Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

Standard Hotel: Too Sexy for Its Own Good, Perhaps | All that unbridled sexual energy at the Standard has a downside, it seems. A guest staying at the hotel was arrested on Saturday after he forced himself on a maid and has since been charged with attempted rape, sexual abuse and unlawful imprisonment. Needless to say, when the hotel was informing guests that the Standard was "all about sex all the time" and "you're our star," this wasn't quite what they had in mind. [NYP]

• The critics: In his last review as the Times' interim critic, Pete Wells upgrades Brooklyn's Saul to two stars; New York's Adam Platt is very disappointed by what he finds at the new iteration of Aureole; TONY's Jay Cheshes gives Joseph Leonard four stars out of five; Lauren Collins of The New Yorker describes her visit to SHO Shaun Hergatt as "painful"; Bloomberg's Ryan Sutton checks out the eats at Yankee Stadium; and Restaurant Girl pays a visit to Bia Garden.
• Want to shut down that noisy club in your neighborhood? All you need is a lawyer, publicist, blog and Twitter account. After a barrage of complaints from locals, The Jane Hotel's Ballroom is now closed until November. [Gothamist]
• The duo behind Sant Ambroeus open Casa Lever in the old Lever House Restaurant space (located in Midtown's Lever House!) next week. [NYP, GS]More

• The club atop Andre Balazs' Standard Hotel won't be known as the Boom Boom Room for much longer. It looks like it will be renamed "QT" instead, possibly because another venue by the same name raised objections. In other Standard news, the as-yet unopened bar across from the Boom Boom Room is going to sport a plunge pool and condom machine. [BlackBook, GS]
• Former Fiamma chef Fabio Trabocchi has been tapped as the new executive chef of the Four Seasons. He's succeeding Christian Albin, who died in June. [NYT]More

• After more than 30 years in business, Café des Artistes is no more. The landmark restaurant closed on August 9 for a monthlong vacation. Now the owners, George and Jenifer Lang, say they've decided against reopening it in September following "steady losses and a union lawsuit." [NYT]
• Another notable closing: Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield's John Dory, which unexpectedly closed its doors on Saturday after just nine months in business. The duo say they're hoping to find a new location for it. [Eater, NYT]
• One place that is not closing, contrary to a rumor that made the rounds late last week: the meatpacking club Griffin, which reports all is well. [P6]
• A Voce should open in the Time Warner Center next week. [GS, Eater]
• A roundup of other spots slated to open over the next week or two. [TONY]
• A roundup of places scheduled to debut over the next few months. [Zagat]
• Kurt Gutenbrunner (Wallse, Blaue Gans, Cafe Sabarsky) has signed on to oversee the menu at the new beer garden at the Standard Hotel. [Eater]
• If Dean Poll wants to keep the Tavern on the Green name when he takes over the venue, he may have to pay as much as $19 million for the rights. [NYP]

Christine Quinn has been slacking, clearly. This week the City Council speaker denounced the nudie show at the Standard Hotel, a faux scandal cooked up by the tabloids during a slow news week, and one that wasn't even newsworthy considering the existence of the sex shows —and the fact it was largely a publicity stunt to drum up interest in the hotel—were reported, like, ages ago. More

The Standard's campaign to make the hotel synonymous with sex appears to be backfiring. The Post caught on to shenanigans over the weekend, and in an "exclusive" today, breaks the big news that some of the Standard's neighbors in the meatpacking district are being routinely exposed to hanky-panky in the hotel's windows. And some of the witnesses to these acts have been innocent children! Even more outrageous: The hotel even appears to be encouraging this behavior on its own website! More

The Standard Is as Fleshy as Ever | Andre Balazs' quest to make the Standard the official hotel of visiting nudists seems to be paying off. (Either that or the hotel's adult-themed promo campaign continues.) A blogger spotted a naked man in the window over the weekend, and it didn't require much waiting around either: "It took less than 20 minutes into my first visit to the High Line, on Sunday, to capture it," he says. [Restlus via Curbed]

• 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]More

Most people were pretty pleased when Andre Balazs's Standard hotel opened in the meatpacking district late last year. One person who reportedly wasn't: designer Diane von Furstenberg, who, it's said, was a little miffed that hotel guests would now be able to look out of their windows and down into her glassy penthouse apartment atop the DVF store around the corner. Balazs downplayed any reports of tension. (They'd "share views of each other," the hotelier explained.) But we can now see why she may not have been so thrilled by her new neighbor. Judging by these hi-res photos taken by a random hotel guest who uploaded them to Flickr—and didn't know what he was taking pictures of—the view isn't half bad.

