We had heard that New York was to have its own version of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival (minus the sunshine, ocean, flowing sea breeze, and so on, of course). But only in paging through the Sunday Times at Jerry's Deli on Collins Avenue did we find this tidbit, from the big SOBE style section: “A version of the festival will soon be headed north. Last week Mr. Schrager came to an agreement with New York officials to run a two-day food festival in the meatpacking district on Columbus Day weekend. ‘We're going to close Ninth Avenue,’ he said.” Now that is good news. It's high time that Ninth Avenue was closed. To see our up-to-the-minute coverage of SOBE this past few days, click here.

Calling All Rock Stars in Aprons [NYT]