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• No salmonella here! All tomatoes grown in New York were deemed safe to eat by the State Department of Agriculture yesterday. [NY1]
• When it comes to fancy digital menus, Adour’s is the only one that isn’t completely wretched. [TONY]
• Top Chef judge Ted Allen says picking this season’s winner wasn’t easy and that he and the other judges used “numerical models” to evaluate the finalists. [Zagat Buzz]
Note to restaurateurs: It's generally a good policy, when Frank Bruni comes into your place, not to pour wine all over the table, make him wait an hour, stick his friend behind a column, and send him waiters who don't know what's on the menu. Because that's how Ago earned a zero-star review from him. [NYT]
Alan Richman is the first major critic to file on Scarpetta and has only the most glowing things to say about Scott Conant's “refined, clean-cut, extraordinarily poised, modern Italian-American cuisine.” A big win for Scarpetta, even though Richman does call out the restaurant for being noisy. [GQ]
Restaurant Girl hits Benoit and, after paying the requisite tribute to its provenance, gets around to saying that the food there is completely unexceptional in every way. Its two stars seem like a gift. [NYDN]
Bedford-Stuyvesant: The owners of the Smoke Joint hope to have their new southern spot, Peaches, open by July 4. [Eater]
Carroll Gardens: Marco Polo Restaurant is serving bargain prix fixe lunches and dinners to celebrate its 25th anniversary. [Bergen Carroll]
Harlem: The owner of Kuma Inn is onboard as a chef at Talay, a Southeast Asian and Latin restaurant opening tomorrow at 701 West 135th Street. [NYT]
Lower East Side: Broadway East is one of a few restaurants making artisan sodas, and the organic eatery has some especially unique flavors, such as "ginger and kaffir lime; hibiscus and rhubarb; cola with a base of kukicha, a kind of Japanese tea." [NYT]
Midtown East: Solera only serves Spanish wine. And why not? French and Italian restaurants do it, and Spanish wines are as good as ever. [NYS]
Randall Lane made it in to Momofuku Ko and gives the place five stars, gushing, “dish after dish dazzles with class, innovation and balance.” The behind-the-counter action, with David Chang berating a girl cook for the way she wrings a dishrag, maybe isn't “great theater” though. [TONY]
Bar Q “thrilled” Steve Cuozzo “on all visits but one,” when chef Anita Lo wasn't around, which is too bad, since his dishes on the off night mar what might have been a rave review. [NYP]
Robert Sietsema, on the other hand, hits bar Q hard: Lo's BBQ sauce “tastes like it's been dumped out of a white carton from the local Chinese carry-out,” and her “pork wings” “remain flightless because they're heavily coated with cloying Korean ketchup.” Ouch! [VV]
Bensonhurst: L&B Spumoni Gardens has upped its slice price (for Sicilian and regular pieces) to $2.25. [Slice]
Gramercy: According to this poll, which attracted a whopping 195 voters, the Rose Bar has the best-looking female clientele in NYC (as compared with six other nightclubs). Sadly, no one answered our call to add Lucky Cheng's to the list. [Down by the Hipster]
Lower East Side: Broadway East has a simple recipe for cooking spring's first pea shoots, available now at the Greenmarket. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Red Hook: The former 360 space is up for rent. [Eater]
Tribeca: Chambers Street Wines has lured 22 "natural" winemakers (who are either organic and/or sustainable) to Cercle Rouge this Saturday for an afternoon tasting. Show up with $5 for a tasting glass, which you can even keep when all is drunk and done. [Grub Street]
Upper West Side: A new trattoria called Campo, from Nonna owner Jeremy Wladis, opens today on Broadway between 112th and 113th Streets and will serve grilled pizzas from Gonzo alum David Rotter. [Strong Buzz]
Bedford-Stuyvesant: Egg didn’t make this list of top southern eats, but Five Spot Soul Food at 459 Myrtle Avenue was picked as a fave since dishes like Kentucky Turkey Chops and Charleston Low Country Smothered Chicken "sound good" even if they’re not necessarily authentic classics. [Gridskipper]
Chelsea: Klee Brasserie's open for brunch and dinner on Easter, and you can order the "Thinly Sliced Easter Ham & Bio Egg," which combines honey-glazed ham, deviled eggs, and capers, at both seatings. [Grub Street]
Lower East Side: The new vegetarian restaurant Broadway East adds to its sustainability cred by featuring local beer and wine. [Zagat Buzz]
Midtown East: The first soft-shell crabs of the season are now available at the Oyster Bar. [Grub Street]
Midtown West: Bistro Milano from team BiCE has opened at 1350 Sixth Avenue, and sidewalk seating opening this spring will double the restaurant’s 70-cover capacity. [TONY]
West Village: "Chef Gary Robins was the best thing to happen to the most recent Russian Tea Room relaunch. So, naturally, he was fired." But, you’ll be able to taste his cooking downtown this spring, when rustic restaurant Sheridan Square opens at 134 Seventh Avenue South. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Clinton Hill: Don’t be fooled by Met Foods window painting claiming the supermarket has the “[l]argest fresh organic products in the area.” You’ll be “hard-pressed to find any (just the usual half-rotten produce they usually carry). It’s clearly a reaction to the threat of all the discerning customers shopping at Green Planet.” [Clinton Hill Blog]
Greenwich Village: The Starbucks on 8th Street between Fifth and University is closing and has posted in its window a bizarre, farewell letter of sorts, which begins, "This thing we have together, it’s bigger than this place." And in a weird way, the epistle is spot-on. [Gothamist]
Harlem: Where can a gal just get a beer and a burger in this gentrifying area? [Uptown Flavor]
Lower East Side: Rayuela is expanding with a Latin takeout spot set to open at the end of March in the former LoSide space. [Eater] Lee Gross’s organic eatery Broadway East opens March 7, and like this week’s ecofriendly thirst quenchers, "filters and carbonates its own water." [Strong Buzz] Freemans will totally let you order artichoke dip before you place your entrée order; they changed their policy two years ago after Bruni’s "Satisfactory" review. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Former Broadway East Chef Peter BerleyPhoto: timeout.com
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