Grub Street

One intrepid chef already made New York safe for hamburgers with buns made out of ramen noodles, so it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that people will likely be excited to try burgers that have steamed and grilled rice patties instead of bun halves. Yonekichi opens August 18 in the minuscule former Otafuku space at 236 East Ninth Street and will offer rice burgers with six to seven different fillings, from chicken meatball to eel to avocado, with prices ranging from $7 to $11. "We don't want this to be just a craze; I think it'll be something that people see as an alternative to regular burgers and a little bit healthier," says manager Sakura Yagi. [Bedford + Bowery]

New Yorkers who still wait an hour to pass through a hidden door in a pretend phone booth for some expertly made pre-Prohibition cocktails may be jazzed to learn that bona fide speakeasies routinely materialize just across state lines, or, at least in eastern Pennsylvania, but they actually sound kind of miserable: State police say they infiltrated and raided an otherwise unassuming Spanish restaurant, which was located right under Reading City Hall's nose; offerings included no Manhattans but plenty of joyless $1 shots of unidentified liquor, seven-ounce beers retrieved from an under-the-table cooler, and copious amounts of generic malt liquor. In all, authorities say they seized 25 gallons of beer, a liter of liquor, and the speakeasy's one-night haul of $158.25, or roughly three P.D.T. drinks and two Crif Dogs with tater tots on the side. [Eagle]

In just a few minutes from now, East Village institution Veselka will roll back all prices on its original, circa 1954 menu for 54 minutes exactly in honor of its 60th anniversary. This means $1.50 pierogies, 50-cent potato pancakes, 25-cent egg creams, and lots more — order everything and it's $8.40, pre-tip. Management has already confirmed the restaurant will repeat the blintz blitz at least once more in the weeks ahead, but this inaugural celebration nonetheless promises to be something of a Polish food frenzy, or at least we thought — we're told there's no apparent queue outside the restaurant, as of now at least. "I'm pretty sure it's going to be busy," a worker answering the phone told us, "but you never know what's going to happen." [Related]

England's Advertising Standards Authority, an agency akin to the Federal Trade Commission, has come to the aid of poor Facebook users who, besieged by this innocuous-seeming Captain Morgan's ad, couldn't determine if the troublemaking "Captain and crew were celebrating the end of mid-week boredom, achieved through coming together," or more insidiously implied that a rum-fueled get-together "could overcome boredom and was capable of changing mood" — clearly a fine line, even for a Facebook wall posting that likely took two minutes for a Captain Morgan's intern to bang out. Though producer Diageo argued this one was just one of many, many more Facebook posts, several of which encouraged responsible drinking, the company was forced to take it down. [Spirits Business]

Ongoing East Houston Street roadwork has stifled business as usual at cheap eats destination Punjabi Grocery & Deli, and directly across the street, even the formidably larger, tour-bus-serviced Katz's Delicatessen says it's starting to feel the effects of the multitiered construction project. Manager Jake Dell claims that water main replacement work has made it harder for customers to get into the restaurant, literally, as crews continuously tear into and patch up sections of sidewalk directly outside, and at other moments water service is turned off altogether. [Lo-Down, Related]