As Grub readers know, community-board-meeting shitshows end up determining what you eat, drink, and, in the case of the abandoned Forty Deuce space (which will now house Chris Eddy’s sushi spot), what sort of celebs and semi-nudity you may or may not be able to feast your eyes upon on a Monday night. Consider the case of recently opened Mercury Dime, which wanted wine, but ended up serving coffee. Or the plight of Death & Co., which now has to close at midnight and may end up gone for good. Or David Bouley’s attempt to open Brushstrokes, which Eater reports was again stymied by Community Board 1 last night, though Bouley will have one more chance to plead his case later this month.

What you'll be eating at Momofuku Ko.Photo: Don Lee

A couple of much-anticipated East Village joints are coming out of the shadows — last week the magazine published first photos of Sasha Petraske’s new coffee bar, Mercury Dime, and today on Flickr an aficionado serves up some glorious pics from deep within friends-and-family night at Momofuku Ko. Chances are this is as close as you'll get — for a while, anyway — to planting your butt in one of those fourteen seats, and luckily the snaps are primo quality: Even the house-made chicharrón looks leaps and bounds above what you’d find at a Bushwick bodega, never mind the kimchee consommé with Malpec oyster, pork belly and braised cabbage.

Don Lee’s Momofuku Slideshow [Flickr via Eater]