BlackBook

WEDNESDAY: Dinners With Benefits
Andrew Tarlow’s Nouveau American hit Reynard is bringing more star power to the house. Starting this Wednesday, food and wine friends will be staying over (there’s the whole Wythe Hotel attached to the restaurant after all) to pitch in on fine dining in an event known as "Dinner With Friends." This week’s collaborative dinner sees chef Chris Fischer of Martha’s Vineyard joining forces with Andrew Mariani of Sonoma’s Scribe Winery. Lobster and bone marrow, anyone?
Dinner With Friends at the Wythe Hotel launches Wednesday night at Reynard (80 Wythe Ave., Williamsburg). Meals are $125 and include wine pairings, with seatings this week on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights. To learn more about the restaurant, check out the listing at BlackBook Guides.

Here at BlackBook, we pay a lot of attention to where cool customers go out -- bars, clubs, restaurants, shops, hotels, you name it. So why not flip the frame and let you see where we go out? Here's a periodically updated, exhaustive list of hotspots currently favored by everyone at BlackBook, from the mighty bosses down to the humble interns, from the charming local lounges around the corner to the jet-setting temples of luxe living.

There's a huge segment of people that aren't going to give a shit which way the wind blows come Sunday's Super Bowl: anyone who isn't a Cardinals fan (they have fans that aren't Will Leitch?), anyone who isn't a Steelers fan (they have fans that aren't Obama?), anyone who doesn't watch football, anyone who doesn't have money on these games, anyone who doesn't understand football, anybody who'd rather be having brunch at Balthazar, and ... essentially, much of New York. Yet, because New Yorkers are trained monkeys who invest in rituals -- or because they don't want to spend Sunday afternoon alone -- they're going to have to make their way out of the apartment at some point to get some Super Bowl action in. That being said, if you've got to go, go right -- here, we present our favorite places to "watch" the Super Bowl that aren't insufferable sports bars.

1. Southern Hospitality (Upper East Side) - The 14 HD TVs and a large HD projection screen aren't the real excess here -- that's the $80 premium VIP package. All you can drink, all you can eat appetizers (the fried pickles are absurd), and guaranteed seating to make sure once the fat is on, it stays on. Free Jim Beam from 4 to 6 only sweetens the deal. The place to be. 2. 40/40 (Flatiron) - Like stepping into a hip-hop video, minus the fisheye. All-white, super sleek. Oh, and Kobe Bryant is holding a party for his Laker friends and all the video hos this side of the Bronx. 3. Village Pourhouse (Greenwich Village) - 50 bottles, around 24 drafts at any given moment. But with the $30 all you can drink Bud Light draft from kickoff until end of the game, we both know what you'll be drinking.

At midnight or so tonight, I will waddle out onto the great stage of Webster Hall, where legends have performed, dressed as fat, old Elvis, and co-judge the annual 5000 costume contest with their favorite virgin-to-be-sacrificed, Shane. Last year they had Ron Jeremy but it went too long, the contest length I mean. Where Sinatra or Johnny Cash or U2 rank among the greatest acts who have hit that stage over the last 140 years, I’m sure my performance will rank amongst the worst.

● Fashion 40 Lounge (Midtown West) - More wage slaves than slaves to fashion at this sleek Times Square boîte. ● Pacific Standard (Park Slope) - Mellow, big-hearted Slope pub keepin' it pacific. ● Lucky Strike Lanes (Midtown West) - Scenester bowling from the dudes behind Marquee and Tao.

● Highbar (Midtown West) - Midtown rooftop with South Beach-stylee and wasted watermelons.