If you're a bargoer, you know the feeling. At 1:30 every morning, the bartender bellows, "LAST CALL!" and a collective groan erupts from the hangers-on, as they order their last round. The lights go up, and everyone stumbles out.

In New York, it's different. Most bars don't close until 4 a.m., dragging the ruckus and partying late into the night. Turns out, not everyone is a fan of the late-night revelry.

Brad Linder, journalist and writer for sister site Green Daily, recently reported on this issue for NPR. He spoke to one woman who lives in the NOHO district and is a member of a community board that's trying to get liquor-licensed establishments to close at 2 instead of 4.

Community boards like hers now have so much pull that many bars and restaurants must ask permission before staying open 'til 4, like teenagers asking to extend their curfew.

I'm sure we'd all rather not experience loud arguments and car alarms at 4 a.m. But at some point, isn't the noise and general hubbub part and parcel of living in a trendy NYC neighborhood? If you don't like the scene, shouldn't you just...move somewhere else?

Effective immediately, a federal appeals court says that all New York restaurants must post their food's caloric information on menu boards, and should begin no later than tonight at midnight.

The bill will apply only to restaurants with 15 establishments or more, and demands that the calorie counts be printed in the same font and size as normal menu information (even if this means making the rest of the menu's text teeny-tiny).

Fines will be instated beginning July 18 if restaurant owners do not comply with the new law.

Restaurant owners will fight out the case again in court on June 9, when the showdown will likely begin again.

The Museum of Modern Art Store might not immediately pop into your mind as the perfect place to fulfill all your kitchen needs.

Makes sense - much of its items are pricey and elegant, and not appropriate for everyday use. But if nothing else, it's certainly fun to peruse the products and place them on your mental kitchen wish list.

From inside-out martini glasses to panda-shaped pink lunch bags, MOMA's got funky kitchenware covered. Check out some of the fanciful finds below.

We don't usually hear or read too much about food cart vendors. You know the ones - everyone has grabbed lunch from them at some time or another - whether in an unfamiliar city with no immediate restaurant choices, on a quick break from a long meeting, food cart meals are the original "go-to meals," before the term "go-to meal" even existed.

But the anonymity of vendors has changed this week, as articles appeared in both The New York Times and The Washington Post about the food carts and the businesspeople who run them.

In New York, Latin food vendors who have served the players and fans at Brooklyn's Red Hook soccer fields for the past 33 years faced being ousted from their spots if the Department of Parks and Recreation succeeded in "regulating" its permit process. In the end, the vendors were all allowed to stay and were issued a new six-year permit. But despite vendor fees remaining about the same (about $10,500 per year), reps of the vendors worry that the permit's new rule of standardizing equipment will mean vendors paying hefty fees for updated ovens and plumbing.

In D.C., vendors are feeling similar pressure, but for a different reason: instead of cutting back, D.C. wants to expand, but not among the current food options. Instead, citing surveys of citizens who say they want a larger food selection, the city is opening up the market to companies like Zipcar, an electric car company that wants to expand into gourmet and healthy food vending.

DeCicco Markets, a small, six store, suburban supermarket chain in New York has joined what may become a trend that Wegmans started earlier this year. They plan to stop selling tobacco products as soon as their inventory runs out and should be tobacco free by April. I applaud you DeCicco Markets in your decision. (DeCicco Markets was one of my local supermarkets when I lived in the NYC suburbs growing up. I had friends who worked in the Chester Heights store in Bronxville when I was a teen and I shopped there often. They had great butchers and an excellent meat department. One of my best friends, Kevin, worked there and still has the nickname, "BEEF", to this day.)

Personally, as an ex-smoker, I think that tobacco products sales should be controlled more and only sold in stores that specifically sell tobacco products. I feel that smoking tobacco is an adult decision. Children and teens shouldn't be exposed to tobacco in grocery stores, pharmacies, deli's, etc. I know that I would never have started smoking when I was 13 if tobacco hadn't been easily available in vending machines and with packs piled high on the counters of deli's and candy stores. I smoked off and on half my life, I even worked for a year or two in the tobacco business as a cigar and pipe expert, and I am so glad I finally quit. I wouldn't have been able to develop the palate and ability to detect fine tastes that I have today if I still smoked. I remember a few weeks after the final time I quit when all of a sudden I was amazed at how good, and intense dinner was. My taste buds had been rejuvenated and food was like something new again.

