Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• 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]

• Dean Poll has a new name for Tavern on the Green if the city loses its legal battle with the LeRoy family: He'll rename it Tavern in the Park instead. [CNY]
• New: Pichet Ong's dessert place in the EV is open; Bobby Flay's second Bar Americain has debuted in Connecticut; and Death & Co. has a new menu.
• The East Side Social Club opens at Midtown's Pod Hotel next week. [GS]
• Michael Bloomberg celebrated his electoral win with a trip to Paris last weekend and a fancy meal at a fancy restaurant by the Seine. [NYT]
• LaGuardia airport hosted a pizza-eating contest today for some reason. [BB]
• The producers of Top Chef are at work on a new food show for NBC. The winner of the competition gets to open a restaurant chain. [THR]

• The critics: Sam Sifton of the Times surveys the new Oceana and isn't overwhelmed, giving it two stars; the Post's Steve Cuozzo is pretty pleased with A Voce and hands it three stars out of four; Time Out's Jay Cheshes bestows three out of five stars on Travertine; and Gael Greene heads to Jeffrey Chodorow's Tanuki Tavern and is surprised to find she actually kinda likes it.
• The fanciest McDonald's in America is now open in Midtown. [AP, WPIX]
• Marcus Samuelsson will cook at White House later this month. [Eater]
• Openings/closings: Café Gitane's WV outpost has opened; cream puff spot Beard Papa has closed; and fro-yo chain Red Mango seems to be in trouble.
• In addition to his son, JGV is now employing his daughter, too. [NYT]
• David Waltuck has parted ways with Macao Trading Co. [NYT]
• Zach Braff is a restaurateur on the side, apparently. [GS]

Graydon Carter Saves the Neighborhood | Midtown is really, really happening these days, have you heard? At least that's what the owners of restaurants that recently opened in—yes, you guessed it—Midtown are saying! And you can give all the credit to Monkey Bar co-owner and Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter since he "arguably foresaw and guaranteed the reinvigoration of the longtime social wasteland between 30th and 60th streets." Now he just has to find a way to reinvigorate that other project he spends time working on every so often! [NYO]

• 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]

• Openings: Michael Huynh's OBAO opens tonight. Rye House, a Flatiron gastropub just opened; and a roundup of other spots opening shortly.
• Cafe Gitane's second location opens at the Jane Hotel tomorrow. [GS]
• Taavo Somer of Freemans and the Rusty Knot is looking to expand. [Eater]
• Add Boston to the list of locations where Shake Shack is expanding. [GS]
• If you turn up at the NYC outpost of Le Caprice and you're not famous or important enough, expect to be turned away. Even if it's empty. [NYP]
• Take the wine ratings and reviews you read with a grain of salt. [WSJ]
• A Q&A with Nick Anderer, the chef at the newly opened Maialino. [Zagat]
• The Four Seasons is going to war with a caterer by the same name. [NYDN]
• The life of a Michelin inspector doesn't sound like much fun. [NYer]

The Freedom Tower at Ground Zero has been in the works for years and years now—and it still won't be finished until 2018—but just so it isn't delayed by any errant workers who might slip off for ten minutes to go fetch a sandwich, the geniuses at the Port Authority have decided to install a Subway on-site. More

• Just in time for the cold wave, a list of bars with heated outdoor spaces. [GS]
• Great Jones Cafe is the latest restaurant to sustain fire damage. [Eater]
• A report from last night's preview of OBAO, Michael Huynh's latest spot. [SE]
• Trader Joe's has signed a lease at Sixth Avenue and 22nd Street. [NYO]
• Artichoke has the go-ahead to open a meatpacking district outpost. [CN]
• Ten dirty restaurant tricks to make you queasy. [Slashfood]
• Mayor Bloomberg says he's psyched about the food scene in Brooklyn. [NYP]

• 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]

• 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]

When will celebrities learn that if they step foot inside the crappy Upper East Side Italian restaurant Nello's, owner Nello Balan or one of his lackeys will dial up the New York Post six minutes later and make up an entertaining—but completely fictitious—story about them to drum up some press? When will Nello Balan realize that if he continues to sell out his customers, his already-struggling business will soon have to rely exclusively on tourists hoping to catch a glimpse of someone famous? Who knows, but New York's sleaziest restaurateur is at it again. This time the victim was Billy Joel and the Post's Cindy Adams aided and abetted Balan.More

• 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]

• 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]

Nello Balan is the owner of Nello, the exceedingly mediocre Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side. He's also one of the city's most shameless—and most notorious—publicity hounds. Balan's latest attempt at drumming up attention, however, now appears to be exploding in his face. Last week, a receipt "surfaced" indicating that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich had spent $52,000 on lunch. (The bill was for $47,000, but TMZ, which first reported the story, said the billionaire had tacked on a $5,000 tip.) But a spokesman for Abramovich tells us the bill wasn't his and the mogul may pursue legal action against Balan for suggesting otherwise.More