Enter now into the Dining Room at Ye Waverly. A correspondent emailed us this take late last night: "All will recognize the room from the last time they were there. The delusional will think they changed nothing accept adding a 'wry' mural of village artistic bon vivants. The reality is that they de-fussed the place and improved the lighting dramatically. Quiet, low ceilinged, beautiful room." Which strikes us as just about exactly right.

Above, the new mural. The unoccupied booth? A half-hour earlier, the view would have included a certain shock of unruly gray hair and plaid pants.

The other secret to the success of the room: most every table is a great table, even the two booths wedged near the bathroom en route to the garden room in the back. (The garden room? Patience, friends: we'll get there.) After the jump, a few more shots.