Sheila Lukins, Café des Artistes, and the colorful dawn of this gourmet age we live in.

Monkey Bar pulls in plenty of stars, but A-list connections can’t cover for D-grade cooking.

With Andrew Carmellini at the stove, De Niro’s second try at the Greenwich Hotel hits the bull’s-eye.

And eight other tasty sandwich creations.

The best of the bunch in a town suddenly overrun by beef.

With its lofty ambitions (and prices), Michael White’s Marea wantonly defies the recession.

The genre of the cleverly embellished hot dog is expanding fast. Adam Platt ranks five of the city’s most exotic examples.

L.A. chef Govind Armstrong’s New York outpost is an awkward, noisy transplant.

Modest but sophisticated, George Mendes’s Aldea could be a prototype of dining trends to come.

At Seasonal, a taste of Vienna with a modern spin.