This week in the Times, Bruni one-stars Mesa Grill (pictured), knocking the restaurant down from the two stars given it by William Grimes in 2000. Says that while the Bobby Flay restaurant “has considerable charms… on balance [it] presents only flickers of the excitement it did [when it opened] in 1991… It’s an overly familiar, somewhat tired production. More to the point, it’s an inconsistent one.” Peter Meehan goes to Hakata Tonton for $25 and......

This week in the Times, ">Bruni goes to Gramercy Tavern, awards the restaurant--now helmed by chef Michael Anthony--three stars. It was last reviewed by William Grimes, when Tom Colicchio was cooking and when it also received three stars. Bruni says the restaurant delivers what diners want: “a kind of unstrained graciousness and unlabored sophistication.” Nearly everything he tasted was “exquisitely cooked,” and while the desserts aren’t the best ever, “there are some fine choices.” In......

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Esca, calls chef Dave Pasternack a "fish whisperer" (um, OK Frank) and awards the restaurant three stars. "In an era when too many restaurants try to be everything to everyone," he says, "Esca has a specific agenda: show what the sea can yield." The restaurant was previously awarded two stars by William Grimes in 2000. In $25 and Under, Peter Meehan checks out the cafes at the......

READING: Head to the New School to join the New York Times and their moderator, critic William Grimes, as Carl Hiaasen reads from his latest crime caper, Nature Girl, which chronicles the exploits of volatile Honey Santana who meets a wild cast of characters while en route to the Ten Thousand Islands. Show up early for a good seat - Hiaasen is a popular draw. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras 6:30pm // The New School [Tishman......

It's not Caturday, but it might as well be at the NY Times. There are two (TWO!) big cat stories. The first is about how the $4,000 hypoallergenic are in demand. We're still not sure about hypoallergenic cats, but these kitties certainly look very sweet. And the article mentions the travails of Harlem Fur's cat Cimbi and owners Cheryl and Chris. They decided Cimbi needs a new home last week given Cheryl's allergies -......

- Ed Levine has a short round up of the Il Buco annual pig roast; looks like it should be on the calendar next year. - Check out this podcast from The Gilded Fork Culinary Podcast Network, they have William Grimes discussing the topic of restaurant vernacular. Sample topic - use of the word entrée and the difference in the meaning here and across the pond. - The rise, battle, takedown, and hibernation of E.U.......

Bruni reviews Blue Hill (in Greenwich Village, not at Stone Barns) bumps the restaurant up to three stars from the two it received from William Grimes in 2000. He cites "quality and immediacy" of ingredients and says eating there is a subtle experience, "like a hushed foreign film with subtitles." For Eater, three stars here gives Bruni the opportunity to "provide some relative benchmark for his two star hand job from last week [at......

Over the weekend, Gothamist started to read Julia Child's My Life in France. A collaboration with (and completed by) her grandnephew Alex Prud'homme, Julia gets to describe her experience living in France after World War II, falling in love with cooking, and loving her husband, Paul. And there's writing Mastering French Cooking, too. While the book is absolutely wonderful, we faced the problem of being totally hungry for whatever Julia would describe. Roasted chicken, quenelles,......

It has happened: The Howard Johnson at Broadway and 46th Street has been sold. The Rubinstein family who owned the HoJo at 1551 Broadway for ages sold the property, plus another building on West 34th, for $100 million. The Post speculates that the new retailer will be something a little more high-end, as rumors say the buyer, Wharton Acquisitions, will level the building to create a "retail box" like the Times Square Toys R Us......

Yay! It's gorgeous outside, it's a Friday, and there's a story about an animal bothering New Yorkers - these things make for a very good Gothamist day. In Prospect Heights, a rooster has been waking up residents a little too early with his crack-of-dawn cock-a-doodle-dooing. The rooster's sounds span Dean Street from Vanderbilt to Underhill, creating quite a stir. A sampling of some attitudes:- "I like to call him 'KFC,' because I'd like to see......

