11/25/2002: Pub Crawl Report from Friday night in the LES/EV with SA, MB and CB. Started at Belly, a new wine bar on Rivington (between Suffolk/Clinton) with an appealing opium den/dive vibe. What killed it for us were two big parties (both of the suit-and-tie ilk, strangely) infringing on our space... So we walked a few blocks to El Patio, a Stanton hipspot (between Clinton/Attorney) still obscure enough not to merit a Citysearch listing. Another edgy decor vibe: tiki lounge meets dive. The real thatched-roof ceiling gave us pause when they lit up our scorpion bowl (straws and all) -- at least the insurance fire in three years will seem more plausible that most. But the DJ was too loud for our mood, and again party folks bent on dancing intruded, so it was off to Avenue C... Never fails to amaze how the place has picked up since I vacated the legendary 619 East 5th in 1998... After rejecting Zum Schneider (too full) and The Porch (too empty) we settled in for the night at Lava Gina (Ave. C and 7th St.), solidly my favorite of the current Ave. C bar scene. Just trendy enough to be fun, but not too trendy to be overrrun, this dual-personality drinking spot hits a wonderful mood post-1am.

11/22/2002: Updates... The big question has been answered: it's a rice pudding emporium.... New Ludlow velvet-roper Pianos has added an obnoxious faux "New and Used Pianos" sign, dropping it a few notches below our previous estimation... New York Magazine has the scoop on Tenement, which we noticed last month. To our eyes, it appears to still be under construction... From the same story, General Store on Ave. B looks like it might be worth a shot... Word from Below 14th sources is that Wylie Dufresne has stage fright and won't open WD50 until everything's just perfect, so it could take longer than we thought... SA alerts us that New York Mag handed out chef awards last week, including one for Scott Conant at L'Imperio, where we dined well last night just a stone's throw from Phil Donahue. I had capretto for the first time... Reports from several companions indicate that the food has not improved at Apizz since we dined there in September. Pity...

11/20/2002: MOP was in town for the weekend, and eating well in the West Village was on the menu (right alongside "good times"). After the ATMP fete on Saturday night, we hit old standby Bar d'O for drinks, then dined at Annisa (Barrow/West 4th), indulging in their wondrous tasting menu. Monday eve, it was back to the WV for my first meal ever at Blue Hill (Washington Place by Washington Square Park). It's a restaurant that I hear on more and more friends' "top three" lists of places to eat in NYC, and it lived up to that promise. But don't just take my word for it! Palmermix fills in the blanks on our Annisa and Blue Hill experiences.

11/15/2002: Plywood. Already used as interior decor by one nearby bar, the oddball SX 137, it's covering the facades of dozens of storefronts on the Lower East Side. Whether they become bars, art galleries or trendy boutiques, get ready for the next discursive wave of openings. None, however, is more eagerly awaited by Below 14th than the plywood storefront at 50 Clinton Street, which I passed tonight after parking my vehicle way over on Ridge. In about a month's time (by my estimate after peeking inside), the plywood will come down and WD50, chef Wylie Dufresne's follow-up to 71 Clinton Fresh Food across the street, will open... and the next discursive media wave of Wylie Dufresne articles will begin. (Bonus points for guessing the number of publications that will refer to him as a "wunderkin chef.")

11/13/2002: I come to announce something wonderful. On Elizabeth Street, just above Spring, a small slice of heaven has opened in the last month. Tucked into a small space on the east side of the street, Lovely Day is an Asian restaurant that has it all: delicious, affordable food (sublime noodle dishes), wonderful atmosphere (open kitchen, old-time wallpaper, red leather bankettes) and no crowds. Yet. Go now. At last, someone has created the Pan-Asian Frank, and eventually the word will get out to all the NYU kids mobbing Cafe Habana just a block away.

11/7/2002: Ken emails, per our nugget of 10/22/02, to offer a correction. "Please note for accuracy that it was rat dancing across the liquor bottles before settling into its apparent home in the toaster oven that I witnessed at Lotus Club. I don't think vermin does it justice."

11/5/2002: Apocalypse: The New Yorker gives thumbs-up to Cafe Charbon (Orchard/Stanton corner). Loyal Below 14th readers know this is on our banned restaurant list, a list created to ostracize those establishments deemed so detrimental to the neighborhood that even $1 spent there would be a moral failure of the highest order. In this case, the faux French architectural design (the "trio of cinematic storefronts," as the New Yorker puts it) is so wrong-headed that it makes us weep.

11/5/2002: Finishing off our recent overcoverage of the Ludlow/Orchard barzone, we note that former hipster hang Torch (cool circa 1998-1999) is still closed after the "fire" there last spring. Checking Torch's website as the sign on the grate out front instructs us to do, we're told that they're going to reopen in Spring 2003. We'll believe it when we see it. Meantime, the corner of Ludlow and Rivington is emptier after the early-fall closing of Casa Mexicana, a high-end Mexican joint that didn't have Steve Hanson's money behind it, and morphed into French joint Noble before shuttering. Finally, walking past blight-on-the-neighborhood Mooza on Orchard last weekend and seeing noone therein, we're forced to ask: how much longer does this cheesy bistro-cum-bar have?

11/4/2002: Visited the latest in the Steve Hanson restaurant empire last week with SA. The place, Dos Caminos (Park Ave. South @ 27th Street... Above 14th, alas), has a simple concept: high-end Mexican. They make the guacamole at your table. Great place for groups or parties, though a bit pricey. But the absolute highlight is the bathroom experience. There's a lineup of six potties, all unisex. Two attendants lurk in the narrow hallway, and every time someone emerges from a bathroom, they leap into action and wipe down the toilet seat and bowl. As a result, the line for toilets stretches back into the restaurant. Utterly bizarre.