Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• The war against the Jane Hotel marches on. Not only does Jane Street Neighbors United, the "coalition" now facing off against the Village hotspot, have a lawyer, blog and Twitter feed, it's retained a publicist, too. [NYT]
• Openings: Nolita's Travertine debuts tonight with former Top Chef contestant Manuel Trevino behind the stove. And RobataNY opened yesterday in the EV.
• Tyra Banks explored the wide world of food trucks on her show today. And Frank Bruni's appearance on Martha Stewart's show last week is now online.
• The bar formerly known as Baraza has reopened as Summit Bar. [GS]
• The Bagatelle team is turning Merkato 55 into an Italian restaurant. [GoaG]
• Desperate times: Starbucks unveiled a line of instant coffee today. [WSJ]

• Rising star Nate Appleman will be moving from SF to NYC to take up the helm at Pulino's, the Keith McNally pizzeria slated to open in December. [GS]
• Chef Laurent Tourondel is hoping to take his BLT franchise to the new W Hotel and Residences in the financial district. [Eater]
• The Parks Dep't was supposed to pick a winning bid to operate Tavern on the Green last month. It didn't, and now the bidders are getting antsy. [NYO]
• Julian Medina, the owner of Yerba Buena and Toloache, is expanding: Yerba Buena Perry will open in the West Village next Wednesday. [GS]
• The restaurant Joseph Leonard only opened a few weeks ago, but it's already been rammed by a car. Fortunately, the damage was minimal. [VV]
• A few restaurant closings around town in recent days. [Eater]
• The city is facing off against "a small flotilla" of hot dog carts outside the Met; the vendors claim they can be there because they're disabled veterans. [NYT]
• Starbucks is either raising its prices or lowering them. It's hard to say, really.

• Allen & Delancey has filed for bankruptcy, but will remain open. [Eater, GS]
• A peek inside the new Oceana opening near Rockefeller Center. [Eater]
• Le Souk is reopening on Ave B and now plans to open a second location. [GS]
• New NYT dining critic Sam Sifton on having his photo all over the web: "I look different now... I'm using a comb for the first time since the 1990s." [WWD]
• Which chain has better coffee: Starbucks, Mickey D's, or Dunkin'? [Slate]
• How does Padma Lakshmi keep thin? Exercise, believe it or not. [NYT]

• Anita Lo hopes to re-open her fire-damaged Annisa next month. [TONY]
• Closings: Frederick Lesort's Frederick's Downtown closed up shop last Friday; and the UWS outpost of Blondies has been shuttered by the tax cops.
• Frank Bruni shares his thoughts on Bastianich and Batali's Casa Mono. [NYT]
• A rooftop beer garden called Berry Park is coming soon to Williamsburg. [UD]
• The Eldridge had to do some renovations after a vandalism incident. [DBTH]
• The city is looking to support aspiring chefs by turning a 4,000-square-foot space in Harlem into a big kitchen for foodie entrepreneurs. [NYT]
• The boost its bottom line and make employees more "productive," Starbucks is now looking to limit unnecessary "walking, reaching, and bending." [WSJ]
• Tom Colicchio and wife Lori Silverbush welcomed a son into the world on Saturday. He's named Luka Bodhi Colicchio, in case you're wondering. [People]

• Starbucks is testing out stealth coffeehouses. They're logo-less and feature "neighborhood-inspired names," though the coffee's the same. [ABC News]
• Chanterelle's Karen and David Waltuck say they're closing for a month for refresh. They'll reopen with a new, "intimate" bar and expanded menu. [GS]
• Hope you can make do without tomatoes in your salad: "A highly contagious fungus that destroys tomato plants" is spreading quickly. [NYT] 
• Are you a model? Do you have an appetite? This spot's for you. [NYP] 
• Kogi, the Korean taco truck that's the rage in LA, is not NYC-bound. [Eater]
• Tom Colicchio and wife Lori Silverbush say they're expecting a son. [People]More

• The Spotted Pig sells an estimated $1.2 million worth of cheeseburgers a year, making it NYC's top-grossing dish. Balthazar's steak frites is No. 2. [GS]
• Frank Bruni doesn't have too many good things to say about the food at Monkey Bar in his one-star review today, not surprisingly. Graydon Carter's "social pulpit," Monkey Bar merely "affirm[s] his ordination as the high priest of a certain fame-focused, power-obsessed sect of Manhattan society." [NYT]
• Related: Illustrator Edward Sorel talks about his Monkey Bar murals. [Zagat]
• Other reviews today: Danyelle Freeman gives three out of five stars to DBGB; Time Out's Jay Cheshes hands over four out of six to Marea; and Alan Richman makes the case that Bruni should make Marea the Times' first four-star Italian restaurant before he steps down next month. [NYDN, TONY, GQ]
• Chodorow is denying that he ever considered reuniting with DiSpirito. [TFB]
• 7-Eleven says it plans to open 44 new stores in NYC this year. Ugh. [NYT]More

