• Franklin Becker is replacing Gary Robins at Sheridan Square. According to the PR firm, “Franklin will change the menu slowly and keep anything that has become a signature item.” [Eater]
Related: Breaking: Gary Robins Out at Sheridan Square

• Union Square Cafe, Fleur de Sel, and Le Cirque will keep their Restaurant Week special deals in place even after the citywide promotion ends. [Zagat Buzz]
Related: Summer Restaurant Week Brings Back a Chance to Steal a Meal

• Now that chefs know how to actually cook octopus, it’s becoming more and more popular with diners. [NYP]

• Some world leaders aren’t pleased that the U.S. is diverting crops toward biofuel production when parts of the globe are starving. [WSJ]

• Also, the world’s economic ministers now say that the food crisis is a much more pertinent issue to tackle than the credit crisis. [NYT]

• Sometimes the worst part of working in food service is not being able to get the girl you want. [NYT]

Starting today, the Port Authority is accepting early bids from developers for control of a two-story restaurant atop the Freedom Tower, with a grand opening slated for early 2013. [The Real Estate/NYO]

More bad news about the FDA: It’s “so understaffed that, at its current pace, the agency would need at least 27 years to inspect every foreign medical device plant that exports to the United States, 13 years to check every foreign drug plant and 1,900 years to examine every foreign food plant.” [NYT]

Le Cirque’s Restaurant Week menus are such a hit that the Maccioni clan is going to make them available every weekday in February. [Zagat]

Six former employees of V Steakhouse file a class-action suit against Jean-Georges Vongerichten for the usual reasons: sub-minimum wage and garnished tips. “We were kind of given the idea that the waitstaff is dispensable, that there were a million people who would come in and do your job.” [NYDN]

Unlike the other fast-food chains, who have adamantly resisted the calorie-posting law, Subway has already started to implement it. [Consumerist]

Healthy zombies should do their best to follow the zombie food pyramid, which calls for six to eleven servings of brains every day, and only sparing amounts of bones and gristle. [Serious Eats]

The NYPD releases a surveillance video of the De Marco’s gun battle. It’s difficult to make out, but very graphic and not a little disturbing. [WNBC]

Brace yourselves: McDonald’s has decreed that there will be no more Shamrock Shakes in NYC, although they’re still widely available elsewhere. What’s up with that? [NYDN]

The Smith and Wollensky Restaurant Group is enjoying a sudden bidding war for its acquisition, after having already accepted a good offer. [Crain’s]