an entrance to each will be......

It seems like just yesterday that Marty Markowitz was standing there in his Hawaiian shirt, announcing the borough's first Trader Joe's. Now, the Brooklyn Paper reports it will be opening in the landmark Independence Bank building as soon as next week! September 26th, to be exact. "The supermarket will open at 9 am and the festivities will feature giveaways, live music," and of course, more Markowitz. But be warned winos, this location at the corner......

The recalculated red hotness of Red Hook came in the form of a Fall food and drink preview dedicated strictly to the neighborhood in last week’s Time Out, written up with an ersatz, vaguely Swedish alphabet meant to evoke IKEA label kookiness. Among the umlaut-heavy listings was one for Stumptown Coffee’s first New York store, which will reportedly open in the former heating and air conditioning place seen here, at 219 Van Brunt Street. Some......

Tierra: Tapas now and forever! Franklin Becker, the chef who recently stepped in to try and breathe life into Sheridan Square, now has another responsibility: Tierra. Per the press release, it’s where "Old School Tapas" meets "New School Tapas." The menu emphasizes adventurous wine pairings with items like Cabrales Filled Dates, Warm Goat Cheese Torta, and Chicken Livers on Toast. It opens tonight in the space formerly occupied by Tasca, and the publicist's breathless description......

This summer came news of a Greenpoint bar called Five Leaves opening and being backed by Heath Ledger (and now by his estate). Urban Daddy has the latest, on the day of the unofficial opening, reporting that "the designer is the man behind Moto, Smith and Mills and Tailor ... The end effect is a bar that Thomas Edison might have built for his buddies. The handmade light fixtures are steel and wire concoctions that......