1) Cuozzo hangs out with Paul Liebrandt, the upstart 29-year-old chef at Gilt, and asks the money question: "Will customers whose checks are not picked up by a newspaper spend as much as they would at Daniel, Jean-Georges or Le Bernardin on a cult-figure, 29-year-old chef in a hotel dining room?" It does have the aura of Le Cirque going for it—not to mention the aura of Liebrandt's not insignificant ego.
2) For bonus Liebrandt fun, drop by PaulLiebrandt.com, the chef's official website. "Turn the volume up for sound."
3) In the NYT, FloFab confides that Manhattan's first Trader Joe's will open in about three months on East 14th Street. A separate wine store next door will indeed stock The Chuck.
4) Bonus FloFabbage in Off The Menu: "Cesare Casella has sold his interest in Beppe on East 22nd Street. He will concentrate on Maremma in the West Village... Gerald Lieblich and his partners now own Beppe, and the chef is Marc Taxiera."
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