One of the unqualified successes at Mia Dona has been the salt-and-vinegar French fries, a preparation chef Michael Psilakis is inordinately proud of. “I love that vinegar-fry flavor profile, but I wanted to have it without getting them soggy, which is what I’ve been able to do by pickling them,” he says. But now the chef has a challenger for vinegar-fry supremacy. While Mia Dona’s fries have a tart sourness built into them, Amanda Freitag’s duck-fat numbers down a the Harrison come with a malt-vinegar mayonnaise that is even more pronounced in its vinegar flavor. “The fries are so rich from the duck fat that they need that malt vinegar tang to cut them,” Freitag says. “But since the mayo is just a dip, they keep their crispiness that way.” The result is two totally different ways of giving French fries a vinegary sourness without sacrificing that all-important crispiness. But who wins in the battle for vinegar-fry supremacy? Everybody.

Like Andrew WK’s new party pad wouldn’t have a killer music program? LCD Soundsystem front man, James Murphy, reveals on his label's message board that he’ll be doing a little something there called Special Disco Version. We have no idea what else will be going on at 100 Lafayette, because AWK and his partner, Spencer Sweeney, are forgoing interviews about the venue (per a mass e-mail), but this is for certain: When it opens (still no announced date) and the kids hit the streets after last call, nearby-ish Bun is going to be very happy it decided to start serving food at all hours.

Special Disco Version!! [DFA]
The Curious Case of Bun's 24-Hour Conversion [Eater]

We were excited to learn in a recent Observer article that Mark Ladner is consulting on an Italian restaurant at JFK's JetBlue terminal for later this year. The restaurant will be called Aero Nova, he tells us, and will be run by his former chef at Del Posto, Mario "Little Mario" Carbone. "The emphasis will be on simple, fresh, affordable, seasonal Italian food," says Ladner. "We're appealing to a large demographic."

But what if the JetBlue terminal got even tastier?

There’s been a lot of action in the Cesare Casella camp lately. The chef gives us an update. To wit:

• Maremma is for sale. “It’s on the market,” Casella says. “I’m waiting for a better offer than the one I have, though. If I don’t get it, I’ll renovate it and make it a little different.”

• Casella’s new restaurant will be called Salumeria Rosi, but it isn’t really a restaurant, per se: “It’s a grocery, that has a very small restaurant area of about 35 seats. It’s very casual — some antipasti, panini, a few pastas.”

• The Tuscan Tocque also tells us that he’s in negotiations to do a big, upscale restaurant in a luxe hotel being built in midtown. “We haven’t signed the contract yet, but it will be a very nice restaurant, and a kind of cooking I haven’t done before in New York.”

• Bean bar, Casella’s planned fast-food operation in Grand Central Station, is likewise on hold. Casella probably has ten other things going on that he's not talking about; but we'll settle for these. They're more than enough.

Related: Cesare Casella the Latest Chef Onboard the UWS Bandwagon

Congrats to Anika Noni Rose — a while back she told us about going to Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop, so she’s obviously fond of the old school. Last night, she became a part of it by getting her caricature on the wall at Sardi’s, along with cast mates Terrence Howard and Phylicia Rashad. They join the likes of Robert De Niro, D.W. Griffith, Bob Hope, Helen Keller, Al Pacino, Lynn Redgrave, John Steinbeck, and lots of others. Of course, it's too little, too late as far as getting on the Sardi's-inspired walls of Mo Pitkin's.

Related: Singer-Actress Anika Noni Rose Doesn’t Fear Ferocious Pies and Quasi-Lethal Doughnuts
Oh, the Mendacity [NYM]

Ever wonder how the Ciprianis manage to hold onto their liquor license, despite being convicted of tax evasion? So does the SLA. The resilient restaurateurs must have some kind of pull in Albany, but their long arm may have reached full extension; both the Post and the Times report today that the family's liquor license is in jeopardy. It's been a long time coming.

Booze Blues at Cipriani [NYP]
Cipriani Empire Charged With Violating State Laws [NYT]
Related: Ciprianis Get Out of Jail, Open New Restaurant

We’re into foams and deconstruction as much as the next guy, but nothing satisfies us more than our mom’s simple yet singular gazpacho (this is the half-Spanish half of Grub Street talking). We’re not the only ones prone to such nostalgia: Pichet Ong’s mother, Ruby, who to this day frosts the cupcakes at his bakery, raised him on a roasted-eggplant dish that will make an appearance on the Mother’s Day tasting menu at P*ONG. We asked a handful of chefs which childhood dishes they remember most fondly, and which ones, if any, they’ve reinvented as their own.

We have to admit that we saw news of the Meh Lai Wah Coffee House's closing with a kind of frigid indifference. Another Chinatown bun shop we've never been to shutters; who cares? But now, after reading Eric Asimov's eloquent post at the Pour, we see the folly of our way. For Asimov, the closing of Meh Lai Wah is a huge loss, a place of irreplaceable character and personality that also happened to have pork buns that were "glossy and pliable, with a savory, slightly sweet filling, and you could get three for $2." The brand-new, Philippe Starck–designed cafés and lounges can stand up to any amount of Health Department attention, but it's the small, ancient niches — the Meh Lai Wahs, the Di Faras, the Eisenbergs — that actually contain the city's vestigial soul. The Health Department, in its way, is as dangerous to New York as inflation and far more so than any stray microbe that might be floating around the kitchen at Veniero's. Such draconian precautions make it hardly even worthwhile to be healthy. Kudos to Eric Asimov for his stirring defense of dirt, character, and char siu bao.

Farewell, My Love Pork Buns [Pour/NYT]