Over the weekend I hosted an old friend who I knew back when I lived in Riga, Latvia years ago. (He took over my apartment and adopted my cat, Smaka, when I moved to New York.) Jad is originally from Beirut and now lives in Abu Dhabi, and had never stepped foot in America until he strode onto the carpeted jetway at JFK Friday afternoon. Naturally, he craved the quintessential New York experience, but had a mere weekend before continuing on to a conference in Washington, D.C. Tough decisions had to be made. I decided on a tourist/local hybrid. First stop: the Empire State Building. Nice views! Art Deco designs! Pudgy tourists! So tiring! Next stop: the Village. It was a warm summer evening as we strode down West 4th and wound up at the Corner Bistro. Before we had even gotten our first round of beers, he said the words I needed to hear: "This is exactly the kind of place I had hoped you'd take me."

Two members of LA's UCB pit their old home against their new one

1. Richard Gere, at the premiere of Brooklyn's Finest: My favorite restaurant has to be the Bedford Post. 2. Don Cheadle: BOA, in L.A. 3. Ethan Hawke: Manganaro's, on 9th Avenue. 4. Wesley Snipes: That's gotta be home. My wife is an excellent cook! Where do I like to go? Oh, La Dinastia, the Cuban-Chinese restaurant on 72nd, near Broadway. 5. Hoda Kobt: I love 21 Club. I love Tabla. I love Shake Shack, just their burgers. 'Cause the first time I saw a line, I thought, 'Who would wait in a line this long for a burger?' And then I realized, 'I would.' There's something about the size, the texture; they're moist, they're delicious. And I like Kefi -- on Columbus -- the best, best Greek food ever, delicious.

Sixth borough, my ass. Call Philadelphia whatever you want any other time, but this week, in New York, we call them one thing: "Fucked." Because the Yankees have the best team they've had in years, and they're about to win their first World Series since 2000. Granted, it's eight years late, but sometimes we need to play catch-up. For those who will have to tolerate watching the seven games with you -- or watching the Phillies lose in four -- we've come up with some decent alternatives to your average digs you'd watch baseball, for those who might find this a less-than-pleasurable experience. Batter up.

New York City is a veritable hot zone for burning loins on a mission to be cooled. But where is one to go when craving a no-frills hook-up with no need to swap digits afterward? If you're over the romance, and have already exhausted our targeted tips for boys and girls -- here's a little something for everyone looking for a little something.

Believe or not, sometimes, people working at magazines get treated differently than normal people because companies want stuff in magazines or on websites. Such was the case with the Benjamin Steakhouse, who recently decided that their burger could take on some of New York City's most infamous gangsters in the burger slingin' game. So much so, in fact, that they offered to bring their burger -- along with their competition's burgers -- into our office for us to try out. And hell yeah, we bit. Literally.

Thompson Hotels' director of promotions and entertainment Med Abrous, on his once-in-a-lifetime guest performance with Prince, bringing movie night to clubs and the bright side of the bottle-service decline.

Happy birthday, Boss! BlackBook executive editor Chris Mohney is a cringeworthy 38 yearsold today! [You're certainly right on the cringing part. -CM] He spends his days supervising the efforts of trained monkeys (fellow blogger Ben Barna and myself), strenuously trying to avoid any events that would call for either of us to be shot dead. After work, Chris goes home to exert influence on The Littlest Mohney to be nothing like us. But we want to take him out to celebrate! So: where do you take your married, with-child 38 year-old boss out for his birthday? Answers after the jump.

I’m not sure how best to respond to my initial post about the events that transpired at Corner Bistro last Friday night, but I’ve been asked to write a follow-up. Since going live with the entry, the reaction from readers has been one of concern, outrage and, yes, disbelief. My Facebook account has been bombarded with messages, along with my e-mail account. And while a part of me would like to crawl under a heavy rock, safe from Internet speculation, I’m happy that I wrote the thing in the first place.

UPDATE: Nick responds to the comments on this post and elsewhere regarding more details.