Some downtown residents mourned the loss of a two year old rooster who made friends with the Chinese and Puerto Ricans in the neighborhood (he was crushed by his "owner"'s car - accidentally). The NY Times New York Region > The City > Lower East Side: Rooster, 2, Is Killed by Car; Held Ludlow Street in Thrall" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/nyregion/thecity/27roos.html?">said the rooster held "Ludlow Street in thrall". Gothamist found an exchange about what to do with the......

Reading the William Grimes' NY Times feature on Iron Chef America on the Food Network (it premieres this Sunday) only made Gothamist, to borrow a phrase from another Food TV personality, kick our irrational hatred of Bobby Flay up a notch. BAM! Forever will the memory of Bobby Flay jumping up on the kitchen counter during the 2000 Iron Chef showdown between Flay and Masaharu Morimoto be burned in our brains. Grimes mentions the......

Gothamist's favorite unwitting chicken owner and the NY Times's former chief restaurant critic, William Grimes, has been book reviewer for the paper. Now, the triumvirate of reviewers will be Grimes, Janet Maslin (former chief film critic), and Chief Michiko Kakutani. We can just imagine the publishing houses combing through his old restaurant reviews and editors suggesting to writers they incorporate dining scenes, restaurants, and heady descriptions of preparing food. Grimes goes into Nicolai Ouroussoff's and......

When Gothamist read about how famed NY restaurant New York Region > Le Cirque Considering Moving on at Year's End" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/nyregion/13sirio.html?ex=1402459200&en=acdb02dd1f52aca7&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND">Le Cirque 2000 may have to leave its space at the Palace Hotel, we were surprised that nowhere in the article was there mention of how the restaurant really hit its peak with executive chef Sottha Kuhn and pastry chef Jacques Torres. As Gothamist could only eat our hearts out when we read about Le......

Newsday reports that the Time Warner Center doesn't want to be called a mall. Hello, boutiques, atrium, food court...MALL! Big deal if there are high end stores in there - the Mall at Short Hills has John Varvatos, Armani, and Burberry. So what if the TW Center doesn't have a big department store anchoring it and does have expensive restaurants and an expensive hotel? There's an A/X, Williams Sonoma and Tumi Luggage. Do the math.......

Taking "resy" to another level, the New York's Intelligencer exposes the innerworkings of the reservation system at Daniel, the East Side crown in Daniel Boulud's NY culinary empire. Apparently, there are codes next to the names in the reservation books: NBD (No Big Deal), PX (Person Extraordinaire), or PXX (Person Extra Extraordinaire). And, admittedly, for a second, we wondered why "E" wasn't used for "Extraordinaire," but then we figured it out. Hee, of course. [Via......

Page Six has this great bit about Le Cirque owner Sirio Maccioni slamming former Times restaurant critic William Grimes. Most likely spurred by a poor review of his sons' restaurant (rack of lamb as having "all the appeal of a gnarled tree stump" and the osso buco as "a slick, glutinous mass, with surprisingly untender meat concealed within"), Maccioni told WWD, "When a reviewer has an ugly wife, he can never be very good." Even......

– Movies break $10 in New York; of course, those who order online pay service fees, but that quarter could be put to good use – Downtown neighborhoods play hard to get with bars – The Brooklyn that would be lost if the Nets move in – Gothamist's worst nightmare: Being stuck in an avalanche of saved magazines for two days (we're packrats) – Barbies can be put in a casserole – The incredible Charles......

William Grimes doffs his hat as the restaurant critic for the New York Times with a farewell (of sorts; Grimes will be working on other projects for the Times) column that recounts some of the big New York restaurants themes and chefs he's seen since 1999. They are the flowering of neighborhoods as dining destinations (Upper West Side, Lower East Side, Meatpacking District); seeing various chefs develop food empires (Batali, Brennan, Bradley, Colicchio, etc.);......

William Grimes, Times restaurant reviewer, speaks with Newsweek about leaving the gig: NEWSWEEK: You are leaving the coolest job on the planet. William Grimes: Well, yes and no. That�s the realistic answer. You�re dining at the best places in New York and somebody else is paying for it, and you don�t have to do what normal people do, which is look at the price side of the menu. You have to think about it for......

