Approximately every five minutes someone leaks that Beatrice Inn owner Paul Sevigny has taken over a new place in New York that is like his old place. Except it's not really true.

• The Guggenheim is planning to open a restaurant named The Wright inside the museum. [NYT]
• Le Cirque is now morphing into a club on Friday nights. Just don't actually call it a club, though. [GS]
• Former Tailor chef Sam Mason has a new cooking show on Independent Film Channel and reports he may open something new in Brooklyn. [NYT]
• Má Pêche (aka Momofuku Midtown) is serving cocktails. [F&W]
• Is the Department of Health waging a war on pizza? It seems so. [Slice, GS]
• Starbucks is rolling out more of its brand-less coffeehouses. [NYT]
• If you haven't had a chance to get to know Vadim Ponorovsky, the owner of Paradou, please do so. He's a delight, both in print and on the phone. [Gawker]

Retail developer Jack Menashe masterminded the whole transformation. A look at the Limelight Marketplace website and this Real Deal article feature the pictures of the new space, which intends to be stores, restaurants, specialty food shops, and little carts all selling crazy fun things for tourists to haul back to wherever they came from. Sadly 75% of the 60 store spaces are already leased.

• Taavo Somer and the team from Freemans are opening a "classic American diner" in the old Kelley & Ping space on the Bowery. [VV]
• Ryan Skeen and his team have been ousted from Allen & Delancey. [GS]
• Midtown Italian eatery Bice won't be forced to close, after all. [Crain's]
• Donatella Arpaia's revamped, Psilakis-less Mia Dona has reopened. [GS]
• Does Michael "Bao" Huynh have yet another spot in the works? [TONY]
• Rooftop lounge 230 Fifth will be handing out Snuggies to its patrons. [Eater]
• ABC News treated the Heene family (of Balloon Boy fame, yes) to a "fabulous sushi dinner" at Ocean Grill last night, just so you know. [TMZ]

The New York Times reported on the politics that allow Teodoro Nguema Obiang, the son of Equatorial Guinean dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo into America. Here's what they didn't tell you about his lifestyle (and celebrity girlfriends).

Taek Jho Low, a 20-something Wharton grad has been making headlines as big-spender who drops hundreds of thousands at New York's clubs and flies starlets to Vegas. But sources now say he is a surrogate for someone more secretive.

• The team behind Coffee Shop in Union Square is taking over the iconic Empire Diner in Chelsea. A name change and revamped menu will follow. [CN]
• Team Momofuku is now serving lunch at their new Midtown location. [ML]
• A chat with Danny Abrams, who just opened his new Mermaid outpost. [VV]
• Michael Psilakis is planning a pop-up food cart in the meatpacking district. The food will be free and it's all part of a promo campaign by Ketel One. [TONY]
• Troubling news for those who love rating raw oysters year-round. [NYT]
• Gwyneth Paltrow's famous friends list their most memorable means. [GOOP]
• A roundup of food-related events taking place this weekend. [SE]

Have you noticed that more and more social scenesters, models, and offspring of the rich and famous have morphed into DJs? It's a trend, as W points out:

• The week in reviews: Sam Sifton of the Times describes the new Aureole as "meh" and gives it one star; Time Out's Jay Cheshes gives the San Domenico sequel SD26 four out of five stars; GQ's Alan Richman hits SD26 as well and is less than impressed; Bloomberg's Ryan Sutton weighs in on SD26 and A Voce; and NYMag's Adam Platt hits A Voce, too, giving it three stars.
• The Post's Steve Cuozzo recounts his top burger picks in the meatpacking district and beyond including his current fave, Bistro Chat Noir. [NYP]
• Sam Mason has confirmed the obvious: He's parted ways with Tailor, which hasn't even been open since the early part of the summer. [Eater]
• A look around the Mermaid Oyster Bar, which opened last night. [GS]
• Time Out has a "winter drinking guide" if you're interested. [TONY]
• Pickles are all the rage right now, in case you haven't heard. [NYO]
• Guy Fieri is the Glenn Beck of the food world, apparently. [TDB]

• Danny Meyer's Maialino opens tomorrow and is taking reservations. [GS]
• A new wine bar is scheduled to open at Bouley Bakery next week. [NYT]
• More openings: Bar Henry opened last night in the West Houston space that was previously occupied by Zinc Bar; Caracas Brooklyn is planning to open its doors on Thursday; a burger chain bearing a suspicious resemblance to In-N-Out (this one's called Fresh-N-Fast) debuts in a couple of weeks; and another burger spot in the Village called P&B has already opened.
• Sala, the decade-old tapas spot on the Bowery, is up for lease. [GS]
• A peek at François Payard's newly-opened (and very tiny) chocolate bar. [SE]
• Cocktail queen Audrey Saunders is branching out with a spot in LA. [NYT]
• A profile of Bon Appétit editor Barbara Fairchild, now "one of the most watched women in food publishing" following the closure of Gourmet. [LAT]
• The most expensive bottle of beer may get auctioned off this month. [NYP]
• Portland is looking to usurp NYC as "food-cart capital of the country." [OL]
• Is French cuisine dead? Several famed French chefs weigh in. [GS, TONY]

