• Rumor has it Thomas Keller is planning to open another restaurant to NYC in "one of the new high-rise buildings in Chelsea." Keller's denying it. [TFB, GS]
• The day in reviews: Frank Bruni is a little disappointed with Locanda Verde; the Post's Steve Cuozzo totally digs SHO Shaun Hergatt; Danyelle Freeman of the Daily News thinks Marea rivals Le Bernardin but is way too expensive; and GQ's Alan Richman and Bloomberg's Ryan Sutton both tackle DBGB.
• Andrew Silverman's City Lobster & Steak is now bankrupt. [Crain's]
• The NYPD is cracking down on narcotics sales involving club promoters. [BB]
• A man was indicted today for allegedly raping a woman at Marquee. [NYP]
• Momofuku may jump into the food cart fray. We'll second TFB's sentiments: "This gourmet cart/truck business is getting out of control." [Eater, TFB]

• Permanent Brunch, which will only serve brunch (obviously) and will feature the city's first-ever "bacon menu," opens this week or next. [UD, Eater]
• The recession is forcing some restaurants to close, have you heard? [NYP]
• Fedora in the WV isn't closing after 57 years; the hiatus is temporary. [Eater]
• The super-secret entrance to Café Select is no more, alas. [GS]
• A survey of the city's few remaining traditional Jewish delis. [Citysearch]
• The owner of Via Dei Mille is accused of assaulting his ex-girlfriend. [NYP]
• Rumor has it there have been layoffs and budget cuts at The Box. [DBTH]
• Frank Bruni says he's a big Nora Ephron fan. He also adored Silence of the Lambs, which probably says something about his current career, no? [TDB]
• The Bronx is NYC's fattest borough. Manhattan is New York State's Eastern European model: It's the slimmest of the Empire state's 62 counties. [NYT]

Downtown den of sin "burlesque club" The Box got a bad rep for supposedly being dirty and oversexed and drug-strewn, but isn't that the point? Well, that point may be moot. Anonymous internet sources say The Box has problems!

• Graydon Carter turned 60 on Tuesday, and Frank Bruni was kind enough to give him a gift—an unflattering review of his Monkey Bar. Carter: "Frank Bruni's review in The Times was the perfect nightcap to the perfect birthday." [WWD]
• Speaking of Bruni, a long excerpt from his forthcoming memoir, which appears in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, is now online. [NYT]
• Are restaurants like Minetta Tavern the city's new nightclubs? [BB]
• Word has it Cafe Boulud will be undergoing a major renovation and expansion sometime this summer and will be close for about a month or so. [Eater]
• A new cocktail lounge could be coming to Bryant Park next year. [Crain's]
• Philippe Massoud's ilili showcases Lebanese wines for the next month. [NYT]
• Le Cirque's Sirio Maccioni will undergo open heart surgery next week. [P6]

If the piece in last Sunday's New York Times about the state of NYC nightlife didn't convince you that times are tough for club owners, look no further than this press release from JE Englebert, the publicity-obsessed owner of Suzy Wong, and Noel Ashman, the man who ran the Plumm until it went down in flames a couple of months ago. The duo say they plan to work the door at "a competitor's club" this coming weekend. But at least they're preparing for the future, right? The press release is below.

• Hell freezes over: Rocco DiSpirito says he's been in talks with restaurateur— and onetime enemy—Jeffrey Chodorow about opening a new restaurant. [GS]
• The Standard Grill started up breakfast service today. [TFB]
• New York isn't the only magazine with a "Cheap Eats" issue on newsstands this week. It seems Time Out New York has got one, too. [TONY]
• The latest urban food fight: fruit vendors are now squaring off. [NYT]
• It's Bastille Day! Here are a few places to go to celebrate. [GS]

• The toughest reservations in town are at Frank Pellegrino's Rao's in Harlem and David Chang's Momofuku Ko, in case you're keeping track. [GS]
• Big clubs and bottle service are out and cheap, dingy dive bars are in, according to the Times, pointing out that Marquee's revenues are down 22 percent so far this year. Possible evidence to the contrary: "table service" at Marquee's new sister spot, Avenue, will run you a minimum of $350. [NYT]
• Related: Marquee appears to be NYC's "most fined" nightspot. It's handed over $100,000 to the State Liquor Authority over the past year alone. [NYP]
• New York's Eat Cheap issue is out. A highlight: Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite's "handbook" to the Neapolitan pizza "revolution." [NYM, NYM]
• Restaurants that recently opened, or will be opening soon. [Eater]
• A roundup of New York's "82 most notable burgers." [GS]
• The Canadian donut chain Tim Hortons landed in Manhattan today. [AMNY]

No matter how fancy the club is, there are fruit flies in the liquor. Enjoy.

• More than 200 places will be taking part in New York Restaurant Week, which kicks off on Sunday. Here's a list of some of the notable newcomers. [Zagat]
• The outdoor courtyard at Locanda Verde has opened. [GS]
• A rendering of what the "sophisticated cocktail lounge" on the ground floor of the Empire State building will look like when it eventually opens. [Eater]
• Scandal! "Law enforcement officials are investigating several restaurants in the Hamptons where cheaper booze is poured into top-shelf brand bottles and served to clueless customers who can't taste the difference. [P6]
• A Q&A with Klaus Ortlieb of Table 8 and the Cooper Square Hotel. [Eater]
• Bottled water may be worse for you than tap water. Who knew? [Reuters]
• Rachael Ray had minor surgery to remove a benign cyst from her vocal cords. The good news/bad news, depending on what you happen to think of her: She'll be able to speak again in about a week or so. [People]

Wass Stevens, New York's most prominent club doorman, was arrested yesterday after he (allegedly!) beat a college kid with the metal end of a velvet rope after he tried to get into Avenue, but became "belligerent" when Stevens denied him entry. It looks like Stevens' crime wave continues. A friend of Cityfile just sent us this photo of the nightlife fixture sitting on his motorcycle and chatting on his cell on the corner of Broadway and Astor. "I'm pretty sure it's a traffic violation to park on the sidewalk like that," she writes. "He's right in front of a police van, too." If you had doubts that Wass had balls of steel, well, consider the matter settled. Further evidence of his criminal tendencies below.

