This is a very useful website I use sometimes when I have guest in town and have to try to sort out the appropriate restaurant:
http://www.menupages.com/

You can search by neighborhood and cuisine. It has readers’s reviews. It also has menus to look at—they don’t include specials, of course, and I don’t know how often they update them, but even so they can still give you a decent idea of the type of food and prices.

What exactly made D’Antoni the all be it choice, D’Antoni landed w/ 3 special players in PHX. Nash, Amare and Marion before that D’Antoni in Denver as rookie coach 14-36 , w/o Nash he had PHX at 21-40, it’s been debated the only reason he landed in NY was because Jerry Reinsdorfh in Chicago was cheap. Paxson wanted D’Antoni in Chicago, D’Antoni wanted Chicago, Reinsdorfh sat on his hands, D’Antoni saw 24 million reasons w/ a possible 16 million buyout coming if he fails.

mel how do you feel knowing Donnie Walsh mislead Avery Johnson and Mark Jackson to think they were the next Knicks coach. Mark Jackson got a good word from Walsh and Jackson got such a good word he started hiring his assitant staff and planning on moving them to Trenton NJ, Avery Johnson was given such a good word they were already in contract negotiations, this was a flinch move, they changed the philosophy of what thier longterm plan was going to be.

I’m not a fan at all of this move, and you can’t seriously think trading this roster won’t bring back extending contracts and D’Antoni is not going to settle for a rebuilding effort, for that he would have gone to Chicago.

I agree with Doreen, if you are looking for a celeb chef experience at prices a lot more reasonable than Babbo, try Becco in the theater district. The Symphony of Pasta (3 kinds of pasta that change every night but never had one we didn’t like) and the veal chop with potatoes and escarole are 2 things we always get.

For a more standard Italian food experience, Pelligrino’s in Little Italy is good. There are also many good restaurants up in the Arthur Avenue section of the Bronx.

Not Cano. He scored this offseason. Oddly, they passed on signing Wang longterm. I’d guess they do it this offseason or sooner.

Lot of teams are moving towards buying arbitration and a couple FA seasons (like Ramirez in Florida, Cabrera in Detroit, Longoria, etc.) rather than giving ‘em minimums.

Daniel is certainly up there as the best. It’s far from reasonable though. Boulud is one of the most regarded French chef’s out there so if you want to drop some serious cash on a meal, Daniel should certainly be a consideration. Either there or Per Se which is Thomas Keller’s restaurant. If you are not familiar with him he is the man behind The French Laundry in Napa Valley. It’s considered by most to be the best restaurant in the US. Per Se is his NYC location.

Agreed, you can’t go wrong on Arthur Avenue for food or for a memorable setting. But consider that if it’s your first visit, the parking can be quite a riddle to solve. Also, on a Saturday night dinner visit to Arthur Avenue, which I think July 5 would turn out to be with an afternoon game, you are going to be met with a pretty big crowd.

If it’s Arthur Avenue for you, great choice. Just have a back up plan

I like any of the small places on Mulberry Street in Little Italy, not haute cuisine, but good satisfying old fashioned stuff. (More likelihood of a romantic, post dinner walk up and down Mulberry Street than Arthur Avenue IMO).

Good luck.

I didn’t think about the union aspect. Can you imagine if a Yankee said what Papelbon said? The Yankees get shrifted (is that even a word?) in their early years, but they know if they keep plugging away they might hit the jackpot a’la Jeter, Mo, and Posada.

Brandon,

Relax. Breathe in. Breathe out. D’antoni is going to be great. It’ll be an exciting brand of basketball. Your players will respond. I mean they gotta right? Would you run your butt off for Thomas the Clown? I hope they don’t forget what they’ve learned on defense because the some Suns player admitted lately that he didn’t recall them ever working on defense in practice. Ohhh. That’s not helping you is it. Breathe in. Breathe out. This is a good thing.