Knickerbocker.

http://www.knickerbockerbarandgrill.com/home.html

Hundred Acres.

http://hundredacresnyc.com/

Thanks all. I'm shooting for Gjelina. I'm sitting in the front of the plane, have no checked bags, and winds earlier in the week were sufficiently favorable that flights from the East Coast were getting in substantially ahead of schedule, so hopefully I have a decent chance!

Land at LAX at 10:40pm and am staying at the Ritz in Marina del Rey. Where should I go for dinner? I'm assuming it will be 11:30pm by the time I get my rental car and get anywhere. Anywhere reasonably close -- Venice, Santa Monica, etc. -- is fine. Price is not an issue, but I'll be in jeans and a t-shirt.

Rendezvous's boston lettuce salad with sliced apples, Shelburne Farm cheddar, spiced pecans and cider vinaigrette is my favorite salad anywhere.

I made the same mistake, but the website for the New Iberia Landry's makes it clear that there's no connection.

The food at Le Pavillon is nothing special.

If you were thinking of going to Roberta's (which I highly, highly recommend), skip Roberta's at Madison Sq. Park, enjoy the other offerings, and then hop on the L train out to Brooklyn for the real thing! (Mind you, I have no reason to believe that Roberta's at MSP is not excellent, but the bricks-and-mortar -- or, more accurately, corrugated aluminum -- location is well worth what's really a pretty easy trip.)

I had a lovely dinner at Herbsaint this past Wednesday night. Our server reminded me of Woody Harrelson (stoned, but very nice!), so while the service was not the best I've ever had, it was competent and the food and overall experience were excellent.

Herbsaint is delightful and is less than 10 minutes away by foot (or two minutes away by taxi). Make a reservation on opentable.com.

Luke, another decent option, is almost as close.

Why limit yourself to the Theater District? You can have a great meal at 5pm virtually anywhere in the city -- and likely will eat far better outside of the Theater District -- and still make it to the theater in time for your curtain.

It's not going to make choosing any easier, but as Pan points out, all of NYC is convenient to your hotel.

While New Beer Distributors is awesome for its wide variety of beers, I'm not sure it's necessary to go out of your way if you're just looking for the crap beer (such as Coors and Corona) that you can find at any supermarket.

I agree that the city is far more enjoyable outside of festivals and special events, but with 26 consecutive years of JazzFest under my belt, I can hardly break my streak now!

And while I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Coop's was packed with tourists during JazzFest, the night I went was the Wednesday before fest, which historically has been ahead of the Fest crowds. (Long before I gave up on Coop's altogether, I gave up on Coop's during Fest.)

As someone who has visited New Orleans approximately 50 times over the past 25 years (I just arrived in the city for my 26th consecutive JazzFest), I am pretty certain of two things: (1) I will never be a local, and (2) notwithstanding number (1), I know this city far better than most visitors and take pride in enjoying it like a local.

Twenty-some-odd years ago, when a local introduced me to Coop's, I fell in love. And for the past 20+ years, every time I flew into New Orleans after work on a Friday, landing close to midnight, as I've done many times, I would always head to Coop's, knowing the kitchen would be serving great food into the wee hours, and that there would be an interesting mostly-locals crowd at the bar. And even in recent years, when it seems that Coop's has found its way into every tourist's guidebook, the seating at the bar has been a safe haven, as the tourists for the most part would sit at the tables, and the locals for the most part would sit at the bar. (Apologies for the gross generalization, but that's how I'm fantasizing it's been for the last several years!) Last night, that clearly was not the case. When I showed up around 9pm, I didn't see a single face that struck me as a local. It appeared to me that the place was 100% tourists. I fled.

After a few minutes of indecision, I decided to give Bacchanal a try. Now I know that you locals are very familiar with Bacchanal. I am familiar with it only because I happened to pass it when out for a run during a visit last year. I saw this cute little wine shop during my run, and when later that day I needed to buy a bottle of wine to bring to a friend's house for dinner, I returned to Bacchanal. It was only then that I discovered the courtyard, As a non-local, it felt like a real A Ha! moment to discover this wonderful little place.

So after fleeing Coop's, I hopped in a cab over to Bacchanal. On the drive over, it started to rain lightly, and I feared I had made a bad decision. What a thrill it was to pull up to the place and discover the upstairs room! There was a jazz trio playing, and I enjoyed a wonderful meal of shaved brussels sprout salad, a bouillabaisse-like seafood soup, and a well priced and easy drinking white burgundy. And I felt like I was in New Orleans, just like I used to feel 20 years ago when I first discovered Coop's.

