This week in the Times, Bruni one-stars Mesa Grill (pictured), knocking the restaurant down from the two stars given it by William Grimes in 2000. Says that while the Bobby Flay restaurant “has considerable charms… on balance [it] presents only flickers of the excitement it did [when it opened] in 1991… It’s an overly familiar, somewhat tired production. More to the point, it’s an inconsistent one.” Peter Meehan goes to Hakata Tonton for $25 and......

You will never find Chef Bobby Flay too far away from an ancho chili pepper. Back in 1991, he opened Mesa Grill in New York, his shrine to the Southwestern flavors for which he is now famous around the world. In 1992, Mesa Grill won New York Magazine's Best New Restaurant, and the following year, Flay was given the James Beard Rising Star Chef award. Since then, he has created a mini-empire of six restaurants,......

Chef Jonathan Waxman is known for many things, but the benchmark of his cooking over the years has arguably always been his roast chicken. The cover of his new cookbook A Great American Cook depicts Waxman slyly drawing a Lavazza espresso cup to his mouth, wood-burning oven full flame in the background and a sliced open cheese pumpkin in front. The book also features the chef’s roast chicken recipe. “My culinary anthem,” Waxman waxes in......

Yesterday morning, the nominees for the 2007 James Beard Foundation Awards were announced at the Beard House on West 12th Street. In additional to New York restaurant stalwarts David Waltuck of Chanterelle, Floyd Cardoz of Tabla, and Terrance Brennan of Picholine (which was rebooted in 2006 to impressive reviews, the nominees also include a bumper crop of young chefs including David Chang for Momofuku Ssam Bar, Daniel Humm for Eleven Madison Park (both for......

Or at least you can get your fat on. You can start by hitting up the newly opened Popeye's Fried Chicken at 40th Street between 7th and 8th. And of course you'll need to follow it up with some pancakes. Lucky for you, IHOP is giving them away free until 10 p.m. today! Here's a list of nearby IHOPs, for your convenience. For other pancake options, the New York post rounds up a wide variety,......

Knife + Fork is an apt name for a meal whose cutlery is replaced for each of six courses. A three pronged fork arrives for a seared cod in delectable black bean sauce; a four pronged fork suits scallops and pork belly. Knife + Fork opened this past May, and is the first solo venture of chef Damien Brassel, whose previous appointments at Michelin-rated Peacock Alley in Dublin and alongside Bobby Flay at Bolo......

Where can you taste dishes from Bobby Flay, Lidia Bastianich, Dan Barber, Tom Valenti, Joey Campanaro and Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto all under one roof? At New York Magazine's annual Taste of New York, a fundraiser for City Harvest. The cocktails (from some of the city's best: Pegu Club, Flatiron Lounge, and Little Branch) were flowing and the crowd was on a mission to taste everything these chefs could dish out. One of the......

- Hello, blame game: Former EPA head Christie Todd Whitman says that Mayor Giuliani knew that Ground Zero after September 11 was still toxic, yet opened it anway... yet still, the EPA did claim the air downtown was safe, so how about everyone is at fault? - Wait a second - did Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff acidentally spill the beans on major transportation initiatives in Midtown - like trying to reduce private cars... -......

So it appears that the Food Network is taping a show this afternoon called "Culinary Claim to Fame," featuring Ben Sargent of Williamsburg's Surf Bar. It's all about the chowda, folks, but Ben had some tough competition in the form of one Bobby Flay. We guess we'll have to wait until the show airs to know what happens, but we did find a couple chowder recipes from Flay on FoodTV.com: - Corn & Green Chili......

vs. The New York Times reports that Fresh Direct is creating a new advertising campaign featuring some rather prominent New Yorkers, Mayor Koch, Bobby Flay, and Paulina Porizkova (did you know she lived here?), to contend with the newest challenger to the New York food world, Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's advertising strategy to get back at Fresh Direct? Nothing. Well, almost nothing -- they plan on using their general advertising strategy, designed to keep......

Considering that the Cobb Salad originated at Hollywood's legendary Brown Derby, New York has surprisingly embraced the dish as if it was a hometown creation. The classic combo of chopped lettuce, avocado, tomato, grilled or poached chicken breast, hard boiled eggs, bacon and blue cheese is seen on a wide variety of menus and in a wide variety of venues across town. Some New Yorkers claim that Michael's $30 version is the city's best -......

Lots of movement with Gothamist's old, reliable standby, Law & Order. First of all, NBC is moving L&O from Wednesday at 10PM to 9PM. While an hour might not mean much, it actually means our head will explode, with Lost at 9PM on Wednesdays as is Veronica Mars. But this frees up Project Runway at 10PM!! We imagine Dick Wolf is pissed off to have to go head to head with Lost, but maybe that's......

