Restaurant craze du jour: Labeling "LaFrieda burgers." This week alone, I noticed wholesaler Pat LaFrieda's patties highlighted on menus at Seymour Burton, Cooper's Tavern and Steak Frites. Though LaFrieda has been anonymously providing premier beef for years at spots including the Spotted Pig and Shake Shack, this blip of burger branding has been spurred on, no doubt, by recent props from the likes of Men's Vogue, Grub Street and all the hoopla about the beef becoming available for consumers at Market Table. Or maybe that creepy chicken on LaFrieda's Washington Street building has some sort of subliminal, hypnotic power? Must..ask...for...beef...by...wholesaler...name....

The opening party for the new Wall Street Haru was a typically over-the-top affair, with a red carpet leading up to the steps of the Beaver Building. I would've liked to have snapped a few shots of the greeters, but there's something about bowing geishas that just paralyzes me. The food was plentiful, and the sake pours were tall--and there was, I think, a bottle smashed on a rail as if the owners were christening a ship. I couldn't really see over the tops of the broad-shouldered business men in ill-fitting suits, and the hubbub was so loud, one of the guys running around with plates of shrimp tempura was vigorously shushing people. As for the space, it did seem a little smaller than it looked in the PR photos, an observation Eater made early on. But no matter: It'll probably be a big hit with the stockbroker set, and it caused my plus-one to remark, "I always wondered where the kind of restaurants they went to on 'Sex and the City' were."

Those who love cocktails, ceviche and scene with their sushi will probably be thrilled to hear the Haru franchise is adding another location next week. The seventh New York location, sprawled over two floors, is set to open in the beginning or middle of next week in the Financial District's Beaver Building. As you can see from the photo, the swank design has nothing to do with dams or Priscilla Presley.

(Photo courtesy of Haru)