Country’s weeklong nightmare is over, restaurant rep Jay Strell tells us. The DOH inspector has come and gone, and the place has passed inspection and is open again. Dinner service will start as of 5 p.m. tonight.

Related: Country Fails Reinspection, This Time for Fruit Flies

Country didn't open last night, and, apparently, it wasn't because of their not having filed a DOH-approved sous vide plan. No, the city came down on the place for the presence of fruit flies, Eater is reporting. They quote a source within the DOH who says, “28 points needed to fail and 28 points awarded in fruit flies at the bar and storage areas.…The DOH is being tough on fruit flies when many restaurants are riddled with vermin." Chef Geoffrey Zakarian has released a statement that was readied earlier in the day and addresses the sous vide issues, but apparently thought he was out of the woods on the insect issue. Not so. But given the ubiquity of fruit flies near storage areas in the summer, this latest development seems a little draconian, even by DOH standards.

DOH Chronicles: Country Can't Catch a Break, Fails Reinspection [Eater]
Related: Country Hoping to Be Open As Early As Tonight

Country's closure by the DOH might come to an end tonight, Geoffrey Zakarian tells us. Then again, it might not. The restaurant was closed Friday for, as a DOH rep told Eater, a "poor inspection history" combined with the lack of an approved sous vide plan on file. The chef tells Grub Street that he has filled out all the necessary paperwork with the city, particularly in regard to the thorny issue of having a DOH-approved sous vide plan. Country is waiting for a reinspection, after which it can reopen; Zakarian hopes this will be as soon as tonight, but everyone is at the mercy of the city in these matters, and no one knows for sure.

Earlier: Zakarian Says He’s Still at Country
DOH Chronicles Coda: The DOH Weighs in on Country [Eater]

Geoffrey Zakarian has denied a report that he is out at Country . “It’s nonsense. Adam Block and I are full partners,” says Zakarian. “It’s been the same thing, this rumor, for three years. It’s absolutely false. It’s hard to say who has the time to do this sort of thing, to spread rumors for the sole purpose of trying to damage someone’s reputation.” Over the weekend, Zakarian told us he was busy working on the menu for Country Steak -- an unlikely task if he were actually leaving the restaurant.

Earlier: Country Steak Planned for Country’s Upstairs

Country chef Geoffrey Zakarian, who gave the restaurant an Haute Barnyard makeover earlier this year, will rebrand the upper floor as Country Steak. “I've been trying to do a steakhouse concept for a while,” says Zakarian. “I was looking for a location, and we're already doing a lot of head-to-tail cooking at Country. So we're just going to do it here. I'm installing a wood grill, and we're going to open after our usual summer hiatus in September.” The meat program isn't final, but the focus will be on the smoky flavor imparted by wood embers. “We're still looking at different woods, different methods,” says the chef. (We'd go with Brandt beef and a combination of oak and hickory — but that's just us.) Country's current multicourse menu will continue throughout the summer. Country Steak will open on October 1.

Earlier: New Country Chef to Implement Haute Barnyard Makeover

On the heels of naming Willis Loughhead chef, Geoffrey Zakarian’s flagship, Country , has a new wine director, William Rhodes. Rhodes, formerly of the Carlyle and Per Se, is an intense young man who looks like Clark Kent and has all the assurance of a dean of students. He plans to expand Country's wine program, as well as develop a cocktail list based on seasonal ingredients, according to a press release. Let's hope there are a few affordable bottles on the list when he's done, so appreciating it won't be wholly an intellectual undertaking.

Related: New Country Chef to Implement Haute-Barnyard Makeover

“We've changed everything,” says Willis Loughhead, the new chef at Country. Working closely with Geoffry Zakarian, Loughhead is implementing a sprightly, Haute Barnyard–ish menu that should help to rejuvenate the restaurant's somewhat stodgy reputation. “My style is characterized by a lot of olive oil, vinegar, fresh lemon — a lot of brightness.” The new menu, rolling out this week, will include a soft-shell crab with pea greens, pea shoots, and pea tendrils and a pistachio-yuzu vinaigrette; a seared bison tenderloin with white and green asparagus and purple baby artichokes; and a full-bone, dry-aged Nebraska prime rib for two. “We're doing everything differently now,” Loughhead says. “We're breaking down whole animals, making our own charcuterie.… And now that the Greenmarket is about to explode, you're going to see so much from us based on that. It's going to be very market-driven. Right now, I'm waiting for ramps, for instance. Just wait till they come in.” We'll settle for the crabs and steak.

There was never any doubt the Water Club, the $800 million hotel-casino being put up by the Borgata in Atlantic City, was going to have a high-end food pedigree. The Borgata’s a class act! But they did especially well in hiring Geoffrey Zakarian of Town and Country. We’ve had a close look at his menu, and it’s a cut above the usual institutional food: Room-service entrées include filet of bison, braised lamb shank with basmati rice and pomegranate (a nod to Zakarian’s Armenian heritage), and, for when you really don’t want to leave the room, a rib-eye center-cut dry-aged beef chop on the bone with potato purée and field mushrooms. Even the breakfast menu's four options are hipper than you would expect, among them "The Manhattan" (coffee, bagel, New York Times); the "Long Night" (hanger steak and eggs, grilled tomato, Emergen-C vitamin powder, coffee, water), and, inevitably, "Still Awake From Yesterday" (Philly cheesesteak, French fries, Coca-Cola.) There are 800 other things on Zakarian’s menu, but we somehow doubt we could stay long enough to try them out. In fact, it will be a miracle if we can afford to stay there at all.

Earlier we reported that Sasha Petraske has his eye on the vacant Blue Mill space, which is begging for a Waverly Inn–style revival. Turns out he’s not the only one: We noticed, in the agenda for tonight’s Community Board 4 meeting, that Geoffrey Zakarian of Town and Country has applied for a liquor license at 50 Commerce Street. Zakarian concedes that he and some unnamed partners are looking at several spaces in the West Village and Lower East Side with a small bistro in mind, but he hasn’t signed a lease and needs to crunch more numbers before he’s ready for the community board. “I spoke to the landlord and evidently there’s someone else she’s interested in,” he tells us. The plot thickens … —Daniel Maurer

Earlier: Sasha Petraske to Take on Fine Dining, Too