• Roundups of restaurants opening in the next week or so. [TONY, Eater]
• A look at the last-minute work involved in getting The Breslin, Ken Friedman's latest restaurant, ready for its October 8 opening. [NYT]
• Photos inside Abe & Arthur's, which opens to the public next week. [Eater]
• You may soon able to booze it up in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty: The vendor in charge of concessions there has applied for a liquor license. [NYP]
• David Chang's Momofuku Ko is raising prices beginning next week. [Eater]
• Is celebuchef Wolfgang Puck planning a NYC outpost? Possibly. [Gothamist]
• A chat with Richie Notar, the man who runs the show at Nobu. [ObsessedTV]
• What has Frank Bruni been eating since stepping down as restaurant critic of the New York Times? Lots and lots of roast chicken, apparently. [Atlantic]

While the dreaded McKinsey recommendations are still weeks away, Conde Nast is in full cost-cutting mode. Examples: Graydon Carter is now lunching in the cafeteria with commoners and the free Fiji water will soon be replaced by tap water. Yeah.

• Daniel Boulud's DBGB debuts Monday. Grub Street has pics. [GS]
• Also opening on Monday: the least recession-friendly restaurant to come along in months. Have a look around SHO Shaun Hergatt at the Setai in the financial district. [Eater]
• Not opening Monday, but will be open soon: Hotel Griffou, which is in "celebrity-preview mode" right now. [GS]
• Six wine auction houses are offering big bargains later this month. [Reuters]
• Sienna Miller, Elle Macpherson, Sting, Woody Harrelson, Charlize Theron, and Alicia Silverstone are some of the celebs now lobbying Nobu boss Nobuyuki Matsuhisa to drop bluefin tuna from his menus. [Page Six]

Britney is hell bent on meeting the Queen and is planning a "pop-in," Kristin Cavallari is pissing off Audrina Patridge on the set of The Hills, Brangelina denies breakup rumors AGAIN, and Jon Gosselin and his mistress are photographed on vacation.

• Danny Meyer has tapped Gramercy Tavern's executive sous-chef, Nick Anderer, to run things at his new restaurant at the Gramercy Park Hotel. [GS]
• A roundup of restaurants already open or will be soon. [Eater]
• Greenpeace staged a demonstration inside Nobu on Saturday night. [NYT]
• More bad news for Giuseppe Cipriani: His Moscow expansion is a no-go. [P6]
• Pete Wentz's Angels & Kings was shuttered for serving minors. [Gawker]
• Frank Bruni isn't too impressed with the Obamas decision to eat at Blue Hill during their weekend jaunt to NYC: "In the very predictability of this choice, in its all-too-neat squaring with the officially sanctioned food agenda, in its absence of surprise or abandon, isn't it ever so slightly disappointing?" [NYT]

• Francois Payard says he'll be forced to close his Upper East Side flagship (and lay off his 74 employees) if his landlord insists on doubling his rent. [Crain's]
• Daniel Boulud's DBGB held a preview last night for industry peeps and, sure enough, loads of industry types turned up. Commoners will get a chance to try out DB's latest venture when it opens to the public on June 8. [TFB, GS, Eater]
• Ipuddo, the EV ramen spot, gets one star from Bruni in today's Times. [NYT]
• Yama on Houston has closed; the lounge Stay caught fire last night. [Eater]
• A bunch of Hamptons bouncers have been busted for dealing drugs. [NYP]
• Nobu in London still serves endangered bluefin tuna because the chefs there insist on it. Or at least that's how Nobu GM Richie Notar explains it. [TFB]

Robert De Niro's Nobu has agreed to pay out $2.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of 200 workers, who sued the sushi chain in 2007 for forcing them to share tips and failing to pay overtime wages. Each plaintiff in the case will receive $3,300, except for four workers who recruited other "victims," who will take home an additional $10,000 apiece. The balance? That will go to Maimon Kirshenbaum, naturally. [NYP]

New York restaurateurs may be panicked about the economy, but all is well in Qatar! This week it was reported that the Four Seasons in Doha will be home to the latest incarnation of Nobu. (A Dubai outpost opened earlier this month.) Gordon Ramsay is supposedly looking at two different sites in town for an eatery he has planned. And when Doha's new W Hotel opens in a couple of months, Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Spice Market will be located in the lobby. Less exciting news, at least as far as New Yorkers are concerned: "Bollywood legend" Asha Bhosle has also opened a high-profile restaurant in Doha, and a branch of the Hard Rock Café is coming, too. [The Penninsula via Luxist]

