Grub Street

This week, word spread that Per Se, Thomas Keller's ultra-high-end restaurant, received an excruciating 42 points during its most recent health inspection. It currently has a "grade pending" while the staff addresses the issues and Keller awaits a hearing on the grade. The media loved this story: NBC ran with "Exclusive NYC Restaurant, Per Se, Gets Enough Health Violations for "C" Grade." The Guardian went with the less-accurate "Michelin-starred restaurant Per Se earns 'C' grade from health inspectors." These headlines, and the many others like them, all imply the same thing: Fancy-Ass Restaurant Is Dirty As Hell. But the reality is that as a medium, the confusion between letter grades and violations points has less to do with any immediate threat to diners and more to do with the the health department's inscrutable rules. And the agency's online reports are so opaque that they don't offer diners, or restaurants, any useful information.

Twenty-year-old actress AnnaSophia Robb — the star of The Carrie Diaries and The Way Way Back — has some time off at the moment, which means she can enjoy living in Williamsburg and "catching up on life." But that doesn't mean she's out raging at clubs every night with famous starlets: Robb's life in the city is calm and grounded. She eats grilled-cheese sandwiches at her yoga studio, goes to Chipotle with friends, and stays in to cook with her boyfriend. This week, Robb also found time to attend her first-ever Knicks game and indulge her sweet tooth at One Lucky Duck, Cookshop, and Gramercy Terrace. Read it all in this week's Grub Street Diet.

All your MFA-student friends will no doubt put a fist of joy (or two) through the nearest sheetrock wall once you inform them that writing legend Charles Bukowski is finally getting his own line of commemorative beer. The new project, which will continue throughout the year, originated at Boston's Bukowski Tavern, which is one of several establishments around the world either named for or in honor of the famous author, who liked drinking. (This includes Post Office in Williamsburg, incidentally.)

A fast-moving fire swept through the ventilation ducts of Sarge's Deli in Murray Hill in November 2012, drawing 150 firefighters to the scene and nearly destroying the Third Avenue building. Owner Andrew Wengrover has painstakingly worked to restore the 24-hour establishment's interior back to its original condition, and the good news is that Sarge's is now back up to speed, looking the same as it once did. It reopens today at 11 a.m., enormous Reubens and all. [FITR, Earlier]