Michelin’s newest star: the NoMad restaurant.

October isn’t normally thought of as the start of a new year – unless you’re publishing a restaurant guide. This month biggies Michelin and Zagat unveiled their 2013 guides to New York City restaurants. As always, we snapped up copies (yes, we still like paper guides).

How did New York’s hotel restaurants fare? Thumbs up. The days when no one ate at a hotel restaurant except hotel guests too cowed by the city  are long gone.

Still, getting a nod from a tony guide book is no guarantee of longevity. Two hotel restaurants that scored 2013 Michelin stars – no mean feat – are closing. This summer Gilt, a two-M star restaurant at the New York Palace, is to be replaced by a new, somewhat formal restaurant by French chef Michel Richard, who operates restaurants in Washington, DC, Las Vegas and Carmel, California, Eater reports. Richard is, in fact, planning three properties at the Palace, including a bistro in a room currently used as an event space and a pastry shop in the lobby. (more…)

Twice a year Restaurant Week muscles onto our dining radar with its vaunted three course fixed price lunches and dinners. Now in its 20^th year, the twice-yearly promotion timed to boost business during winter and summer slow spells attracts more than 300 restaurants including more than 30 in hotels.  This year’s first promotion, with $24.07 lunches and $35 dinners on weekdays, ends this Friday, February 10. (more…)

By the time 2011 morphed into a memory at the stroke of midnight, New York City boasted an unprecedented 90,000 hotel rooms. But the year that was didn’t just set records. If 2011 was a wine we’d raise a glass (and buy several cases). (more…)

Jean Georges at Trump International

The first week in October is pretty innocuous unless you’re a foodie — or to be precise, a guide-loving foodie. This week Michelin and Zagat published their respective, red-covered 2012 New York City restaurant guides within a day of each other. That’s like back-to-back Golden Globes and Academy Awards. (more…)