• Michael Psilakis's Gus & Gabriel was scheduled to open this evening. But then the air-conditioning stopped working so it didn't. Oh, well. [TFB, TFB]
• Ama in Soho has closed its doors after four years. [Eater]
• Le Pere Pinard on Ludlow Street has been shuttered. [Eater]
• Zen Palate in the financial district is no more. [EVGrieve]
• One more bit of bad news, in case all those closings weren't quite enough: the Dean & Deluca on University Place and 11th Street is gone. [Eater]More

• Hotel Griffou opens in the old Marylou's space this evening. [NYT, GS]
• New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni serves up a one-star review to a "somewhat confused and confusing" Rye in today's paper. [NYT]
• Bloomberg's Ryan Sutton has very good things to say about Aldea. [BN]
• Rumor has it Café Gitane will open at the Jane Hotel this fall. [TFB]
• Speaking of the Jane, here's another photo tour of the new bar. [Gothamist]
• Did you know that restaurants make more money when they remove dollar signs from the menu? Or that chefs place the dishes they want to sell on the center of the inside right page of their menu? It's true. [Baltimore Sun via GS] More

You probably assumed the job of Treasury Secretary came with half a dozen manservants. It doesn't, apparently. Tim Geithner was in New York City today to appear on a panel moderated by Time managing editor, Richard Stengel. Before the event kicked off, though, Geithner was spotted at the Starbucks downstairs. Buying his own coffee. Shocking, isn't it? Here's what went down, according to CNN's Donna Rosato: More

Starbucks Now Officially a Ripoff | Did you happen to stop off at Starbucks on May 22 or May 23? If you did, you may be a few bucks richer today. The coffee chain reports it accidentally double-charged as many as a million customers during the two-day timeframe. It now says it plans to reimburse anyone who was affected, although it's probably only a matter of time before a Frappuccino actually costs you $11, so consider it a preview, if you'd like. [MSNBC]

• Conan O'Brien makes his debut this evening as Tonight Show host. [BN, EW]
• Bravo is ditching its tagline "Watch what happens" and replacing it with "By Bravo." We'll just have to watch and see what happens with that. [AdAge] 
• More on the recent ratings meltdown at CNN. [Politico]
• The Times Magazine will be 9 percent smaller starting in two weeks. [E&P]
• DirectTV chief Chase Carey is in talks to join News Corp. as Rupert Murdoch's second-in command, taking over for Peter Chernin. [THR, BN]
• Disney's animated pic Up was No. 1 at the box office this weekend. [THR]
• New York's cover story on Condé Nast, in case you missed it. [NYM]More

• David Bouley has shuttered Secession, which he opened last fall (and which he'd hoped to save by hiring Christian Delouvrier as chef recently). In its place, he's planning to open a Japanese restaurant called Brushstroke. [NYT]
• Manhattan's Water Taxi Beach debuted this weekend. [GS]
• Noah Tepperberg's new "gastropub/ultralounge," Avenue, will open on June 1 with a party for Mandy Moore. In the meantime, Marc Jacobs held a 30th birthday party there recently for fiancé Lorenzo Martone. [NYM]
• Ruth Madoff is a fan of the steak at Donohue's on Lexington, it seems. [P6]
• The new Baja Fresh opened in Midtown today. [ML]More

• Water Taxi Beach opens at the South Street Seaport this weekend. [GS]
• Danny Meyer has decided against bidding on Tavern on the Green's lease. But Seth Greenberg and Dean Poll are still in the running. [NYP]
• Alan Richman's list of "the 25 best pizzas you'll ever eat" is online. [GQ]
• A drug racket that served up Ecstasy, Special K, and GHB to clubgoers at places like Pacha and Mansion has been broken up by the cops. [NYDN]
• A look around The Brooklyn Star, Joaquin Baca's new restaurant. [Eater]
• An amusing chat with Chris Santos, chef/owner of Stanton Social. [Decider]
• Be on alert: Starbucks biggest marketing campaign ever is underway. [NYT]

• The New York City outpost of Govind Armstrong's Table 8 opens tomorrow evening inside the Cooper Square Hotel. [Eater, Zagat]
• Now that Todd English is out, The Libertine has hired itself a new chef. [Zagat]
• Robert De Niro's universally reviled Ago has officially shuttered. [Eater]
• Some suggestions on where to take your mom for Mother's Day. [Zagat]
• Pinkberry is now making deliveries; a $10 minimum is required. [Crain's]
• Places to go to drink yourself into oblivion in honor of Cinco de Mayo. [GS] More

• The scandal-ridden State Liquor Authority has a new chairman. [NYO]
• Atria, which opened four months ago in the ex-Grayz space, is gone. [Eater]
• More Marea buzz: A peek at some of the dishes Chris Cannon and chef Michael White plans to have on the menu when it opens. [WSJ]
• Amy Sacco, Ivan Bart, Julia Restoin Roitfeld and Sophia Hesketh are hosting tonight's grand opening of the Griffin in the old P.M. space. [P6]
• Baja Fresh isn't opening May 11. More like May 19. [Eater] More