West Village hotspot Yerba Buena Perry isn't co-owner Christopher Gilman's first rodeo. He's been in the business for more than two decades, but his first ownership role came with this top-notch Latin staple. Gilman met his partner Julian Medina (Toloache, East Village Yerba Buena) out of pure coincidence and the two have been working together successfully ever since. Read about Gilman's menu recommendations, attempts at going green and making friends in the new neighborhood after the jump.

I caught up with a seemingly suave, cool and collected hospitality designer, Robert McKinley, as he prepared for tonight's opening of Good Units, the brand new space in the Hudson Hotel basement. Publicist Steve Kasuba told me Robert was frantic finishing up, but I sensed no panic, except from Kasuba. One thing is for sure, when opening a joint, in 99.99% of the cases, no matter how much time you get to complete the task, there will be paint drying opening night. I love Robert McKinley’s designs. I loved Cain Luxe, thought Surf Lodge was a home run and GoldBar a masterpiece. Shoot, I’d go to GoldBar even if Jon Lennon wasn’t there

Rogue traders. Cover ups. A bank bail out. Big box real estate. Patrols on the Iranian border. Civilian casualties. This may seem like a list of topics more likely to appear on CNN than in literary fiction, but they’re just some of the hot button issues explored in Adam Haslett’s first novel, Union Atlantic, out tomorrow. The 39-year old author began working in earnest on the book, his follow-up to the acclaimed short story collection You Are Not a Stranger Here, five years ago, long before the economic collapse become headline news. But the confluence of circumstance hasn’t exactly hurt the book’s hype-- when an except appeared in Esquire, the magazine referred to it as “The first great novel of the new century.”

Dear Uncle Steve: I met a really good looking guy two weeks ago when I was bar hopping. It was dark, late and the bottles were flowing. We exchanged numbers after talking for about 30 minutes. Soon thereafter, we began to text and developed a playful chat relationship. After about a week or so he asked me out on a date. With all intentions of meeting up, I told him “yes." After our plans fell through, I decided to make it up to him by asking him to be my date to my friend’s birthday party. One slight dilemma, I have no idea what his name is. Could you suggest a good way to figure out “John Doe’s” real identity without letting him know I’ve been calling him Mister Downtown for the past two weeks?

Sincerely, Up with Downtown

Michael Dorf first opened the legendary Knitting Factory in 1987. More recently, he's built City Winery, a fully functioning winery in downtown Manhattan. Never one to forget his musical roots, the space doubles as a concert venue. Dorf’s vision of music and wine coexisting in the same place has people flocking to City Winery to sample the grapes and sounds.

With two hit plays in two of London’s hottest theaters, Alexi Kaye Campbell is a new golden voice in British theater. He has a tremendous gift for creating charmingly flawed, accessible characters written with heart, humor and boundless empathy. His first play, The Pride, was on at The Royal Court Theater Upstairs in November 2008, and won him the Critic’s Circle Prize for Most Promising Playwright, and the John Whiting award for Best New Play. Soon after, New York City came calling, and The Pride has now opened at the MCC Theatre where it runs until March. Directed by Tony Award winner Joe Mantello, and starring the boyish, British charmers Ben Wishaw, Hugh Dancy, The Pride features a torrid, trans-generational love triangle. We had the chance to speak to Alexi from his home in London, where he lives with partner Dominic Cooke and cat Wilbur.

Back in 2004 Jack White, of the White Stripes and, more recently, The Raconteurs, teamed up with country legend Loretta Lynn to produce the Grammy winning album Van Lear Rose. This year, White will be collaborating with another legend, the 72-year old rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson. One of the most celebrated, hard-headed yet delicate rockabilly artists of the 1950s, the native Oklahoman’s fizzy pop approach, with a touch of Southern twang, gave her a distinct sound that catapulted her onto stages with everyone from Elvis Presley to Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Costello, The Cramps-- and now, hopefully, onto a new generation’s radar.

Trump Soho, the 48-story mondo condo and hotel, is no longer opening its doors on February 1st (the new opening date has yet to be cemented or announced). However, buyers are still willing to ante-up $3,000 a square foot for condominium units that they can legally occupy only 120 days of the year. Somehow, they’ve already sold 555 of them. Chalk one up for The Donald Junior, the Executive VP Development and Acquisitions of the Trump brand, who speaks with BlackBook after the jump.

Dear Uncle Steve: I’ve been engaged to a man I love dearly for over a year. We rushed into the engagement and realized our folly soon afterward, so we’ve been putting it off. He’s still ready to tie the knot, but in a year, I’ve grown into a different person. I’m not planning on leaving him at the altar, but I want to break off the engagement. How do I do this without ruining his faith in marriage and love?

Sincerely, Changed Woman

For a director, James Marsh is the owner of the ultimate calling card. It's a little gold statue that sits atop a tall cabinet stacked with DVDs at his home in Copenhagen. "It’s out of my eyesight so I don’t see it, because it’s not there to be looked at," he says. "It’s kind of there to watch over me and make sure that I keep doing good work." The British-born filmmaker is of course referring to the Academy Award he won in 2009 for directing the engrossing documentary Man on Wire, about Philippe Petit's dumbfounding sky-walk between the Twin Towers in 1974. The film—which blended actual footage with staged reenactments—was a hit in every sense of the word, and Marsh was given all the clout he needed to craft a career directing movies in Hollywood. But rather than chase a payday, Marsh has chosen to remain a personal artist who makes movies that appeal to him. His latest is 1980, the second installment of the British crime trilogy Red Riding, and it's a powerful piece of filmmaking (watch the trailer here).