The theme of this week’s issue, at least that of its food content, was immediately obvious to us: ingenuity. In a city so stocked and teeming with restaurants, how can chefs find niches to fill? A noodle bar is reconfigured as a poor man’s Masa and earns four stars from Adam Platt; a wine bar forbidden from hard liquor uses wine, port, and sherry to create cocktails; and a restaurant catering to wealthy clients produces foie gras–flavored dog biscuits. Rob and Robin, in their tireless rounds, suss out such acts of creativity but also stop to appreciate the simple things, like the chocolate cookies at Payard Patisserie, say, or a promising Japanese restaurant opening on 8th Street, or the grilled-cheese-sandwich program at the bar at Smith’s. Add to this an inexpensive Argentine grill encountered by Gael Greene, and it’s another week in the life of New York, and New York.