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.

Lately, dining out in Manhattan has been feeling a lot like dining in a high school cafeteria. The seats at the popular table are filled with everyone who is anyone, and unless you have Daddy’s Porsche or are cheer captain, you’ll never get to sit. Which is why it has been so difficult to round up my friends for a proper meal in this city. Suggest a reservation, and you’ll receive reservations. “What a headache,” one friend, a spunky PR princess purported. “It’s too expensive to eat anywhere these days, if you can even get a reservation at a good place ... it’s like a fucking aristocracy.” No doubt the economic downturn has affected many of my comrades' fun-funds, making the all-important New York dinner an endangered species. Our "industry" has peer-pressured us into thinking that the only bite worth eating is one we can barely afford, so how do you convince the industry folk that cheap eats can be chic eats?

"This seems like one big Republican party," an unnamed guest with a distinct southern accent noted last night at The Gates. "Either that or it's a Yale reunion." Amid all of this week's summery soirees, I was most happy to find myself at UNICEF's Next Generation Launch Event. With Jenna Bush Hager as a committee chair, Grey Goose-sponsored cocktails, and Josh Madden playing DJ, this one particularly disinterested party guest could not sour the bunch -- regardless if the bunch was made up of Republican Yalies or not. The event was hosted by the members of UNICEF's Next Generation Steering Committee, a group composed 30 thirty young scenesters, including Barbara Bush, Lauren Bush, Maggie Betts, and David Lauren, who banded together to party for their very first initiative: Project Sprinkles, as they pledged to raise $175,000 for the program. Not to worry -- the program isn't raising awareness for your Crumbs habit, though the delicious cupcakes were passed at the event. These sprinkles are sugar-free and save lives.

Bouncer-cum door legend King doesn't like rejecting people at the velvet ropes, but explains why some nights his own sister won't make the cut, while a dude in a blue whale suit breezes inside.

It used to be that a plate of gourmet mac n' cheese was the Kraft dinner I spiked with some dill, diced tomatoes, and a can of tuna. But since moving to New York, a brave new world of haute mac n' cheese has revealed itself to me, and not only is it often exquisite, but it's fattening as all hell. Not counting the arrogant $55 plate of M&C at the Waverly Inn, here's where you can find the strongest marriages of macaroni and cheese in New York.

Martini Park and Marquee co-owner Chris Barish on underage promoting, the power of the water-sipping celeb, bringing club culture to suburbia, and growing up with the Governator.

The Waverly Inn may very well be the new Café Society, but we don’t see anyone lying around in settees there. Least of all its star chef John DeLucie, who likes a meal you can eat with one fork and has a story or two to tell in his upcoming memoir, The Hunger.

Now enjoying a pleasant institutional season, Graydon Carter's Waverly Inn recognizes that some (previously discouraged) new customers might need a little assistance in finding the place. Therefore, the Waverly now supplies a helpful New York neighborhood map inside its matchbooks.

Meet the wonder-boy of the bar and hotel worlds. That is, if you can keep up with him.