Needle Off the Record Moment: Bar Room at the Modern

Three stars for the Bar Room at the Modern?!? Is the Times' Bruni on crack? I'm not dissing the food, but let's face it: the Bar Room at the Modern is a major sheila hangout. If you don't know what a sheila is, she's the kind of 20-something girl who orders Champagne by the glass, favors low-cut and/or backless tops, and generally travels in packs to "hot" places found on Citysearch.

Babbo got three stars, for chrissakes. When I see three stars, I think of the kind of place I can take my parents without worrying about them freaking out about service or loud music, a white-tablecloth place like Eleven Madison Park, for instance. But at the Bar Room at the Modern, you can barely walk through the bar area without some sheila spilling a cosmo on you. Maybe Bruni likes that sort of "conviviality," but Mom wouldn't.

Please, Bruni Digest! Hold your silence no more! Frank is crying out for your attention.

Two Upstarts Don Their Elders' Laurels
(Not even going to touch that headline with a ten-foot pole...)