Ed note: Gothamist Food contributors Beth Butts and Chris Steighner bring us a new weekly column: The First Course Have you ever noticed that the first course tends to outshine the rest of the meal? All seductions begin that way, of course. We gaze at our love starry-eyed, and then we learn that they snore, or are slobs, or have the unfortunate habit of talking with their mouth full. Chefs can be the most fickle......

Mesa Grill's Chile Relleno...

When Gothamist friend and barbecue champion Adam Perry Lang of Daisy May's BBQ invited us to a party, how could we say no? It had been way too long since we had last enjoyed Adam's sweet and sticky Kansas City ribs and his tender smoky brisket, not to mention that we had to hear about his latest escapades. Aside from becoming the Grand Champion at the BarbQlossal contest at the World Pork Expo in Des......

The NY Times examines the Jerry Orbach effect on the latest Law & Order spinoff, Law & Order: Trial by Jury. Gothamist got misty when we read that Jerry was weaker when filming, and that there would be a mention of Detective Lenny Briscoe's death in the fifth episode. However, we've been a little unnerved by the NBC promos for L&O: TBJ, by saying, "Jerry Orbach's final performance" or whatever, because while they are his......

Reading the William Grimes' NY Times feature on Iron Chef America on the Food Network (it premieres this Sunday) only made Gothamist, to borrow a phrase from another Food TV personality, kick our irrational hatred of Bobby Flay up a notch. BAM! Forever will the memory of Bobby Flay jumping up on the kitchen counter during the 2000 Iron Chef showdown between Flay and Masaharu Morimoto be burned in our brains. Grimes mentions the......

Bobby Flay's Bold American Food, Bobby Flay with Joan Schwartz, (Warner Books, 1994). Labor Day means one thing to Gothamist: grilling. That and hanging out with friends drinking beer. We got to do both last Monday when we made Southwestern Grilled Tuna Salad on a friend's roof. We made the salad downstairs and then drank beer while the tuna grilled. When it was ready we vowed to eat only this for the rest of our......

Girlynyc, Panty Blogger...

Gothamist Cooks (Kind of) by the Book About Gothamist Cooks (Kind of) by the Book is a weekly column written by Girlynyc, featuring a tasty, easy-to-make recipe featured in a New York-related cookbook. This week features New York Cooks: The 100 Best Recipes from New York Magazine, by Gillian Duffy (Primedia, 2003). Gillian Duffy raided fifteen years of back issues of New York Magazine for its best recipes, so you can throw out all those......

This weekend, if you find yourself tired of partying and you just want to kick back, why not invite some friends over and watch Iron Chef America, where American chefs Bobby Flay, Wolfgang Puck, and Mario Batali go head-to-head with Iron Chefs Masaharu Morimoto and Hiroyuki Sakai? It's is wall-to-wall Iron Chef action, with episodes shown Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, which has the Tag Team Finale that, in finale tradition, has an unexpected twist.......

Even though Gothamist finds Bobby Flay irritating in the extreme, we do wish him and Stephanie March well. The NY chef tells the Post about his proposal to the former Law & Order Special Victims Unit A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot (way to self–promote, Bobby). Flay did one of those public proposals: At center ice of Rockefeller Center, which would be cute if it weren't Bobby Flay (blech). As a chaser, reader Janelle let us know that......

Thanksgiving is a little more than a week away, and Gothamist is gearing up for the best holiday of the year. (Why is it the best holiday? Because there's no gift-giving, people usually come together, and it involves ridiculous amounts of yummy comfort foods.) Our stomach growled a little louder this morning as we read the 12 Thanksgiving side dish recipes from different chefs in the Times today. Here they are: Sausage Stuffing With......

Oh, Stephanie March, what a way to leave Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. At first, we didn't know how to feel about you, what with your icy demeanor and blond blond hair. Then you grew on us, when you tried to stand up to your boss, played by Judith Light a.k.a. Angela Bower. Or when you were frustrated at the self-righteous even for Law & Order acts of Detectives Stabler and Benson. Maybe we......

Omnium Gatherum, the new play at the Variety Arts Theater in the East Village, gets a write-up in the Times. However, in the food section, because the play centers around a lavish meal. And in a brilliant marriage between art and edible art, the play's publicist and its designer David Rockwell struck upon the idea of nearby chefs supplying the food - Alfred Portale of Gotham Bar and Grill will finish up his rotation, and......

Television can educate you in many many ways. Last night, on Food Nation Bobby Flay introduced this crazy pumped up clam, a geoduck. Pronounced "gooey duck," it seems like it's trying to reach out to kill you with its massive siphon. If you're near the Puget Sound, you're in luck - geoducks are native to that area. But beware of poisoning. Anthony Bourdain would not be proud of this attitude, but I have a life......