By
Hugh Merwin
This adorable group of senior-citizen doughnut-shop crooners are better known as the Entertainers, CBS reports. They are members of the Oakville Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society, and they convene at their local Tim Hortons after practice on Monday nights to share doughnuts and coffee. Sometimes, awesomely, they burst into song. Prepare to feel happy, and perhaps crave a cinnamon-sugar doughnut or two.
It's enough to make kings and vagabonds shed a tear or two. 
By
Hugh Merwin
Special orders don't upset them.
As you probably know, restaurant delivery site Seamless deploys all sorts of tactics and strategies to make sure its customers are happy, and one of those includes allowing customers to modify any order with "special instructions." Sometimes that means "please draw a power ranger on the bag," Betabeat finds out. Other times it's just the more straightforward "extra sides of Kung fu ketchup and drugs." Here are some other gems the site logged in 2012.
"Come fast, we're stoned."
By
Sierra Tishgart
Blanca wins/loses for most time-intensive tasting.Photo: Victor Prado
Lately, everyone's bitching about how tasting menus are too lengthy, too expensive, and, grievously, packed with too much food. This is serious. But you may be wondering, out of the fancy restaurants in the city, which boasts the most oppressive multicourse feast? Which chef is the most Stalin-esque? We've ranked New York's top tasting menus by the estimated length of the meal, the number of courses, and the cost, so you can choose your preferred form of pain. Keep in mind that some restaurants are listed twice because they have tiered tastings. And finally, if you're a true food-loving masochist (don't worry; this is a safe space) and want to seek out the most tortuous experience, we've created an unofficial Tyrannical Tasting Menu Index Number that takes all three factors into consideration.
How does Atera measure up?
By
David Rees
"You need to wear a great hat if you want to cook in this kitchen."Photo: Courtesy of Bravo
Thanks to Hugh Acheson and Chef Josie for writing nice things about these recaps on their twitter feeds! On to the show ...
Lobster bisque with Thai spices and Bavarian cream lollipop garnish.
By
Bradley Hawks
Sea-salt-cured salmon, with sunflower oil, smoked sprat with chile, sunflower seeds, and soy paste.Photo: Bradley Hawks
The nouveau European restaurant Bear in Long Island City will celebrate the "Old New Year" in true Russian-Ukrainian style on January 14 — that is, in regal commemoration of the Romanoff family, who kept time with the old, obsolete Julian calendar right up until the end. (The commissars installed the Gregorian calender in 1918.) Scaling back from the 30-course dinner she served on December 31, chef Natasha Pogrebinsky will next week offer a three-course "Old New Year" dinner for $50 a head, which comes with wine. The menu includes hot borscht with salo, herring, and short rib Stroganoff served with gravy over a duck-fat-roasted potato and barrel-cured sauerkraut.
Get down with aspic, smoked fish, and chicken hearts.
By
Hugh Merwin
An elderly man in Nebraska crashed his Honda Fit through the facade of a Valentino's Pizza in Lincoln, Nebraska, yesterday, shearing off the chain store's front doors and launching glass into its dining room before he came to a full stop inside the restaurant and placed an order. "The gentleman said his foot had stuck on the gas," a witness says, "and that he was going to go ahead and order some pizza." It's almost as if he was trying to do one better than the Seattle man who decided to go for coffee right after he was hit by a bus earlier this week. No one was injured, and it seems as though the man did not get his large pie — instead, he was taken to the hospital, where the pizza isn't as good.
He said his foot got stuck on the accelerator.
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