Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• 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]

• Bad news for CNN: The network now occupies fourth (and last) place in the cable news ratings. Not only did it fall behind Fox News and MSNBC in October, it also dropped below its sister network HLN as well. [DF, NYT]
• More bad news for newspapers: Sales were down 10 percent between April and September; the New York Times' weekday circulation has now fallen below 1 million for the first time in two decades. [AP, NYT, AdAge]
• As rumored, Forbes carried out a round of job cuts today. [NYT]
• Ricky Gervais will be the host of the 67th Annual Golden Globes. [LAT]
• If you love Top Chef and Top Chef Masters, you'll be pleased to hear that a third iteration, Top Chef: Just Desserts, will debut on Bravo next year. [THR]
• Rosie O'Donnell's new Sirius XM show debuts next week. Get excited! [USAT]
• Self editor Lucy Danzinger has no need for the Town Cars normally provided to Condé Nast editors. After she's finished running six miles in Central Park in the morning, Condé's bravest editor straps on a helmet and bikes to work! (Except when it's snowing or she has an important meeting, of course.) [NYT]

Watching your favorite shows on TV is a vital part of life, although it does cut into precious shopping time, right? Bravo to the rescue: Going one step further from lucrative sponsorship tie-ins like Tresemmé for Project Runway, the network will soon be promoting and selling its own specially-manufactured products on its highest-rated shows. So fear not: When you spot the Kooba bags worn by the girls in NYC Prep, the forthcoming reality show about rich Manhattan teens, you'll be instantly prompted to go to Bravo's website and order one for $595; same goes for wine, flowers, and knives featured on Top Chef, the winning outfit on Runway-ripoff The Fashion Show, and so forth.  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]

Padma Likes It Extra-Spicy | When Padma Lakshmi said she planned to put her "passion for meat" into a new commercial for the fast food chains Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, she wasn't kidding, clearly. Her new TV spot for the company has finally debuted, and well, we certainly hope Teddy has no objections. [YouTube]

• Why isn't your glass of water getting refilled? It might be because the restaurant decided to slash costs by firing all the busboys. [WSJ]
• E.U. in the EV is no more; a trattoria is set to take its place by March. [Eater]
• Jean-Georges Vongerichten now says he won't be taking over the Ago space inside Robert De Niro's Greenwich Hotel after all. [DBTH]
• Is Momofuku Milk Bar turning into an actual bar? That's the rumor. [TFB]
• Tom Colicchio and Damon Wise are expanding their discount menu. [Eater]
• Scott Conant will be the guest judge on tomorrow's Top Chef. [GS]
• Gordon Ramsay hasn't been banned from Mario Batali's restaurants. [GS]
• Chef Gabrielle Hamilton has inked a book deal with Random House. [EMD]

• Still looking for a place to celebrate the inauguration? You're in luck. A long list of restaurants and bars have special events planned. [GS, Eater, Metromix]
• Newly opened restaurants have been hit the hardest by the recession. [NYT]
• A few more gloomy indicators: High-end eateries are allowing diners to bring their own wine and Daniel will host a beer-tasting next month. [NYP, CNY]
• The dining crime wave may be over: Cops have nabbed two suspects. [NYP]
• Sad news for hot dog fans: The original Nathan's may be forced to close as part of the plan to "revitalize" Coney Island. [NYP]
• Emeril Lagasse will guest-judge the final two episodes of Top Chef. [Eater]

• Union Prime and Onda both open today. [NYT]
• Terrance Brennan's Artisanal just added a grilled-cheese bar. Oy. [GS]
• Black Iron Burger Shop is the latest victim of the dining crime spree. [Eater]
• Bad news, coffee addicts: prices are expected to shoot up this year. [NYDN]
• Kelly Choi has signed on to host the new Top Chef spinoff. [TONY]
• A few suggestions on where to eat and drink on inauguration night. [RG]
• Were you lucky enough to earn an invite to the inaugural dinner? Enjoy the duck, pheasant, seafood stew, and apple-cinnamon sponge cake! [TFB]

You may have seen every episode, purchased all the official gear, and now even have a Padma ringtone on your cell, but if you're a truly dedicated Top Chef fan, you should probably consider renting the Williamsburg pad that housed season five's cast. It's on the market for $12,000-a-month! Housewarming party hosted by Tom not included. [Craigslist via DBTH]

If you're a Top Chef fan—or the idea of having Padma Lakshmi list off a bunch of different foods every time your cell phone rings amuses you for some reason—this ringtone is for you! Click on Padma's pic to download the MP3. As we've mentioned before, you may need to do a little work to get the ringtone working on your phone. But we're sure the five minutes you spend sorting it out will be time well spent. Previous ringtones: Anna Wintour, Andre Leon Talley, Bernie Madoff.

Here's a surefire way to delight guests at your upcoming holiday party, assuming you're still having one, that is. You can hire a Top Chef contestant to come and do the cooking. A company called Play Concierge promises it can add some "sizzle" and "celebrity excitement" to your next event with its "Top Chefs to Order" package. The press release claims you can pick "any or all" of your favorite contestants to come to your home, although the names listed on the release are limited to the likes of Casey Thompson, CJ Jacobsen, Brian Malarkey, Dale Levitski and Richard Blais, and don't feature any actual winners. Might that have something to do with the fact that most Top Chef winners have real cooking gig and aren't all that interested in putting on a demonstration of "Extreme Cuisine: Cooking combined with adventure sports" for Aunt Sally's 50th birthday party? The full press release is after the jump.More

♦  A peek inside Elsa, which will be the only bar in the East Village to serve beer out of an antique sewing machine (as well as sell bespoke suits) when it finally opens next Tuesday. [Eater]
♦  Tickets are still available for this year's Chocolate Show on Pier 94, which started today and continues through the weekend. [GS, Metromix]
♦  Grub Street has put together a guide to restaurant recession specials across the city. [GS]
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♦  Frank Bruni of the Times visits Bobo this week, and awards one star to new chef Patrick Connolly for his "ambition" and "good intentions," although he also points out that the restaurant "hasn't wholly surrendered its attitude and put service before sheen." [NYT]
♦  The NYPD shut down Serge Becker's "guerilla" election night party at La Esquina last night. [NYO]
♦  Boqueria's Soho location has been granted a liquor license and should be open by next week. [GS]
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♦  What does Bravo have in the works to replace Project Runway if it moves to Lifetime? There's a Runway ripoff called The Fashion Show. There's also Celebrity Sew-Off, in which "celebrities" will compete in a competition for their own clothing label, which should be totally awesome because we've always wanted to buy jeans designed by Jill Zarin. [THR]
♦  The sponsors for Bravo's fifth season of Top Chef? Campbell's Soup, Diet Dr. Pepper, and Quaker. [AdAge]
♦  Because you haven't heard enough about Bravo today, the NYT magazine profile of Bravo boss Lauren Zalaznick (left) is now online. [NYT]
♦  More details on the cuts and layoffs at Condé Nast. [NYP]
♦  Condé Nast's glitzy Fashion Rocks show is no more. [AdAge]More

♦  The Limelight can be yours for a mere $60 million if you happen to be looking to buy a club and/or a church. [GS]
♦  APT has been shut down for "criminal sale or possession of controlled substances or marijuana." [Eater]
♦  Top Chef runner-up Dave Martin has bid goodbye to Crave on 42nd. [Feedbag]
♦  Lovely Day on Elizabeth Street was shuttered following a fire. [Eater]
♦  You missed it: Ivanka Trump was handing out microwavable meals on the street today. [MidtownLunch]