This probably isn't the news that enviromentalists wanted to hear: After an embarrassing investigation turned up evidence that the London branch of Nobu was serving endangered bluefin tuna, Nobu's general manager Richie Notar (left) now says the sushi chain will list which dishes contain the endangered species on the menu. It will be up to customers to "decide whether to order the fish despite environmental qualms, or to choose a 'greener' alternative." Why not take bluefin off the menu entirely? Notar says that was what he wanted to do, but "the move was being resisted by the chain's Japanese chefs." (And you never go up against a sushi chef, especially if he has a knife in his hand.) Just in case you're wondering if this means that Nobu might add other endangered species to the menu with a similar disclaimer, you needn't worry. "Mr. Notar said he would not serve chimpanzee and tiger meat, because it was illegal, but while bluefin remained legal, there was a "ludicrous situation" where some said it was unethical to serve it but Japanese fishmongers said it was a well regulated trade. "I would love to see a law because then there is no grey area." [Telegraph UK]

The marketing squad behind Robert De Niro's latest film may not have an especially well-developed touch with movie posters, but you can't say it isn't getting its money's worth with the brilliant new cross-promotion, "Righteous Kill Tuna — Only at Nobu!" While the summer's blockbuster superhero crop nickel-and-dimed their way through Happy Meals and Whoppers, De Niro and restaurant's London outposts ventured waaay outside the box recently with high-priced helpings of the rare Atlantic bluefin tuna — a species that activists contend has been overfished to the point of near-extinction and which Nobu should apparently know better than to serve:

Nobu—the sushi restaurant chain co-owned by Robert Deniro that caters to celebrities like Madonna, Leo DiCaprio and Sean Combs—has been busted in an undercover sting for selling critically endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna while concealing it from customers. Greenpeace sent spies to three London Nobu franchises, where they specifically ordered the near-extinction fish, and were told that the restaurants didn't stock it. But the cunning Greenies took their sushi back to the lab, where DNA tests revealed that the restaurants were indeed serving bluefin to moneyed gourmands. It's legal to serve bluefin, but people who claim to care about the environment—like Deniro, DiCaprio, Combs and Madonna—would supposedly never knowingly touch the stuff, preferring instead the less endangered, but less delicious, yellowfin. Which explains Nobu's sneakiness.

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

• Drew Nieporent chats about the forthcoming Nobu in Herzliya, Israel and shares details about his singing career. Yes, he sings, too. [Blackbook]

Cinematic tough guy Clive Owen received some bad news via his Blackberry outside the London branch of celeb sushi spot Nobu on Tuesday night. Apparently, the die-hard Liverpool F.C. fan got the news that the club had lost a mid-fielder for the upcoming season. Owen said, "There must be a bunch of Manchester wankers in the Visa office. Maybe I should go over there and give those droogs a swift kick to the yarbles."

There's probably been a time or two when you've been tempted to check out a restaurant or bar simply because some celebrity supposedly "owns" it. Maybe I'll see Justin Timberlake devouring a plate of ribs at Southern Hospitality! Or I'll spot Robert De Niro slurping on some pasta at Ago! Restaurateurs know this, too, of course, which is why they're all so eager to attach a celebrity name—any one will do!—to their ill-conceived bistro, brasserie, speakeasy, lounge, or barbecue shack. We don't want to be the ones to crush your dreams and tell you that there's no chance you'll see these famous faces at these venues. Just in case you're the more optimistic type—or just curious who has a stake in what—we happily introduce the Cityfile celebrity-owned restaurant/bar map!

Dirt star Courtney Cox leaves Nobu in a daze; either she's disappointed by the number of paparazzi covering her nearly frozen beat or she just endured an endless stream of terrible Chandler Bing impressions from hungry tourists with money to burn.

"Saw Bill Clinton at 2:30 this afternoon leaving Nobu 57. He shook hands, posed for pictures and kissed babies. He was in good spirits and even listened to this woman droll on and on about being from Arkansas."

Usually, the Times Magazine's 'Domains' column makes us feel hopelessly inadequate compared to whoever's pad they're profiling. The typical subject has a platonically-ideal townhouse in which he writes prizewinning novels and sips coffee from a French press while his angelic toddler plays with attractive handcrafted toys. This week's subject was portly Nobu (et al) restaurateur Drew Nieporent, who lives in a split-level ranch in New Jersey and can't drive. There are a thousand (other) reasons we feel no envy.

Sometimes we get sightings too precious to be filed away with the regular stalkers: