So, are restaurants really the new nightclubs? Check out these multitasking contenders.

● Minetta Tavern (Greenwich Village) - A night at Minetta, complete with Barry Diller, Diane Von Furstenberg, and Harvey Keitel sightings, spawned this thesis. Your visit will confirm all the copious booze, packed interiors, and loud soundtracks of a nightclub, but you’ll also be served top brasserie eats.
● Hotel Griffou (Greenwich Village) - Stealth-posh scene-stealer serves up vintage dishes, but the elaborate array of intimate rooms is just as big a draw. Big enough to draw Leo, Chloe, and Kanye, among a glut of bold-faced names.
● Monkey Bar (Midtown East) - Graydon Carter's latest monkeyshines lays down a hierarchical supper club scene, with banquettes for the literary elite and tables in the pit for you. Oysters named for Rockefeller, meatloaf named for Ephron. But it’s all about the scene.

It all started in the Lower East Side back in 2003 -- before the skinny-jeaned hipster invasion -- when now-celeb chef Wylie Dufresne opened wd-50. Melding science and food, the molecular gastronomer has since inspired many to experiment. Of course, not everyone's into mad food science, but most chefs like to get a little edgy somewhere on the menu.

● Cookies @ Momofuku Bakery Milk Bar (East Village) - David Chang could get a vegetarian hooked on pork belly, so imagine what the man’s dessert spot can do with a cookie. Among the most drool-worthy: cornflake-marshmallow-chocolate chip, corn, blueberry cream, and compost cookie (so fabulously odd that the chocolate chip, pretzel, potato chip, coffee ground, and graham-cracker crumb-concoction is trademarked).
● Onion soup dumplings @ Stanton Social (Lower East Side - You’ll just have to focus on its deliciousness and put aside the fact that there’s enough cheese in this dish to give you a cholesterol problem.

Because sometimes a diner just won’t do.

10. Rusty Knot (West Village) - For those butter and salt cravings.
9. The Box (Lower East Side) - A memorable meal for sure; whether you trust what’s on your plate and/or feel like eating after watching the show is another story.

I guess that in the world of kitchens, there can definitely be too many cooks. Although I thought I had it right (and maybe Eater did too), it seems that Franklin Becker's role at Delicatessen is squarely that of consultant, and Michael Ferraro is actually the man running the show. I ran into David Rabin, who tipped me off on the Delicatessen story, at a meeting yesterday. David didn’t want to stir the soup and thought it was no big deal but was appreciative that I was going to clarify today, so below I’ve included a letter directly from Franklin Becker, which explains the situation.

Delicatessen is finally going to upgrade its rap. This past summer, my hood Nolita embraced this highly stylized "cafeteria" (a.k.a. restaurant)-type eatery. A chatty neighborhood crowd came in droves to enjoy the newness and the open garage-door dining. It was, in fact, the perfect place to eat -- except maybe for the food. Alas, in that area, myself and many others were not impressed. With Gitane, Habana, 24, Ruby's, Bread, Barmarche, and a few others offering a trendy social atmosphere as well as great menus for the sharp Nolita set, the joint quickly lost its luster. The crowd became "shoppers,” a bit "too touristy," and the only time anyone mentioned Delicatessen was when it got too noisy.

Because the choice shouldn’t be between restaurants where Chipotle and Per Se, here are a few spots that have embraced the middle ground.

10. Moules-frites @ Schiller’s Liquor Bar (Lower East Side), $18 - Same Parisian-bistro vibe as at Keith McNally’s Balthazar and Pastis, but you’ll save yourself some cash, a two-hour wait, and any shame involved in being stingy with your wine selection (the list is divided into “cheap,” “decent,” and “good”).
9. Hamburger @ J.G. Melon (Upper East Side), $8.50 - Nothing can pack in hoards of NYC prepsters like this UES landmark's juicy burger.
8. Romanian skirt steak @ Delicatessen (Soho), $17 - Forget that foodies critically panned it and that a neighbor urinated on the glass roof; with nothing on the menu over $20, a lively atmosphere, and plenty of swank space, it’s little surprise that Delicatessen is almost always packed.

Annabelle Dexter Jones is forced to brush her hair and conjure old memories of the Upper East Side.

Something strange happens when you run into Annabelle Dexter Jones -- you breathe a sigh of relief. With her unaffected disposition, natural beauty, and teasing grin, this young bon vivant exudes a genuine elegance that takes the usual capricious cocktail tête-à-tête back to a calm sincerity. When she's hob-knobbing about town, one can find Annabelle looking carefree in her cultivated downtown style ... a sensibility she says is a product of being a little sister. As the younger sibling of DJ Samantha Ronson and fashion designer Charlotte Ronson, this style assertion rings true. She mixes a tomboy aesthetic with playful pieces from Charlotte's line.

At New York's Delicatessen -- the Latin-fusion diner from them what brung you Cafeteria -- the barman Damon has several tricks up his sleeve. Among them is a succulent jalapeno margarita, with just the right amount of kick and almost certainly no salmonella. And if you're lucky, it comes with a special garnish too.