Today the Times’s Frank Bruni marvels at Manhattan’s new wave of high tone restaurant openings during a recession, and pins the trend not on entrepreneurial bravado but on the fact that it takes years to get a fancy eatery open, and most of these new places were envisioned in flusher economic times. It is true that in 2005, the top fifth of earners in Manhattan made 52 times what the lowest fifth make – $365,826......

Cooking last night at The Spotted Pig for a sold-out crowd is visiting English chef Fergus Henderson, author of the newly released Beyond Nose to Tail, a sort of sequel cookbook. Spotted Pig chef April Bloomfield worked side-by-side with Henderson, who is best probably best known for his offal-centric food at St. John, his London restaurant, but is also considered to be a renegade, iconoclast cook: a chef’s chef. At a book party on Monday......

-Food and Wine magazine released its Best New Chefs 2007 list earlier this week. April Bloomfield, the 32 year-old chef and co-owner of West Village gastropub The Spotted Pig, is among the ten honorees to be featured in the magazine’s July issue. Eater attended Wednesday night’s announcement party at 7 World Trade Center and watched “everyone who has ever been on an episode of Top Chef” party like it was 1999, the not-so-distant year that......

February 17-18: Year of the Pig at The Spotted Pig The good folks at The Spotted Pig are ringing in the Year of the Pig with, you guessed it, a pig roast. 314 W. 11th Street at Greenwich. Call 212-620-0393 for details. Feburary 18: Year of the Pig at LeNell's LeNell's brings on the swine with free tastings of pork-related booze, including Wild Hog pinot noir and Pig Nose Scotch. 416 Van Brunt St between......

- It's strange that in this arctic weather that the best food news we've heard today is that NYC Icy is returning. NYC Nosh snapped a photo of this sign in Hell's Kitchen. Bring on the summer! - Midtown Lunch shares the news that you can now find chicken and waffles in Midtown. - And speaking of fried chicken, we're now seriously craving some of the Korean fried chicken featured in today's Times. - Michael......

After getting its liquor license some time back and entering 2.0-dom, the next upgrade for this release here with Ned Elliot and his flameout closing the logs on version 2.1. Tomorrow another chapter of the European Union story, potentially the most promising yet, begins when Akhtar Nawab takes over the stoves for his first day. After Allen & Delancey failed to open in the fall, Nawab’s next move was not known but this will......

Bruni no-stars Freemans: doesn't much like the food, though he does like the decor. He compares it unfavorably to The Spotted Pig, and says, "Most of its dishes... could be quickly and easily replicated at home." In case you missed Gothamist's link to it yesterday, Eater has a fascinating diary by William Tigertt, co-owner of Freemans, revealing the review process from the restaurant's side. It starts from the date in August that they first spotted......

- Education advocate and politician Shirley Chisholm is dead - Do not jump into the tracks if being chased in the subway - Old movie theaters Gothamist and our readers like - Some upcoming musical performances you might still be able to get tickets to - What do you do with your carbon monoxide detector charges? - A recipe for The Spotted Pig's Riccota Gnudi - We're giving away tickets to see The Dears......

Gothamist has a hard time resisting New York City's gustatory delights. And if there is a discount involved too, resistance is completely futile. So, we can't decide if learning about The Diner's Deck is a blessing for our palates and pocketbooks - or a curse on our waistlines. Costing a mere $29.95, Diner's Deck is a set of 52 "playing cards," each card featuring the lowdown on a swank restaurant, along with a $10 coupon......