– "Sorry to rob you but I need a fix." – The Atkins Diet Excuse for Bad Behavior – Our fantasy - Iron Chef in Manhattan at the Time Warner Center – Sam Waterston in a TV commercial – Bloggers on best American bands playing today – President Bush ignores US media but will chat with British tabloid – Our cellphone society: Fragmenting or expanding our urban experience? – Gay marriage in Massaschusetts? –......

The Nation's Restaurant News reports that William Grimes is stepping down from his role as restaurant reviewer for The New York Times. "Grimes, who, the memo said, dined out 10 to 12 times a week, wrote more than 440 reviews during his tenure as restaurant critic. He is expected to continue to write for the Times. His replacement has not been named." [Via Romenesko] May we finally see your face, Biff!......

Ladies and gentlemen, gourmands and those with expense accounts: The [AOL] Time-Warner Center Restaurant All-Stars! The Times' restaurant critic William Grimes looks at the wealth of cooking talent the new AOL Time-Warner Center boasts (but the Time Warner Center is NOT A MALL - it's One Central Park, okay?). The breakdown: Coming from that Napa Valley oasis of cooking, the French Laundry, is Thomas Keller. Representing the Beef Council is Jean-Georges Vongerichten with steakhouse......

Holy headrush, the Times has a feature on the cupcaking of New York! Reporter Julia Moskin calls the sight people toting cupcakes around, the way one would a hot dog, a sign of a trend that entrenched itself, and covers how NY bakeries are making bank off teeny little cakes. Cupcakes analyzed come from Magnolia, Cupcake Cafe, Buttercup, Amy Sedaris, Polka Dot, William Greenburg, Yura, Kitchenette, Crumbs, and Downtown Atlantic, and who better to......

William Grimes looks at a league of restaurants that become neighborhood stalwarts without particularly amazing food or an excellent location - they survive just by being. About one restaurant, Isle of Capri, Grimes writes, "It's a restaurant in which nothing makes sense and everything makes sense at the same time." Gothamist had a madeline-moment when we read Grimes' assessment, because, for a time, the Isle was an unofficial hangout during the heady days of......

Glenn Collins of the Times finds out what happens when restaurants decide to install DJs to add more mood to the food. Restaurants featured are industry(food), Butter, Hue, Lotus, The Sanctum, and Tao. Karim Amatullah, co-owner of Hue, says, "it adds a little something extra that most people don't even notice but enables them to relax." It's also motivated by profit, as the margins on drinks are much more enticing than on food. Gothamist is......

Last night, Rocco DiSpirito's reality show, The Restaurant, premiered and the Times' food critic William Grimes reviewed the show in the weekend's Arts & Leisure section. (Gothamist is curious if one of the TV critics Alessandra Stanley or Julie Salomon or even Caryn James - who we haven't seen much of lately - will be reviewing Rocco's On 22nd Street, the restaurant, as a restaurant then?) Biff loves the "thrilling" glimpse into what goes......

There's lots of excitement about the new exhibit, Petropolis: A Social History of Urban Animal Companions, at the New York Historical Society and Glenn Collins of the Times looks at what some New Yorkers will do for their pets, which include cats, rabbits, snakes, rats, mice, chickens, geese, pigeons, ferrets, turtles and tropical fish - but it's certainly dog-heavy, as dogs can break the ice between you and that cute guy or girl like nothing......

Right around the corner from the day job's midtown office is Ola on East 48th Street and 2nd Avenue. Ola is the latest restaurant from peripatetic Douglas Rodriguez, formerly of Patria and Chicama. Even though William Grimes' review was okay (one star), Gothamist was curious about the infamous mystery meatballs and killer dates [insert joke here about "dates from hell" but never "killer dates"]. Gothamist ordered the mystery meatballs and killer dates, as well as......

The Chocolate Exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History seems to be the ticket for anyone with the slightest of a sweet tooth. And why not, when they are offering chocolate tastings on the weekend throughout the exhibit's run. William Grimes gives his blessing on the chocolate exhibit today; his favorite part of the exhibit is the casket in the shape of a cacao bean. The Daily News reviews the exhibit as well as......