Sad day for fans of smooth jazz crooners: When the current cat-displacing renovations at The Algonquin Hotel are over, one of the famed hotel's many famous features will not be coming back. No, we aren't talking about the round table. According to a hotel spokesman, "The once popular cabaret Oak Room will close to make room for an expanded Blue Bar which will still serve up its classic Dirty Martinis and Manhattans." more ›

Okay, fine. We know this is a gimmicky marketing stunt, but just look at the effort the publicist put into this pictogram! Jumping deftly aboard the Mel Gibson train wreck express, The Oak Room is now selling a cocktail named after the unhinged actor, who's currently starring in a series of increasingly disturbing phone calls recorded by his ex-girlfriend/mother of his baby daughter. The Mel Gibson is described as a "bi-polar cocktail" made with Van Gogh Vodka, Dutch Gin, vermouth, club soda, and pickled cocktail onion juice. more ›

Following a string of mediocre reviews, particularly a one-two punch from Adam Platt, fancy uptown restaurants Fishtail and The Oak Room have both lost their top toques. At the Oak Room, acclaimed Atlanta-based Joël Antunes has left; today rumor has it that executive chef Eric Hara will leave David Burke’s “sustainable-friendly” seafood restaurant Fishtail. Now it seems Hara will replace Antunes. The recession has created a tighter-than-normal feedback loop between poor reviews and business as usual at high profile restaurants, in part because business as usual no longer exists (read: no more expense accounts). Meanwhile, Post critic Steve Cuozzo yesterday called out a “whining” Anita Lo, blaming absentee chefs for bad reviews and recent closings. “Stop treating customers like we're idiots,” he wrote. Bad food is bad food, sure, but perhaps Cuozzo would also encourage Lo to stop cooking at charity events around town that do things like feed homeless people, which seems more important than ever. more ›