• The bistro inside Andre Balazs's Standard Hotel will be called the Standard Grill and will probably open its doors "in the next couple of weeks." [Eater]
• A Q&A with Michael Psilakis of Anthos and Kefi fame. [RG]
• Frank Bruni checks in on Sue Torres's Mexican spot Sueños. [NYT]
• Eight bars that provide free food along with the drinks. [TONY]
• For $105, Morimoto will provide you with sushi and sake "while cruising New York Harbor on an 80-foot schooner." Sounds like a blast. [GS]
• Everything you were told about eating healthy was probably wrong. [NYDN]
• Don't forget that tomorrow is National Donut Day! Both Dunkin' Donuts and Krispy Kreme have specials in honor of the grand occasion, naturally. [ML]

• A summer bar preview and a roundup of happy-hour specials. [AMNY, NYP]
• The restaurant at the Andre Balazs's Standard Hotel doesn't debut until June, but the outdoor patio—which serves food—has opened. [GS]
• More photos of Locanda Verde, which is now in the hands of Andrew Carmellini, NYC's "best young Italian chef," according to David Chang. [GS, P6]
• The price of beer and wine may go up if Washington gets its way. [NYP]
• Speaking of wine, now isn't such a bad time to be investing in it, FYI. [NYT]
• A recap (and photos) from last night's Taste of the Nation event. [Metromix]

• The top restaurant in New York City, according to San Pellegrino's list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants: for 2009: Per Se, naturally. [Serious Eats]
• A look at the Gates, the new venue in the former Biltmore Room space. [GS]
• Be advised: Morton's is now charging $2.50 to add ice to your drink. [IC]
• It's been two years since the banh mi trend surfaced, apparently. [GS, Eater]
• Yet another victim of the recession: hot-dog cart vendors. [NYDN]
• Andre Balazs isn't saying much about the restaurant opening in the Standard Hotel, although he's willing to admit he's naming it after his daughters. [GS]
• Sorry, sex fiends: The Casbar, a sex club in the Brooklyn that was featured in the New York Times in February, has been shut down. [DBTH] More

• A sneak peak at Marea, the buzzed-about seafood restaurant from Michael White and Chris Cannon that's scheduled to open in early May. [GS]
• Craft's Damon Wise will be offering his frugal menu six days a week. [Eater]
• Photos of the steakhouse that is coming soon to the Standard NYC. [HC]
• Restaurant Girl on Inakaya: It's "touristy" but "the food's excellent." [NYDN]
• Top Chef Masters, the spinoff to Top Chef, debuts June 10. [Eater]
• Kogi, the Korean BBQ/taco truck popular in LA, may be NYC-bound. [Zagat]
• Obama Fried Chicken in Brooklyn will not be defeated. The fast food place with the controversial name is bravely refusing to change its name. [AMNY]

• Rumor has it Iacopo Falai is in "early talks" to open up a space inside Andre Balazs's new Standard Hotel in the meatpacking district. [Eater]
• Chocolate Bar will reopen in a new West Village location on April 28. [NYO]
• The price of certain French cheeses quadruples on March 22. Ouch! [TONY]
• Tim and Nina Zagat are launching a new food website. And The Atlantic is launching a new food "channel" tomorrow. [GS, AdAge]
• Korean food is taking over America, apparently. [WSJ]
• Sign 'o the times: Arby's first Brooklyn outpost is opening in the landmarked space formerly occupied by steakhouse Gage & Tollner. [NYDN]
• Chefs Daniel Boulud, Floyd Cardoz, and Marco Canora discuss the biz. [GS]
• Matt Oliver, doorman at M2 and brunch at Merkato 55, chats nightlife. [BB]
• Bourdain on Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares: "It's a circus of cruelty, like shooting fish in a barrel with a cut-down 12-gauge shotgun. There's no cooking. It's just a bunch of dimwits—the lame, the halt and the delusional." [EMD]

There's been tons of coverage of Andre Balazs' new Standard hotel this week. (See here and here.) If you're too lazy to actually read—or you've been mispronouncing his last name and not giving it the Hungarian accent that it cries out for—perhaps this video of Andre discussing the property will satisfy your thirst for all things Balazsian. Or just skip over to Curbed for photos from the hotel's unfinished rooftop, where Balazs plans to install two venues, including a casual bar and a "more refined club." [Curbed]