It's time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don't guarantee the results.) Today: TV Chefs. Babbo (Menu) 212-777-0303 Two for eight? No Best available: 10:45 p.m. Craft (Menu) 212-780-0880 Two for eight? Yes Daniel (Menu) 212-288-0033 Two for ... more.

Romera is regarded by some to be in the same league as El Bulli's Ferran Adrià.Photo: Stephane Compoint (Graham, Geoffory, dishes); David X Prutting/BFANYC (dishes); Danny Kim/New York Magazine (champagne); David Gowans/Alamy (Plane); Rufus Stone/Alamy (Helicopter) Spain's best-known restaurant, El Bulli, is very famously closing very soon. However, a lesser-known Spanish chef — who is... more.

Photo: Courtesy of Bravo It looks like Dale Talde of Top Chef fame will be working with the owners of Brooklyn's popular Thistle Hill Tavern on a "modern Asian" concept located at Seventh Avenue and 11th Street in Park Slope. No name yet (feel free to leave suggestions, commenters), but the space is slated to open this fall. ... more.

Like this, but with suits.Photo: iStockphoto Well, this sounds lovely: This week, The Daily checks in on the world of Food Eating Challenges, a thing that's apparently quite popular among the city's financial types. What, you say, is a Food Eating Challenge? "The trend is new and only spottily documented, but high-stakes eating contests are catching on among traders and other employees at hedge f... more.

Terrace 5.Photo: Courtesy Union Square Hospitality Group Add one more to your list of places food has infiltrated: MoMA. In advance of an upcoming exhibit devoted to the relationships between people and objects, on Thursday the curatorial staff at MoMA will hand over the Cafe 2 bakery department to an object known as the Baker Box. Whenever a new batch of bread or cookies is fresh out the oven, a... more.

Photo: RJ Mickelson/Veras You'll recall that Michael Psilakis recently returned to Long Island to open a new restaurant, MP Taverna. Well, the Times loves it! Reviewer Joanne Starkey called it the "head of the class," adding that it's now on her "list of favorite Long Island restaurants." Well done! Back in the city, though, Tables for Two stops by Fishtag and files a somewhat tepid take. Like ot... more.

Photo: Michael Nagle/Getty Images When the organizers of the annual celebration of the human condition Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest announced that this year they'd divide the contestants into a men's contest and a women's contest, they also announced that the prize for the female competition would be considerably less than the prize for the men's: $2,500, as compared to $10,000. We'll spare yo... more.

The Great South Bay has joined the ranks of other hallowed Long Island places with namesake breweries (Blue Point, Greenport Harbor, Fire Island). Since opening for business last fall, the newish Great South Bay Brewery has rolled out ten beers, the latest of which is dubbed Robert Moses Pale Ale and described as "sessionable," with two malts and two hops. Alas, for now you'll likely have to trave... more.

Photo: Courtesy Quality Greens If a meal of Asian-fusion egg rolls and burgers isn't quite right for bathing-suit season, FoodParc's latest addition might be. Grub Street hears the futuristic midtown food court has added a salad bar, Quality Greens, which will serve made-to-order tossed veggies and some Middle Eastern meze-type fare from Bay Ridge favorite Tanoreen, beginning tomorrow. And that's... more.

Starting May 18 through the summer and possibly fall, Jeffrey Chodorow is turning the 12,000-square-foot outdoor plaza behind FoodParc into BeerParc, a beer garden with Austrian-German grub from Edi & the Wolf and Seasonal, as well as less Germanic offerings from Ed Brown, Harold Dieterle of Kin Shop, and the ubiquitous Fatty ’Cue. Here’s how it’ll work: You pay $3 per ticket (c... more.

Boulud Sud.Photo: Danny Kim In this week's New York, Adam Platt considers Daniel Boulud's newest, Boulud Sud, the chef's foray into "'Mediterranean' cuisine." "The question my guests and I kept asking ... is, What in the world has taken him so long?" our critic muses. "Boulud’s knack for breathing new life into aged culinary formulas" is on full display with the menu, and dishes like "perfe... more.

Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Comic-book nerds could learn a lot from beer nerds: To be either requires the same involvement and passion, yet while there's a stigma attached to being able to name every member of the Avengers (don't even get me started on the New Avengers split that occurred during the Marvel Universe Civil War), being able to spout off knowledgeably on IBUs (International B... more.

• According to this, eating in restaurants makes you fat and "one meal away from home each week translates to roughly two extra pounds a year." Uh-oh. • Ostrich eggs have been on the rise on area menus, but don't get used to it: This year, the "diva"-like ostrich hens haven't been laying because of all the rain. • There is a bright-yellow banana-shaped car driving around Michig... more.

Poached diver scallops, lemon-fennel puree, dill.Photo: Photo: Roxanne Behr/New York Magazine A rep for Nick Curtin tells us the former Jack’s Luxury Oyster Bar sous is resigning as executive chef at Tribeca tasting-menu newcomer Compose, effective at the end of the month. Reviews for the restaurant, which opened a handful of months ago, were mixed: Julia Moskin of the Times wrote that the ... more.

Photo: Donna Ward/Getty Images Not everybody goes to restaurants just to eat. Some, like real-life action figure Shia LaBeouf, simply run through them while being chased by an angry Megan Fox the press. Others, like Sofia Vergara, go to them just to play with their phones. And then there are those who simply smoke cigarettes outside, as Jason Sudeikis and Eva Mendes did during their group dinner.... more.

Photo: Melissa Hom This is the question The Wall Street Journal is attempting to answer today: What is it that makes food and television go so well together? In a piece that focuses largely on the U.K.'s glut of food-related programming, it becomes clear that networks love these shows because they're cheap to produce; chefs love these shows because they're great advertising for the chefs' egos re... more.

Photo: Taylor Hill/Getty Images This fall ABC is giving All My Children and One Life to Live the ol' heave-ho and replacing them with two talk shows, one of which is actually, really, going to be called The Chew. It'll be all about food and hosted by a "rotating cast," including Michael Symon and Mario Batali. And that makes two more Food Network stars — following the leads of Guy Fieri and... more.

Photo: Melissa Hom In a couple of weeks — July 13 to 18, to be exact — Sam Talbot will temporarily turn over Imperial No. Nine's kitchen to South African chef Peter Tempelhoff. Why should you care? Because Tempelhoff will be serving some interesting-sounding dishes, including abalone carpaccio and "wild" oysters with smoked-ostrich tartar. They're still working out pricing, but advent... more.

Photo: Courtesy of Amangansett Sea Salt Are you, at this exact moment, considering the merits of a fine finishing salt for your chilled pufferfish medallions or artisanal baby vegetables? Maybe? Anyway, if so, look no further than the recently launched Amangansett Sea Salt. One ounce of the hand-harvested salt retails for a steep nine dollars. But it's light and crunchy, like French fleur de sel,... more.

Vongerichten, enjoying the spread at Kunjip.Photo: Melissa Hom Marja Vongerichten may be married to a famous chef (that would be Jean-Georges Vongerichten), but it doesn't mean she considers herself a foodie. "My biggest torture is to sit at a long meal for two and a half hours," she tells us. "He took me to the French Laundry years ago and I was there for five and a half hours. I about killed hi... more.