How to Pick Dining Chairs You'll Love for Years
Seat height, materials, and the art of mixing styles without making the room look accidental.
Dining
The practical side of eating out in New York: when reservations release, which rooms hold seats for walk-ins, tipping and service charges, corkage rules, wine markups, dietary requests and what a large table costs once everything lands. Written for anyone booking dinner in a city that makes it complicated.
How eating out in the city works.
How corkage works in Manhattan: what to ask, what to tip, and when a restaurant says no
Bringing your own bottle to a New York restaurant is legal, common, and easy to get wrong. A working guide to the call ahead, the fee, and the etiquette.
How NYC's restaurant letter grades actually work, from inspection to tribunal
The A, B, or C in a restaurant window is the end of a documented process — point scores, a second chance at an A, and an appeal track — set by the city's health code, not by inspectors' whims.
The letter grade in every NYC restaurant window, explained
A, B, C — the card by the door comes from a points system, not a vibe check. Here is how the city actually scores it.
Where the deli lives now: a working guide to Manhattan's Jewish counters, east side and west
Pastrami by the pound, bagels-and-lox counters, and the appetizing stores that outlived the Brooklyn flights — where the tradition actually sits on the island in 2026.
Happy hour economics: how Manhattan's 4-to-7 discount actually works, and where it works best
The oyster deals, the bar-bite menus, and the laws that shape them — a working guide to the island's most honest price window.