• The week in reviews: Sam Sifton of the Times calls Casa Lever "deeply likable" and gives it two stars; Gael Greene heads to the Breslin; The New Yorker's Andrea Thompson weighs in on Joseph Leonard in the West Village; and GQ's Alan Richman recounts a couple of disastrous dinners at Sparks.
• Another day, another new Danny Meyer project: Meyer's Union Square Hospitality is taking over the restaurant at the Whitney Museum. [NYT, WSJ]
• Steve Hanson's second Bill's Burger is Rockefeller Center-bound. [Eater]
• Michael White has signed a lease to open a trattoria in the Lafayette Street space that once housed the scandal-plagued bar/club The Falls. [Eater]
• Aspen on West 22nd Street has closed for good. [BlackBook]
• A preview of next week's Tavern on the Green auction kicked off today. [NYT]
• The Post's Steve Cuozzo laments the recent closings of three landmarks: Tavern on the Green, Rainbow Room and the Plaza Palm Court. [NYP]
• Hoteliers are hoping brand-name chefs boost business in 2010. [TRD]
• The Soho club Greenhouse has been sued for discrimination—again. [NYDN]
• Did you know there's a global tea shortage? There is. [Bloomberg]

• Is Steve Hanson planning to clone his new and very popular Bill's Bar & Burger in Times Square? That's a rumor making the rounds. [Eater]
• Permanent Brunch was shuttered by the cops today over an outstanding tax bill. But it plans to reopen tomorrow—and with a new name, too. [GS]
• Pink Elephant will be just "Pink" from now on. Just so you're aware. [NYDN]
• Is it possible that Montreal bagels are better than NYC ones? The Times gets to the bottom of things. The Journal, for its part, tackled bagel injuries today.
• Related: Bagels will be replacing hot dogs on 14th and 7th Avenue. [GS]
• Epicurious has issued its list of food trend predictions for 2010. [Epicurious]
• A list of 20 secrets your waiter will never reveal (and which you don't want to hear), and yet which they still gave to Reader's Digest anyway. [MSNBC]
• Just in case all the quasi-nude photo shoots she's done didn't drive home the point, Padma Lakshmi reports she loves being naked. Got it? Good. [P6]

• The critics: Sam Sifton of the Times heads to Flushing for Cantonese and bestows a star on Imperial Palace; Jay Cheshes of Time Out gives four stars to A Voce; New York's R&P rave about Steve Hanson's new Bill's Bar & Burger; GQ's Alan Richman very much disagrees; and the Post's cranky Steve Cuozzo finds that Agua Dulce only came through when they knew he was there.
• A look around Anthony and Tom Martignetti's Brinkley's in Nolita. [GS, Eater]
• Publicity hound Nello Balan is being sued for, like, the 78th time. [NYP]
• Meanwhile Table 8's co-owner is facing a messy criminal matter. [Eater, GS]
• Eric Ripert does not think it's okay that Roberto Cavalli has a habit of ordering food from one restaurant (Mañana) while he's sitting in another (Serafina). Not that anyone has ever tried to pull that at Le Bernardin. [GS]
• Jonathan Safran Foer turned poor Natalie Portman into a vegan. [HP]
• Pickles are having their moment in the sun. At last! [Zagat]

• Todd English's troubles with Erica Wang, his former fiancée (and the woman he was supposed to marry last weekend) continue: The chef filed a criminal complaint against her earlier this week, claiming she clocked him in the eye, a wound that he says required seven stitches to close. [NYP]
• A bit of better news for English: Juliet, his new club/restaurant on West 21st Street, is on track to open to the public next week. [TONY]
• Steve Hanson's latest venture, Bill's Bar and Burger, opens tomorrow. [GS]
• A list of other recent openings, including Daniel Boulud's Bar Pleiades. [Eater]
• Purgatorio, the giant club/theater/haunted house in Times Square brought to you by The Box's Simon Hammerstein opened tonight. The extravaganza features "more than 100 performers swooping from rafters, screaming obscenities and gushing fake blood." Sounds like fun, doesn't it? [NYP]

• Cooking shows are all the rage right now with the Food Network and Travel Channel both witnessing record ratings. Real estate shows, however, have been bombing. Why? "Food can take away the pain." [Bloomberg]
• A Q&A with Danny Meyer, who says he hopes to regain the star that his Union Square Cafe lost recently just as soon as Sam Sifton takes over as Times dining critic, and that his big pet peeve are dishes with hazelnuts in them. [RG]
• Steve Hanson reports the eatery he's opening in the former Hog Pit space on Ninth Avenue will be casual American spot called Bill's Bar & Burger. [NYT]
• The chance the fish you're eating does not have some mercury in it? Virtually nil, according to a new report by government scientists. [NYT]