• Ron Perelman's Blue Parrot in East Hampton is now open and serving guacamole and margaritas to Rachel Zoe and Martha Stewart. You'll have to leave your Blackberry at home, though, since texting is banned. [GS]
• La Goulue has been issued a reprieve and will stay open till August. [NYO]
• A roundup of restaurants that just opened, or will be open soon. [Eater]
• Marea just opened, but chef Michael White is already talking expansion. [IC]
• The Setai Club, the "new member's only social club for the Wall Street set," is now accepting membership applications. For $5,000 a year, you'll have a spot for "midday martini-tinged dealmaking," as if that happens anymore. [UD]
• Just in time for your 4th of July barbeque: Danny Meyer gobbles down a bunch of supermarket hot-dogs and picks the winners and losers. [NYM]
• The fast food chain Sonic has arrived. Well, it's arrived in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, but that's about as close as it's going to get for now. [NYP]

Everybody already knows that the Hamptons is the universe's vortex of suck, but here's another reason why: Restaurant/club owners who, as a method of crowd control, roll up the awning sheltering the crowd outside waiting for tables during a downpour.

• The Grill at the Standard hotel is in friends-and-family mode at the moment. (It should be open to the public sometime next week.) In the meantime, though, you'll be pleased to hear (and see—left) that some serious bartender training is currently underway. [HotelChatter, Flickr]
• New York's very first spot for 24-hour-a-day pho is coming soon. [GS]
• Chocolate mousse is popping up all over town, according to Kate Krader. Exhibits 1-4: Monkey Bar, Minetta Tavern, Bar Artisanal, and Kefi. [F&W]
• Another list of downturn-friendly bars offering free food with drinks. [NYT]
• Good news for strip club fans: Drink prices, cover charges are down. [WSJ]
• Some breaking news from Tuesday evening's screening of Food, Inc.: Rocco DiSpirito says he's been known to occasionally eat a Cinnabon or two. [NYDN]

• Yesterday's Post piece on restaurants charging for things like water and bread and butter provoked a wee bit of controversy. Frank Bruni thinks more restaurants should be charging for bread. And Bobo's Carlos Suarez would like you to know the water fee goes to charity, so simmer down. [NYT, GS]
• Sasha Petraske's Dutch Kills may open as soon as this Friday. [UD]
• The Beatrice Inn (which is still closed, FYI) has been vandalized. [Eater]
• The latest secret bar you'll hear a lot about, but will probably never visit in person: Bohemian, which requires a swipe key to get in, and is "tucked into the back of a building that used to belong to Andy Warhol," if that's any help. [GS]

• Suggestions on places to eat in the vicinity of the Tribeca Film Festival. [NYP]
• It's going to be hot this weekend. Luckily for you, the backyards at Bobo and Table 8 are both open for business (or will be by this weekend). [Eater]
• Balducci's on 14th Street closes this Sunday and there's a big sale underway, not that there's much of anything left on the store's shelves. [GS]
• David Burke's coping with the downturn just fine, thanks very much. [WSJ]
• Matt Levine of Eldridge infamy is making over Thor. [GS]
• Tom Potter, the retired co-founder of Brooklyn Brewery, is hoping to establish Brooklyn's first whiskey and gin distillery. [Brooklyn Paper]
• At last night's City Harvest auction, a private dinner by Eric Ripert went for $45K. Surfing and dinner in the Hamptons with Marc Murphy took in 14K. [GS]

♦ John Dory, the Brit-themed seafood shack by April Bloomfield, Ken Friedman, Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich, looks like it's finally opening, possibly as soon as Saturday night. [TONY, Metromix, Eater]
♦ A look inside Center Cut, Jeffrey Chodorow's new restaurant inside the Empire Hotel. [Eater]
♦ Craftsteak and Thom Bar have a few specials in store for election night. [GS]
♦ Momofuku Ssam Bar will cater your Thanksgiving dinner with pork butt and potato puree. [The Feedbag]
♦ If it's any consolation, Tim and Nina Zagat don't think the financial crisis will do much damage to the city's restaurant economy. [WSJ]

♦ Sirio Maccioni is already looking at replacements for Le Cirque chef Christophe Bellanca. [Page Six]
♦ Julian Niccolini says says his customers at the Four Seasons aren't skipping power lunches because of Wall Street's woes, although they do seem to be ordering cheaper wines. [GS]
♦ The Eldridge's Matt Levine confirms the existence of laser-engraved admissions cards; he won't comment on whether Prince has ever turned up at the nightspot. [The Feedbag]
♦ A preview of what you can expect from Dovetail's brunch service, which starts this weekend. [GS]

• Top Chef runner-up Marcel Vigneron was arrested in Laguna Beach this past weekend for driving drunk. [OC Register via Eater]

• The Times' Diner's Journal weighs in on the Wine Spectator scandal. [Diner's Journal]

Nightlife is an ugly business full of pretty people. The rules for 26-year-old clothing designer Matt Levine's new thirteen-table LES bar, the Eldridge, are simple. "Friends and family. That's basically what it is," he told Grub Street. There will be 400 laser-engraved cards distributed to the rights kinds of people, so they can definitely get in. There will be butlers and a "hospitality consultant" and someone to drive you home. It will be closed on weekends. I think we all can imagine what happened next: the comments on the interview have been raging since Monday, and it got even better when somebody claiming to possess one of these very special laser cards decided to step into the fray...