Anna Wintour has been campaigning against the Jamaican restaurant Miss Lily's, which is hoping to open near her Village townhouse. The Vogue editor claims that because restaurant/club owner Serge Becker is involved, it's guaranteed to turn into a shitshow. Really?

Restaurateurs of New York, beware: Do not open a late-night spot anywhere near Georgette Fleischer. The downtown scold, a Barnard professor, has just successfully had hotspot La Esquina closed down because of code violations. And this isn't her first victory.

♦ Frank Bruni of the Times visits Bobo this week, and awards one star to new chef Patrick Connolly for his "ambition" and "good intentions," although he also points out that the restaurant "hasn't wholly surrendered its attitude and put service before sheen." [NYT]
♦ The NYPD shut down Serge Becker's "guerilla" election night party at La Esquina last night. [NYO]
♦ Boqueria's Soho location has been granted a liquor license and should be open by next week. [GS]

Serge Becker's nightlife portfolio includes the perennially hip Joe's Pub, the now-closed Area, and the snooch-magnet Bowery Bar. Recently his properties have expanded to include virtually all of the Lower East Side hotspots: Club 205, La Esquina and the Box. The last week has been a tough one for Serge. The Box was raided and shut down (temporarily, we hear) and now word comes in that La Esquina too was raided and closed, due to its complete and utter illegality! As the Post noted, the Box raid occasioned an exodus of celebrities onto the asphalt jungle of Chrystie street. It could have gone worse. The fuzz could have found the mountains of cocaine that went into the eightballs that reportedly are included with table service. And all agree that the raid on La Esquina—it lacked a certificate of occupancy—was inevitable. But two's a trend, and it makes us suspicious. What—or who—is behind Becker's troubles?

• Thank God for Wolf Blitzer. There's no way we could get through this plane-in-a-building nightmare were it not for his soothing voice and probing questions, such as, "How could this happen just five years after 9/11?" We don't know how! Tell us, Wolf! Lead us out of the darkness and into the light of understanding! Cue sirens and/or car alarms for extra drama. [Seth Mnookin]
• YouTube fosters a special friendship between straight muscleheads and the Gay men who like to watch. [The Advocate]
• La Esquina: exclusive, quite possibly bruising. [Brain on Fire]
• As if they weren't bad enough, the RNC is now as evil as AOL. [NYSun]
• Anthony Bourdain doesn't mind if annoying bloggers take pictures of his food. [92Y]
• Jihad on the midtown Apple store? [LGF]

• The indie folks of Williamsburg — united by their shared love of cowboy boots, cotton leggings, and tourmaline hair-straighteners — fear the corporatization of their trust-fund-supported lifestyle. [Newsday]
• Credit Suisse shits all over the Met-Life building and, in turn, Madison Square Park. [Manhattan Offender]
• Harper Collins and Daddy Murbucks can't afford their own domain name for promotional blogging purposes? [Eyeball Hatred]
• After you go through the secret door and get the secret number to secure your secret reservation at La Esquina, they'll secretly dick you over and cancel your secret table. [Miss Kate]
• Jennifer Solow is a self-described famous author. If you have to say it, you aren't. [Jennifer Solow]

Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni makes his way to downtown pseudo-speakeasy La Esquina, where entry is acheived via all sorts of exotic hoop-jumping:

In Sunday's front page Styles article about not-so-secret secret bar beneath La Esquina, the Times inadvertantly answers an age-old question: Who is responsible for the Ronsons, those omnipresent DJ-designer-scenester siblings Mark, Charlotte, Samantha? We always assumed that RonsonBots were harvested in the back room of a meth lab, but one actually needn't look further than British "rock and roll socialite" (via her marriage to Foreigner's Mick Jones) Ann Dexter-Jones. We feel stupid for not having realized this before:

First Thrillist, then Daily Candy, and now new foodie blog Eater are all fluttering about the secret-but-not-really opening of speakeasy La Esquina, located beneath the Corner Deli at Kenmare and Lafayette. Entry into the bar has a semi-complicated, three-step procedure in which one must enter the Corner Deli and enter the "Employees Only" door, go downstairs and get a "secret" phone number from the hostess, then leave the venue and call said number to secure reservations. Tale of Two Cities, however, thinks there's a crucial fourth step being overlooked: