Photo by Claudine Williams

KORIN IN THE SPOTLIGHT
The Times has has a 2000-word feature on Saori Kawano, the founder of Korin, with the headline “The Most Important Person (in Japanese Food) You’ve Never Heard Of.” Of course Spotlight feature I did with her on the occasion of the store’s 40th anniversary is one of my favorite posts ever. But the Times has some great testimony from chefs and others in the field. Her business, founded here in 1982, now supplies 8,000 restaurants and hotels and has 34 full-time employees. From The Times: “She’s the only person who can pick up the phone in New York City and talk to anyone in Japan,” said Yukari Sakamoto, a sake expert who lives in Tokyo and leads high-end food tours. “Connections are everything here. Everyone knows that if Saori has vetted you, you’re worth their time.”

A FINAL NIGHT AT DE NIRO’S NEIGHBORHOOD CAFETERIA
Grub Street has a nice story on the closing of Tribeca Grill, co-founded by Robert De Niro and Drew Nieporent among others 35 years ago. From Grub Street: “It’s hard to imagine,” Robert De Niro agreed, in his trademark rasp, when I got him on the phone to say farewell. “I was going to the restaurant in the last couple of days and it sort of hit me that it was going to end. I don’t know how else to put it. It’s just very sad.” That last night, he was there until 3:30 a.m.

A BOND THAT SPANNED THE DECADES
The Trib has a first-person story by Damjanski, a digital artist who moved to Tribeca in 2013, about his unlikely friendship with the late abstract painter and poet Stanley Kaplan, who lived at 18 North Moore Street from 1969 until 2018. Damjanski is now the conservator of Kaplan’s work and has mounted an exhibit, “The Idealism of Geometry, the Reality of Chaos,” at Picture Theory gallery, 548 West 28th Street.

MEG RYAN’S FARMHOUSE KITCHEN
Meg Ryan’s apartment kitchen at 443 Greenwich is featured in Homes & Gardens for its modern farmhouse vibe, including unique lighting, wooden table and sculptural pottery.