So let's see how things shake up. Will this be the start of a supermarket trend for 2008? Are there any other chains out there around the country that are doing the same?

It seems that the scene will soon be exploding with new restaurants. In a special section, the New York Times covers the coming restaurants.

• Some restaurants will be headed by star chefs, others are opening elsewhere, but originated in NY, and really, there are just too many to count.
• The new vibe in restaurants is casual and cool
• Why does it take so long (and so much heartache) to get a restaurant to open?
• Critic Frank Bruni takes a dive into fish-heavy Soto
• Go! Go! Curry keeps it real with Japanese comfort food
• But it's not all just about restaurants. For the home kitchen, Mark Bittman does a paella and Harold McGee explains gelatin filtration

This week, a slight departure from pure food and dining with a story on where animals that were once destined for the dinner plate actually go for sanctuary. Also, beef jerky becomes haute cuisine, sort of.

In the kitchen, Mark Bittman does chicken wings and blackberries come into season.

On the dining scene, Frank Bruni vists Perilla, the restaurant by Top Chef winner Harold Dieterle, gluten-free menus are becoming more popular, and the best way to eat during the summer is a series of starters.

Another piece of legislation was overshadowed by the press surrounding the New York City's trans fat ban, though they were passed at the same time. The issue is that the city is now going to require some restaurants to list the calorie counts of some of their foods directly on their menus. The rule only applies to about 10% of restaurants in the city, restaurants with standardized menus that already make the information publicly available. In other words, it applies to chain restaurants that publish their calorie counts or put them on their websites. It does not apply to high-end restaurants or to the corner hamburger stand, places at which you have no way of knowing what you're getting in terms of calories, nor does it apply to chain restaurants that do not make their nutritional information known.

This clearly discourages companies from disclosing nutritional information. In fact, it penalizes companies that are making this information available already. If you want to eat healthier, you probably already know that skim milk has less fat and calories than whole milk and don't need an amended menu board to tell you so. In their attempt to police eating habits of the city's residents, the city may actually be making it more difficult for interested people to count calories, as companies retract their official calorie counts to avoid having to change all their menus (while their competitors don't) by early next year.

If you thought that Chicago was the only city that wanted to ban trans fats, think again. Yesterday, the Board of Health in New York City voted unanimously to support a plan that would prohibit restaurants in the city from serving food that "contains more than a minute amount of artificial trans fats." The Board does have the power to adopt the plan, effective immediately, if it so chooses, but they have permitted a window of time for public comments, which will end with a public hearing on the ban on October 30th. If and when the plan is accepted, the ban will be phased in gradually. "Restaurants would be given until July to eliminate oils, margarines and shortening from the recipes that contain more than a half-gram of trans fat per serving," but would have until July 2008 to remove all menu items that exceed the limit of 0.5 g per serving. Trans fats occur naturally in some animal products, and those would be excluded, as would packaged foods that "remain in the manufacturers' original packaging when served."

Up to 20,000 restaurants could be affected by such a decision, so it is not surprising to note that the restaurant industry offered immediate resistance to the idea. Predictably, they cited increased costs and a change in the taste of some items, but because the change would be city-wide, it would at least apply evenly and is unlikely to actually change the dining habits of most New Yorkers. In other words, the protesting is unlikely to do much good.

Board members say that New York could set an example for the rest of the country, and that it would be a positive change for citizens, who eat more meals out than the average American.The city's health commissioner said that "no one will miss [trans fat] when it is gone." And he is probably right.

Newspapers and magazines are slowly jumping onto the blogging bandwagon, and food is definitely a hot topic. We've seen food blogs now on major food websites like Epi-Log, the editor's blog on epicurious, critics' blogs like Michael Bauer's Between Meals at the San Francisco Chronicle and Frank Bruni's Diner's Journal at the New York Times. Now New York Magazine has a blog called Grub Street, which launched today. They have several writers, and wouldn't you know it, one of our own feature writers, Josh Ozersky, is the editor!

