How to book a table in Manhattan: reservations, cancellation policies, and the months-long waitlist, explained
A practical guide to the city's booking systems, what a no-show can cost you, and why the hardest tables sell out in minutes.
Culture
How the city eats.
How to read a restaurant menu's hidden language: codes, abbreviations, and what chefs really mean
From 'market price' to 'entrée,' the words on a Manhattan menu carry more history and more math than most diners realize.
East Harlem’s chopped cheese, and the two men who say they invented it
At Blue Sky Deli on First Avenue, the counter’s own staff can’t agree on the sandwich’s origin — which is part of why the story keeps traveling.
The unwritten rules of eating out in Manhattan: reservations, the bar seat and the check ballet
New York dining has its own etiquette — set by real estate, clocks and crowds — and knowing it makes every table better.
Boiled, baked, union-made: the New York bagel's century from Yiddish delis to every corner in town
A Polish-Jewish bread arrived with the immigrants, got unionized on the Lower East Side, and then mechanized its way to becoming the city's default breakfast.
Lunch at the Algonquin, dinner at the River Café of the mind: New York restaurants in film and literature
From Dorothy Parker's round table to the dining car of every Woody Allen fantasy, Manhattan's restaurants have starred in the city's stories as long as it has had them.