Coop's: you and I have had a long run. And I'm sure there will be times in the future when, in search of a late night meal, I will grace your door again.

Bacchanal: I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

Periwinkle, in Ipswich, is another good option.

There are four good options between the LES and Penn Station:

1. Ess-a-Bagel, on 1st Avenue at 21st St.

2. Murray's, on 6th Avenue between 12th and 13th Sts.

3. Murray's, on 8th Avenue between 22nd and 23rd Sts. (depending on how much stuff you are carrying, Penn Station is walkable from here)

4. Corner Cafe, on 6th Avenue at 24th St. (of the four, this place tends to have the shortest lines; also, depending on how much stuff you are carrying, Penn Station is walkable from here)

I find much of the discussions about "appropriate" restaurant attire to be incredibly pretentious (imho, of course.) I remember being in New Orleans many years ago and calling the well regarded (and relatively high end) Bistro at Maison de Ville to inquire about appropriate attire. The Bistro's famed maitre d', Patrick van Hoorebeek, answered the phone and responded, "We're about food, not about what you wear. You can come naked for all I care." I chose not to go naked, but I loved the response!

Lost their lease more often than not is just a euphemism for the food sucking so bad that no one would eat there.

I could be wrong, I've never run Boston before (until this year!), but I think access to the city will be easy by dinner time. You'll just have run 26.2 miles. Make them come to you! (I have reservations at Island Creek Oyster Bar for my post-marathon dinner.)

I posted recently about great delivery from Thelonious Monkfish.

Thanks for helping to save me last night! We had dinner with friends last night who were anxious to try Talde. Fortunately when we got there they were quoting an hour wait, so we convinced them to go across the street to Applewood, where we found a lovely and very quiet dining room and enjoyed a wonderful meal!

Aquitaine Bis is good and consistent, if heavy and, as noted, hardly cutting edge.

[BTW, Ferrari328, I completely disagree that Restaurant Week is a good way to try new restaurants. It's a good way to see how restaurants can handle the parameters of Restaurant Week, but oftentimes not a good way to experience what a restaurant is capable of doing on a "normal" night. Just my unsolicited two cents!]

I suggest heading to a different neighborhood. For example, you could eat at one of the restaurants at the Ace Hotel (John Dory Oyster Bar, The Breslin), and then take a 5-minute cab ride to the theater. Or go to the tap room at Keen's (your budget won't work in Keen's dining room, but it should in the more casual tap room).

Jalopy Tavern

http://www.jalopytavern.biz/

Have used seamless.com a couple of times recently to have food delivered from Thelonious Monkfish, in Central Square, and have been quite pleased. On both occasions, the delivery arrived at the long end of the estimate (45 minutes), but the food nonetheless tasted fresh and delicious. On Saturday night (I know, it's lame to order delivery on a Saturday night, but we had completed a 21-mile Boston Marathon training run earlier in the day and couldn't motivate to go out!), I ordered drunken noodles (extra spicy) and peking duck wraps (listed on the menu as "Tortillas Peking Duck Special"). Both were excellent. It's rare that I can get a restaurant to make dished as spicy as like, but they certainly made a good faith effort to honor my "extra spicy" request. And the duck rollups were terrific; a nice riff on peking duck. Definitely will repeat. Any maybe even will try eating in the restaurant one of these days!

It's a new slider place on Bleecker. Prices look a little steep. Wondering if it's worth a visit. And wondering if they serve beer!

http://sliderestaurant.com/

I very much doubt that Danny Meyer would agree that "they aren't aiming at a great burger." But I do agree that it's intended to be a "quick service" (to use industry jargon) style burger and not a high end restaurant style burger. And as quick service style burgers go, it's a pretty darn good burger. But that doesn't change my mind that it's not worth waiting 45 minutes in line for.

I was at Area Four this past Sunday, and it was much less chaotic than what you find at Friendly Toast.

Your views are consistent with mine. (My NYC apartment is a block away from the original Shake Shack location.) It's a perfectly good burger -- certainly better than your average fast food burger -- but not worth the typical 45-minute wait in Madison Square Park. If the line is short, I'll go; otherwise, not.

I haven't read this entire discussion, but it does confirm my belief that restaurant week sucks. It sucks for the restaurants. It sucks for the customers. Certainly a high quality and well managed establishment like B&G should be able to handle it as well as anybody, but it still sucks.