Rockefeller Center is in Manhattan, thank you.Photo: Getty Images

Short Order [Insatiable Critic]

The culprit uses his ill-gotten booty to play unlimited Skee-Ball at ESPN Zone.Photo illustration: Getty Images, iStockphoto

Lunch Crowd Bandit [NYP]

La Fonda Del Sol, a new Latin restaurant in the Met Life building, will open this fall, reports Gael Greene at Insatiable Critic. The original La Fonda Del Sol was one of first big theme restaurants engineered by Joe Baum in the early sixties, along with such classics of kitsch as the Forum of the Twelve Caesars and Zum Zum. (For a quick refresher on Baum's genius, check out this tribute from the Times' archives.) The current version, reports Greene, comes by way of the Patina Group (the Sea Grill, Brasserie, Nick and Stef's) and will be designed by Adam Tihany.

Short Order [Insatiable Critic]

According to Steve Lewis’s blog, the guys from 1 Oak won’t be doing the rooftop at Opera (formerly China Club) as he previously reported. A rep tells us there was a conversation, but never a contract, and that Richie Akiva et al aren’t currently looking for other rooftops, although Uncle Steve seems to have heard differently. Either way, Eden opens this Thursday at 5 p.m., with an hour of free vodka if you RSVP to val@joonbug.com. An excuse to cut out of work early if ever we heard one.

Rooftop Musical Chairs - The 1OAK Team Forgoes Eden [Goodnight Mr. Lewis]

Earlier: Team From 1 Oak Makes China Club's Roof the Height of Luxury

Richie Akiva will see you on the roof.Photo: Melissa Hom

Danny Fried and Michael Barrett Turn the China Club Into Opera, Eden and Crest. And the Boys From 1OAK Are Aboard, Part One, Part Two, and Part Three [Goodnight Mr. Lewis]

Cesare Casella, everywhere you look.Photo: Patrick McMullan

• Maremma is for sale. “It’s on the market,” Casella says. “I’m waiting for a better offer than the one I have, though. If I don’t get it, I’ll renovate it and make it a little different.”

• Casella’s new restaurant will be called Salumeria Rosi, but it isn’t really a restaurant, per se: “It’s a grocery, that has a very small restaurant area of about 35 seats. It’s very casual — some antipasti, panini, a few pastas.”

• The Tuscan Tocque also tells us that he’s in negotiations to do a big, upscale restaurant in a luxe hotel being built in midtown. “We haven’t signed the contract yet, but it will be a very nice restaurant, and a kind of cooking I haven’t done before in New York.”

• Bean bar, Casella’s planned fast-food operation in Grand Central Station, is likewise on hold. Casella probably has ten other things going on that he's not talking about; but we'll settle for these. They're more than enough.

Related: Cesare Casella the Latest Chef Onboard the UWS Bandwagon

Brad Thompson may be coming back east.Photo courtesy Culinary Vegetable Institute

Bradford Thompson Bio [Culinary Vegetable Institute]
Earlier: Scott Bryan Leaves Lever House at the Altar

Yesterday the magazine brought first word on Le Petit Belge, a new spot on 14th Street serving Belgian waffles. Now it seems that a Jersey manufacturer of Liège waffles, Augusten’s, will bring a truck to midtown in the next four or five weeks. According to Midtown Lunch, their prepackaged variety, already being served at Café Metro, leaves much to be desired, but as Eater revealed, they’re good enough for the Wafels and Dinges truck to use in an emergency — so we expect the fresh-made version will pull at least a few customers away from the Treats Truck.

2nd Waffle Truck Gears Up Right on the Heels of “Wafflegate” [Midtown Lunch]

Related: Openings: Royale Cafe + Pastry and Le Petit Belge. [NYM]

When the Cheyenne Diner closed two weeks ago, we worried it would be relocated to somewhere like Wyoming, à la Moondance, but now AMNY’s Urbanite assures us it’ll be parked closer to home: Construction worker Mike O’Connell has purchased the former rail car for $5,000 and, with the help of preservationist Michael Perlman, will move it to Red Hook (home of another throwback gem, Sunny’s) and restore it to its forties splendor. We hope O’Connell will serve beer at the new place, because we’d like to buy him one.

Cheyenne saved and moving to Red Hook [AMNY/Urbanite]

In case you haven't been following the case, two stalwarts of the red-sauce scene have been going at it hammer and tongs for the right to the Patsy's name. In one corner was the franchised pizzeria, originating in East Harlem; in the other, the midtown eatery where Frank Sinatra used to go to eat his veal cutlets. Well, the jury released its verdict yesterday … and nobody knows what the hell it means. According to the story in the New York Post, pizza Patsy's had the name first, but midtown Patsy's is hurt by the use of the name. But nobody has to do anything until another ruling in August. Color us confused. The only comment in the whole story that makes any sense comes from a customer at the midtown Patsy's: "The other place may have the name, but not the meatballs." Amen.

Split 'P' Soup [NYP]

Scott Bryan, one of the city's most widely admired chefs, has been hired as the chef at Lever House, succeeding Dan Silverman, says owner John McDonald. “He will start in a few weeks and will introduce his new menu about six weeks or so,” McDonald says. Questions about Bryan’s future, raised often since he left Veritas in October 2007, can now be put to rest.

Earlier: Dan Silverman Out at Lever House, But Who’s In?

New York’s hamburger wars, already intense, open on a new front today: City Burger on Broadway and 39th Street. This spot will be the first of a mini-chain, say the owners, the Abitino family of chain pizza fame. The Abitinos want to open at least two other locations this year and are considering the New York Times building, the Newark airport, and downtown Brooklyn. The six-ounce burgers are made, as at Shake Shack, Market Table, the Spotted Pig, and other top New York burger spots, from Pat La Frieda meat, and come on an egg bun. “A lot of people are going into burgers,” owner Dominick Abitino admits. “That’s the new concept. That’s what’s hot right now. We’ve been in the pizza business for a long time and wanted to try something different.”

City Burger, 1410 Broadway, nr. 39th St.; 212-997-7770

Related: La Frieda Saves the Good Stuff for Restaurants

We were able to reach San Domenico’s Tony May and ask him why he would move one of the city’s most-stable restaurant operations. May was very candid with us. “Everybody takes us for granted,” he says. “Everybody thinks we’re a little stuffy. So we want to move forward and put ourselves in a more contemporary environment and serve Italian cuisine in a way contemporary diners want it.” As for the proximate cause of the move, May was open about that too. “They say the life of a restaurant is its lease and ours was up. We need something bigger, and we’re getting it. The truth is that we need to do a much higher volume if we are going to pay the rents landlords want today as well as the other costs of doing business.” May promises Grub Street he'll let us know the new location of San Domenico once the lease is signed, which he expects to happen shortly. Adds Marisa May, Tony's daughter, “San Domenico will be around forever, but now we are moving forward into the 21st century.”

Earlier: Breaking: San Domenico Moving From Central Park South

No way you're getting in here.Photo: Courtesy of Spotlight Live

Related: Diddy, Beyonce, Ne-Yo Make 'Spotlight Live' New York's Hot Tuesday-Night Ticket
Deadly Brawl in Times Square [NYDN]
Carrie Jennings of Spotlight Live Doesn't Mind If You're Horrible at Karaoke