What: Salsiccia Pizza with sausage, tomato, mozzarella, broccoli rabe, chiles & pecorino. Where: Pulino's, Keith McNally's rowdy-yet-highbrow pizzeria on The Bowery. Ideal meal: Pre-game for a night out. Because: Typically McNally-esque, Pulino's pulls off the same charming, eclectic brasserie/bistro vibe here that New Yorkers have previously fallen for at Pastis, Balthazar, Schiller’s, and Minetta. The pizza is tasty, and chef Nate Appleman loves meat items, therefore, anything with sausage is decidedly splendid and cooked with lots of love. Tastes like: Thin crust pizza hits home with this concoction. Sausage, mozzarella, and broccoli rabe is an enticing combo of sweet, salty and slightly bitter. Top with egg for a good time. Bottom line: $17 for a pie, possibly shareable for 3, depending on how ravenous your group might be. Nine slices to go around.

Keith McNally's the celebrity and buzz-magnetized brain behind New York's SoHo standby Balthazar, the center of gravity in the Meatpacking District, Pastis, the Lower East Side's de facto cafeteria of the young and moneyed (Schiller's), and The Hardest Table in Town of the moment, Minetta Tavern. Every opening of his is an event, and even when a restaurant of his doesn't blow away the critics, it still packs 'em in nightly (see: Morandi). Problem is, they tend to be just out of the price range of New York's young and hungry. Until now, or soon, as Pulino -- McNally's pizza place -- is coming, and it's coming downtown, to Bowery below Houston. Today, Pulino chef Nate Appleman twittered that he was hiring. Even better, NBC Local tossed Pulino's plans on their website. What's it (maybe) look like?

Bill Gilroy is one of the industry’s real players. Known as a hardass no-nonsense operator at places like Nell's, Lucky Strike, and Match, he was one of those people always at the heart of well- run, successful places. His word has always been respected and good -- a rarity in a world know for characters who try to get away with anything. Today, Employees Only and the new Macao Trading Co. are predictably making waves, and Bill Gilroy is behind them bringing experience, savvy, and that good word. I caught up to Bill at the Pod Hotel. We sat in his Pod Cafe and enjoyed food from his son Devon, the executive chef.

“I’m a product of the city. I learned this business and hopefully I’m going to stay here until I retire,” says Murat Akninci, manager and maître d’ of Keith McNally's Pastis and Morandi restaurants. The hospitality pro has worked in venues all around New York, starting when he arrived from Istanbul in his college years. With this experience under his belt, he has high expectations for the forecast of the business. “There was an inflation of restaurants that just opened up without smart planning. We’re seeing them actually disappear from the scene, opening up space and opportunities. In the next year and a half to two years, there’s going to be a new generation of restaurateurs in New York City.”

Larry Poston officially opened the West Village resto Hotel Griffou with business partner Johnny Swet on July 1. Poston made his name in New York restaurant circles as a manager at Pastis and the Waverly Inn, and Swet gained his hospitality know-how at Balthazar and Freemans. Most recently occupying the 9th Street space was notorious speakeasy Marylou’s, but the name of the new joint is after the original, French 1870s occupants. The modern dining rooms are themed as a salon, library, and artist's studio with a French-inspired classic cuisine menu. Poston gives us an inside look at the new spot.

A visit to Minetta Tavern spurs a question for the ages.

Dagny Mendelsohn is the front woman representing the 11 total owners at Macao Trading Company. She hails from the other serious foodie city, San Francisco, once she set foot in New York, she learned the heart of the restaurant business from one of the best, Keith McNally. She embraced the underground hipster scene from being part of APT, as well as gaining an education from the fashionistas (a.k.a. Richie Rich). At Macau, she brings it all together under one roof with dinners for people like Perry Farrell, Mick Rock and Morimoto.

The man who makes up the other half of Tenjune, on the opening of the Chandelier Room at the W Hotel in Hoboken tonight, his icons, and why New York's Meatpacking District is still the center of clubdom.

Jeffrey Beers, the creative mind behind Bostonian restaurant tour de force Bond, on his many passions, pacing department stores, and the differences between New York and Dubai.

Keith McNally once said that Morandi would be his last restaurant ever. Well, he lied. And leave it to restaurant monarch McNally to defy the masticated innards of inebriated Brooklyn punks by launching a new business in their midst. The New York Observer sat down with the owner of Balthazar and Pastis to ask him about his forthcoming restaurant Minetta Tavern. He mentions its less-than-ideal location on Macdougal Street between Bleecker and West 3rd, and then elaborates, "It’s the Village of the ’50s and ’60s that’s been out of fashion since Dylan went electric. Weekend nights it’s packed with kids from Bensonhurst throwing up on the sidewalk." Hey man, as long as your daughter is there, then so are we.