• After 18 years in business, Zoë in SoHo is closing at week's end. [NYT]
• A roundup of a few restaurants opening this week, including Mermaid Oyster Bar, Purple Yam in Brooklyn, and Danny Meyer's Maialino. [NYM]
• Etats-Unis on the Upper East Side closed its doors last Friday. And Klong on St. Mark's Place was shuttered over the weekend following a "huge" fire.
• Famed pizzeria Totonno's, which was partially destroyed by a fire in March, is preparing to reopen, although a date hasn't been finalized. [NYM]
• The death of Art D'Lugoff has shelved plans to revive The Village Gate. [NYP]
• Adam Platt gives three stars to A Voce in New York this week. [NYM]
• Do some restaurants practice delivery discrimination? It seems so. [NYP]

There's a new playa on the club scene, have you heard? When he recently blazed past the velvet rope at Avenue, one naive young partygoer wondered aloud, "Is it P. Diddy?" No, it wasn't Diddy. It was someone even better! It was Taek Jho Low, the man making it rain at clubs all over town! Sure, he may not look like a baller—he's a doughy, bespectacled, 20-something Malaysian and Wharton graduate—but don't be fooled. Jho Low is taking bottle service to an entirely new level, and bankers who drop a mere $5,000 per night could do well to take some lessons from this guy.

The Post reported that a mysterious Malaysian man spent $160k in nightclub Avenue in one night and, among other ridiculous debauchery, flew Megan Fox to Vegas for his birthday. He's not the first super-rich guy to have such an idea.

• A preview of what you'll find when Maialino opens next week. [GS]
• In other Danny Meyer news, Shake Shack is expanding to Miami. [GS]
• For his part, Daniel Boulud is taking his Bar Boulud to London. [Bloomberg]
• A roundup of recent restaurant/bar openings around town. [Eater]
• Del Posto is closing its cafe and is introducing a new prix fixe menu. [NYT]
• Paul Sevigny may be still be hoping to reopen the Beatrice Inn. [Gawker]
• 100 things restaurant staffers should never do, part 2. [NYT, previously]

You have probably slept with this man. He's French! He founded Purple magazine! He hangs out with famous people! He accidentally mentioned that Beatrice Inn is reopening! He wears the same clothes every day! He takes pictures of naked ladies!

Since Beatrice Inn and the Jane Hotel Ballroom closed down hipsters have been in a state of non-ironic panic. Earlier this week both were rumored to be reopening soon. The hipsters were happy! But then bad things and death struck.

• Jean-Georges Vongerichten will close down Vong on Saturday. [Eater]
• A new restaurant/wine bar has popped up at the Four Seasons Hotel. [GS]
• A tour of Danny Meyer's Maialino, which opens in a couple of weeks. [Eater]
• Both Le Souk and The Mott have been closed their doors. [GS]
• Amy Sacco hasn't obtained a permit to renovate Bungalow 8, as we reported a couple of weeks ago. Her reality TV show is looking unlikely, too. [NYP]
• As if Tavern on the Green didn't have enough of a mess on its plate, it was also the scene of epically messy Halloween party on Saturday. [NYDN, Crain's]
• Another sign of a recession: Le Cirque is offering up free fried chicken to people who come watch the Yankee game there tomorrow night. [Zagat]

• The hotel bar is experiencing a resurgence, as you've probably noticed. [VF]
• Indochine is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a new book. [GoaG]
• Does Danny Meyer have a new restaurant in store for the church on 21st Street and Park Avenue South? That's the rumor anyway. [Eater]
• A Q&A with Locanda Verde's Andrew Carmellini. [Blackbook]
• The annual Chocolate Show goes down this weekend. [ChocolateShow]
• A few suggestions on where to carbo-load if you're planning to run the marathon this Sunday. Or where to just pig out if you're not. [SE]

• The much-hyped Breslin opens for lunch on Thursday, but co-owner Ken Friedman already has a detractor: the mosque across the street. [NYO]
• Closings: Centro Vinoteca in the West Village has been shuttered by the city. And the Bread Bar at Tabla is closing as of tonight. [Eater, GS]
• François Payard's eponymous patisserie closed four months ago, but he'll make a mini-comeback next month when he opens a chocolate bar. [NYT]
• How busy is restaurateur Michael "Bao" Huynh? He's opening one restaurant a week during the month of November. So he's pretty busy. [GS]
• Greenhouse is facing more legal trouble: A couple of weeks after the club was sued for $1 billion comes another discrimination suit for $1.5 billion. [NYDN]
• A roundup of restaurants offering various Halloween specials. [Zagat]

• The week in restaurant reviews: In his second outing as Times dining critic, Sam Sifton gives Marea a very enthusiastic three stars; New York magazine's Adam Platt is a bit disappointed by Joseph Leonard and Civetta (and gives each a single star); Bloomberg's Ryan Sutton checks out the Manhattan outpost of Motorino and leaves happy; Time Out's Jay Cheshes heads to Monkey Bar and finds the food has improved; and Gael Greene pays a visit Abe & Arthur's.
• The city is now suing the LeRoy family, the current operators of Tavern on the Green, in an effort to regain control over the restaurant's name. [Crain's]
• Openings: Brinkley's, the new restaurant by Tom and Anthony Martignetti in the former Bar Martignetti space, opens to the public next week. The Scottish restaurant Highlands opens in the West Village this Friday.