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Beauty Junkie

NYC: Healthy Restaurants to Balance the Holiday Bulge

NYC: Healthy Restaurants to Balance the Holiday Bulge I just got back from a wedding. In Florida. A normal wedding would not have been as detrimental to my waistline, except this one was a combined vacation, right? It's a wedding and it's vacation, and when on a vacation wedding, you're allowed to eat and drink as much as you want. But it's okay because I'm going to start a healthy fast this week. Yup. No eating meat or dairy or anything Gwyneth Paltrow deigns to ingest. So basically, I'll eat nothing solid for the rest of the week, and I'll be back on track for the holiday season. Oh, I forgot. Thanksgiving is this week. And before that I have drinks with a friend in town for the holidays, and then I am having a pre-Thanksgiving feast with people who will be out of town for the actual feast. Then there's the actual feast. I'm not the type of girl who skips special occasion eating, and I am not the kind of girl who'll down pro-biotic liquid chalk while everyone else has stuffing. So balance, I need balance. I need smart restaurant reservations amid all of the customary gorging. Here are some healthy alternatives to even out your This Is Why You're Fat holiday binge-a-thon.

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Paradou & Vadim Ponorovsky: Wrapping Up the Waiter Rage

Paradou & Vadim Ponorovsky: Wrapping Up the Waiter Rage Well, when we last checked in on the hands-down winner for Restaurant Rage of the Year -- Paradou owner Vadim Ponorovsky -- he was still fairly unrepentant about his debatable management style, which peaked when he sent a scathing, pejorative-laced email to his staff (to put it kindly). So, what happened since it went down hard on Friday? Well, for one thing, I knew somebody who was actually headed there.

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Paradou’s Vadim Ponorovsky on the Warpath

Paradou’s Vadim Ponorovsky on the Warpath Okay, here's what happened: one of the three night editors at Gawker, Ravi Somaiya, went live around 7am with a post of a leaked, uh, memo from Meatpacking District restaurant owner Vadim Ponorovsky, to Paradou's staff, berating them for not collecting guests' email addresses for the Paradou's online mailer. Sample sentence: "You sit there bitching about how you make no money, remember its because youre fucking lazy motherfuckers. YOU SHOULD ALL BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY!!!!! ALL OF YOU, INCLUDING THE HOSTS!!!!" The post broke 10,000 hits, the rage of the masses ensued. Ponorovsky maybe tried to sneak into Gawker's comments to defend his actions. We contacted Ponorovsky for quote. So did Daniel at Grub Street, and Amanda at Eater. Both posts are worth reading. And here's what he told me.

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NYC Openings: Mermaid Oyster Bar, OBAO Noodles & Grill

Mermaid Oyster Bar (Greenwich Village) - Mix-n-match aphrodisiacs at this beachy slip. Sixteen varietals, including the elusive Hood Canal.
OBAO Noodles & Grill (Midtown East) - Noodle colony of Michael Bao Huynh's budget Asian empire: pad see iew hearts green mango kimchi.

Industry Insiders: Shimon Bokovza, Samba Savvy

Industry Insiders: Shimon Bokovza, Samba Savvy As a 21-year-old Russian beach bum, he started Israel’s first and only ski resort, followed by an open-air Amazon village complete with volleyball court and golf driving range on the Hudson River. He went on to open the Kit Kat Club that featured Cabaret off-Broadway, and finally Sushi Samba. His Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill will also open in coming months in Miami, just in time for New Year's. While celebrating Sushi Samba's 10 Year Anniversary this month, Shimon Bokovza is just warming up.

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LaGuardia Airport’s Pizza-Eating Contest

LaGuardia Airport’s Pizza-Eating Contest If you happened upon La Guardia airport today and you happen to be wandering close to the eateries around noon -- perhaps waiting for glitch-related delays to resolve -- you may walk into a guzzling, chomping, and hopefully not puking contest to determine who can eat the most pizza. Famous Famiglia is providing the pies, and La Guardia airport is providing the contestants, namely eight of their employees. The poor suckers that have been roped into this cheese-and-sauce feast will have exactly six minutes to hork down as much pizza as they can cram into their gullets.

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LA Preview: Soda Pop’s

Soda Pop's (Mid-City West) - Recycled materials for the tables, artisan ingredients for the sandwiches...sounds like a winning combo.

NYC Openings: Le P’tit Paris Bistro, The Union Square Lounge, Roman’s

Le P'tit Paris Bistro (Windsor Terrace) - Windsor Terrace gets down with L.P.P.
The Union Square Lounge (Union Square) - Relaunch of the lounge under Coffee Shop. Good for young'uns not yet out of the habit of partying in basements.
Roman's (Fort Greene) - Marlow and Diner peeps bring the white tile and marble to Ft. Greene.

Chicago Opening: Gene’s Sausage Shop & Delicatessen

Gene's Sausage Shop & Delicatessen (Lincoln Square) - Achtung, baby. Gourmet grocery store in Lincoln Square proper specializing in sausages, all things German.

LA Previews: The Tar Pit, Hatfield’s, Mooi

The Tar Pit (Mid-City West) - '40s decor, '60s tableware, timeless drinks, celebrity chef. Drinking is going upscale.
Hatfield's (Mid-City West) - Upgrades planned for an already very upped restaurant.
Mooi (Echo Park) - On the off chance you didn't know, the gentrification of Echo Park is official: Vegan bakery.

City: Boston
  • James James
    605 Carlton Ave.
    Hidden in the first floor of a brownstone,…
  • The Good Fork The Good Fork
    391 Van Brunt St.
    A reason to go to Red Hook other than…
  • Flatbush Farm Flatbush Farm
    76 St. Marks Ave.
    Everything you'd expect from a restaurant…
  • Acqua Santa Acqua Santa
    556 Driggs Ave.
    The romantic, go-to spot for the more…
  • Franny's Franny's
    295 Flatbush Ave.
    Ultra-thin pizza fancied up with super…