Looking forward to their coverage of LA's Pinkberry in New York!

I grew up in the Midwest and have been on the West Coast for a long time, so I really have no experience with an automat, but I've definitely eaten through my share of vending machines. Work through lunch? Sure, lemme go gran a Diet Coke and a bag of Funyuns!

But New York's new Bamn! at 37 St. Mark's Place (between 2nd and 3rd Aves.) is bigger, better, and badder ass than a regular vending machine. It serves real food, and hot, too: burgers, mac & cheese, pizza, chicken strips, grilled cheese, hot dogs, and pork buns. Most importantly, as their website says, it is served 25 hours a day.

Is Bamn! God's gift to gourmets-on-the-go? The boys from Slice NY and A Hamburger aToday made a recent visit, but according to Adam, Bamn! isn't all that: "I wish I could say 'hot and delicious treat,' but the offerings at the newly opened automat Bamn just didn't stack up."

[via: Slice NY]

Sure New York has got some fabulous restaurants, but I'm willing to bet there are a lot more people eating great street food from the hundreds of street vendros that push their carts around five boroughs of New York, and they're not just serving pizza and hot dogs, either.

Last year, The Street Vendor Project put together the Vendy Awards, honoring these soldiers of street cuisine. They are doing it again this year, and are now taking nominations for the best street vendors. They choose finalists, then select the winners at the Awards Ceremony on October 22nd. If you want to go to, tickets are $50 each.

A few months ago, I was on the hunt through the supermarket's freezer section for a good "light" ice cream sandwich. That was Spring, and I resigned myself to suffering with "diet" ones in preparation for summer's body-conscious wardrobe. Well summer is almost over, and though it's still hot enough outside to wear a swimsuit to work, there's no point in trying to shave off the pounds now. Good thing, too, since New York magazine has taste tested some of the best ice cream sandwiches around the city, some so good that they cost almost $8! Here are there top eight:

1. One Girl Cookies - "tiniest, and the best of the bunch."
2. Ciao Bella Gelato - "regulation-size sandwich holds together well"
3. Bierkraft - "best ice-cream brownie-sandwich you'll ever find in a beer shop"
4. Milk & Cookies - "a moody tattooed countergirl will make your sandwich"
5. 'Wichcraft - "Don't miss the peanut-butter-ice-cream-and-chocolate-cookie combo"
6. Ruby et Violette - "a rare instance of white chocolate not ruining everything"
7. Jacques Torres Chocolate - "Oddly reminiscent (in a good way) of Good Humor's Candy Center Crunch"
8. Otto - "what Sicilians eat for breakfast."

Of course, I'm partial to making them at home with my own homebaked chocolate chip cookies and a scoop of Haagen-Dazs coffee ice cream.

This weekend sees East Hampton, New York turned into the 2nd Hamptons Wine and Food Festival.

The organisers are promising a treat following last years success with a weekend full of parties, wine and food tasting seminars, cooking demonstrations, live competitions and a spectacular Grand Tasting on both days. If you are going then there is a 'full menu of culinary entertainment, exploring emerging wine and food trends from around the world and the region's own backyard'. Some people going by the names of Sandra Lee and Dave Lieberman are to be there too.

Not that I am going or anything but the wine/spirit tasting sessions sound wonderful - these include a Sherry & Tapas session, a Single Malt Scotch Tasting with local food pairings and a chance to sample super-premium Partida Tequila. Local wines will be in abundance too of course.

The August 7 edition of New York magazine features a guide to 101 of Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld's favorite cheap eats destinations in NYC. Unlike most cheap eats guides, all of the restaurants in the list are ranked on a scale of one to five stars. The authors are also careful to note that the term "cheap" is used in a New York context. Don't be surprised then, when you see things like Lupa, Room for Dessert and Bouchon Bakery. It looks to be a great, if a little overwhelming, list. There also listings for top pizza places and prix fixe menus, although I'm still not sure if a two-hot-dog-and-drink combo qualifies as prix fixe.