WHEN I FIRST heard about this Charles character, he sounded like a dick. There was plenty of hullabaloo about him having no phone number, the sign hanging outside advertising the restaurant that used to live in his space and all sorts of nonsense that made me figure if someone was going to work so hard to keep me from seeing him, perhaps I shouldn’t. And so for a while I didn’t. Read more Read it in print

I ADMIT, I seldom meet a dirty martini I dont like.Yet never have I sipped one so savory and smootha blend of Russian Standard Platinum vodka and what must be the most luscious olives on Earththat I wanted to haul myself off the velvet banquet on which I was lounging and kiss the bartender. Read more Read it in print

ON A RECENT Friday night on Second Avenue, I watched as young people strolled by, couples came tumbling out of bars and the well dressed and nightclub-bound were hopping into cabs. This wouldn’t be surprising, of course, except that I was between E. 77th and E. 78th streets—miles from anywhere that I would expect to see people who looked like they knew how to have fun. Read more Read it in print

THE EASIEST QUESTION anyone will ask you at Park Slope sandwich shop Reis 100 is, “wheat or white?” Other then that, you’re stuck with more complicated choices involving pastrami, bacon, prosciutto, Nutella, duck paté, chicken, smoked salmon, anchovies, olive tapenade, gruyere cheese, egg salad, tuna, kimchee and/or mushrooms. Just to name a few. Read more Read it in print

APPARENTLY, IN-THE-KNOW drinkers are calling Los Feliz “the tequila mansion.” This multi-level spot offers three distinct bars. At street level, you’ll find a trendy restaurant with a hopping scene while the subterranean spaces both invoke an air of mischief. The first floor down lets you enjoy some tacos and jalapeño margaritas in what can best be described as a tequila cave. Read more

OPENING A BAR on the corner of 16th Street and Prospect Park West, right by the Pavilion Movie Theater and Prospect Park, proved one of the smartest things boozy businessmen Jeff Switzer and Greg Curley could have done. Read more Read it in print

ENTREPRENEUR Hayne Suthon has a thing for gimmicks. Responsible for drag cabaret Lucky Cheng’s and the tacky exuberance of now-extinct, Hawaiithemed Waikiki Willy’s, the lady likes to fake it for dramatic effect.The tricky thing about Marfa, the high-concept simulacra of a dining spot in the Texas artist outpost, is that it’s more identifiable to Donald Judd fetishists and less welcoming to foodies or need-to-be-entertained tourists. Read more

IF THEY COME, you will build it. In these lean times, belt-tightening young professionals might start joining the artists in a gentrifying neighborhood before there’s even a single place to rent David Lynch films. Some denizens of the Jefferson L stop probably like this; the longer the Big G takes, the longer they can afford to live on their meager salaries. Tandem, however, with its tasteful decor and reasonable prices, makes for a harbinger of doom even the most selfloathing of colonizers would be hard pressed to resist. Read more Read it in print

DESPITE BEING UNSAVORY between Friday night and Sunday morning (the original reason the Jews planned their Sabbath that way), the Lower East Side does occasionally birth a spot that reminds me why the area is worth loving. Read more Read it in print

ENOUGH ABOUT THAT new wine bar that opened down the block; it wouldn’t be New York without gritty drink holes. Blue Ruin and Local 269 are two of the city’s newest dive bars, and they want to beat that fancy vino spot to a bloody pulp with a two by four. A visit to both was in order, to see which one would do better in this drunken rumble. Read more