• Aquavit's owner says the rumor the eatery is closing is pure nonsense. [GS]
• More good news: Although it appeared as if Ama has gone bust a couple of weeks ago, the closure was temporary and it's now back in business. [Eater]
• The critics: Frank Bruni of the Times gives Aldea a very solid two-star review today; Bloomberg's Ryan Sutton is pretty pleased with Locanda Verde; and the Post's Steve Cuzzo is happy to report Benoit is "a lot better." [NYT, BN, NYP]
• Rumor has it William Grimes may step in as the New York Times' temporary restaurant critic when Frank Bruni takes his leave next month. [TFB]
• A roundup of restaurants that have opened recently. [NYT]
• Joey Chestnut's record-setting 68 hot dogs at the Nathan's eating competition translates into 20,200 calories, in case you were wondering. [TFB]

The music industry isn't in the best shape at the moment. How are record labels, performance rights organizations and artists hoping to make up for plunging revenues and non-existent profits? They're taking aim at New York bars and clubs, that's how. Earlier this week, BMI and collection of labels and artists filed suit against Pianos on the Lower East Side for having the nerve to play hits like the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" and Poison's "Talk Dirty to Me" without having the permission to do so. You didn't think the day would come when Bret Michaels would be facing off against a bar on Ludlow Street? That day has arrived!

"Nightlife Preservation": The political cause you can support by sniffing coke in the Beatrice Inn bathroom! Is it possible to support a cause in theory while wishing its supporters would shut up, in practice? In this case, yes.

• A look around Ward III in Tribeca, which opens tomorrow night. [GS]
• Lever House on Park Avenue will reopen as "Casa Lever" this fall. [NYP]
• Frank Bruni downgrades JGV's Spice Market in the Times today, giving the spot owned by the "clone-happy" chef one star instead of two. [NYT]
• The New Yorker's Lauren Collins doesn't have anything good to say about the Armani restaurant located inside the designer's Fifth Ave flagship. [NYer]
• Ryan Sutton is of a similar mindset, concluding that Montenapo, "like Armani Ristorante across town, serves mediocre hotel-Italian at absurd prices. [BN]
• Restaurant Girl gives Monkey Bar (otherwise known as "Graydon Carter's uptown dinner party) two stars out of five in the News this week. Over on her own site, she sits down with Keith McNally for a chat. [NYDN, RG]
• Lobster prices haven't been this low in more than 20 years, FYI. [Atlantic]
• Gansevoort Café opens in the former Florent space next month and the dining conglomerate New York City Restaurant Group will have a hand in it. [TFB]

Publicity-seeking club owner—and self-described "New York nightlife king"—JE Englebert would like everyone to know he's standing up for Perez Hilton in the wake of his little will.i.am altercation the other evening. So he's organizing a "rally" to convey his concern for the First Amendment and Hilton's right to be a total jackass. Just what this rally entails isn't described in the press release (below), but he is inviting Hilton to Suzie Wong for a "VIP party" at which he plans to serve "pea soup." So that's nice. We really shouldn't be indulging Englebert, of course. But we'll take the bait and you can have a look at Englebert's typo-riddled press release for yourself after the jump.

• Is Amy Sacco's Bungalow 8 about to broke? That's what some former staffers claim, who say they haven't been paid in weeks now. [Gawker]
• Ward III, a new "saloon" by the team involved with Macao, The Odeon, and Grace—and decorated with Wakiya cast-offs—opens on Friday. [Thrillist]
• A roundup of spots that have closed in recent days. [Eater]
• The feud between Mr. Chow and Philippe is heating up, it seems. [GS]
• Raines Law Room has opened a "clandestine garden," not that anything can be very clandestine when it appears on Vogue's website. [Vogue]
• Michael Huynh has another East Village Baoguette planned. [EVGrieve]
• Wolfgang Puck's latest, quasi-food related venture: He plans to take control of the top-level domain .food and then sell off the Internet addresses to chefs and restaurateurs. Sounds, uh, interesting. [WSJ/Speakeasy]

Even if you're lucky enough to have work, you may not be lucky enough to actually collect a check. If public shame is your only option, tell us about it and we'll post your story. Today: Amy Sacco's Bungalow 8.

• 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]

The folks at Guest of a Guest forwarded us a statement from Pink Elephant regarding the bankruptcy filing we reported on earlier. They'd like to make it clear that it's just the Southampton outpost of Pink Elephant that filed Chapter 11. Since it's a franchise operation, the club in Manhattan (as well as the one in São Paulo) won't be affected by it. So if you were concerned you'd no longer have the opportunity to meet the sort of sweet, down-to-earth girls you see pictured, don't you worry. You will!

Looks like the party may be ending soon at Southampton's Pink Elephant. David Sarner's nightlife company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday, listing more than $2 million in debts, including $776,000 in back taxes. The crisis in clubland continues, clearly. You can peruse the bankruptcy papers—and long list of creditors—for yourself after the jump.