Prana Is Back for All Your Virtuous Dining Needs

If ever you're in the market for not-cheap and healthy fare (and you're not near a Whole Foods salad bar), Prana has you covered. The Newton Centre restaurant had shut down awhile back, but they have reopened on Centre Street. A few changes have taken place: It's now called simply "Prana," ont Prana Cafe, and the menu is bigger. BRT lists things like bean chili, glazed turnips, naan pizza, a kelp noodle salad, pesto primavera, marinated portabella, walnut lentil croquettes, crepes, and zucchini lasagna delicacies. But what about honey? [BRT]

Someone Needs to Give Nicolas Cage’s Brother His Own Cooking Show, Like, Now

By Hugh Merwin

The Biker Chef, cat included.

For all the food shows that actually make it onto TV, many obviously don't, which is too bad because a lot of them sound way, way better than Fat Chef: For example, check out the (not-embeddable) trailer for Biker Chef, which looks exactly as kick-ass as something called Biker Chef should look. It may make your day, weekend, or month depending on just how much awesome your heart can tolerate.

"One road warrior ... and a cat." »

Are Cheers and the Union Oyster House Really the Best Reasons to Visit Boston?

By Kara Baskin

If you trust Four Square, then yes. BostonInno says that those two spots are the most popular restaurant check-ins for visitors, trailing just behind destinations like Fenway Park and the Sam Adams Brewery. In fact, Cheers shows up twice: Tourists apparently really like the Beacon Street location, most recently the site of a Kirstie Alley dance party, but not quite as much as the (less authentic) Quincy Market outpost. Oddly, Durgin Park did not appear on the list at all. Do stay tuned: BostonInno also plans to reveal the most unpopular Four Square attractions. Wonder which restaurants might make the list. Menton? Toro? [BostonInno]

James Murphy: Big Into Coffee, Planning His Own Espresso Line

By Jada Yuan

Murphy: In need of caffeine.Photo: Larry Busacca/Getty Images

In watching the Sundance screening of Shut Up and Play the Hits, the documentary of LCD Soundsystem's final show ever at Madison Square Garden, it is clear that James Murphy loves three things: music, his French bulldog, and coffee. He loves coffee with a passion unmatched by pretty much any somewhat famous person besides David Lynch, who has his own coffee line and has been known for putting rants about the virtues of coffee versus tea in movies like Inland Empire. In fact, when Stephen Colbert asked Murphy what he wanted to do now that he was retiring from rock stardom, he said, "I like to make coffee."

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Top Chef Texas Is Headed North for Its Finale

By Alan Sytsma

The other week, rumors popped up that the latest, Texas-fried season of Top Chef would shoot its finale in Vancouver, British Columbia (nickname: the San Antonio of Canada), and now some tweets from the various TC judges confirm it. Gail Simmons tweets that it's the birthplace of Jason Priestley; Emeril points out that it's also the birthplace of Greenpeace; Padma says it's also where "the Chinese Buffet was founded." Guess the challenge will be an ecofriendly egg roll cook-off, guest-judged by Brandon Walsh?

Even Paula Deen’s Sons Almost Quit the Family Biz

Just days after bringing us the scathing news that Paula Deen's publicist recently quit, "Page Six" delves even deeper into the Deen family: According to "sources," Bobby and Jamie Deen were initially very unhappy with Paula's plans to endorse Victoza. So unhappy that they almost — almost — met with other talent agents in an effort to move out from under their mom's shadow. But! Paula "put them both under a lot of pressure," and they ended up helping their mom after all. What, did she threaten to cut off their allowance? [Page Six/NYP, Earlier]

A Potentially Scandalous Mondavi Memoir; The Grateful Dead Inspire a Winemaker

By Jay Barmann

"Imagine the tell-all they could write about me!"

• Robert Mondavi's widow Margrit, 85, is working with a ghost writer on a "frank" memoir about her life in and around the wine business, including a story about a famous, costumed Roman orgy the couple hosted at their home in the eighties. [Decanter]

• Margrit also recently gave the famed Wappo Hill mailbox from the couple's recently sold estate to chef Richard Reddington, at his request, to feature in his new Yountville pizzeria Redd Wood. [Grub Street]

• Grateful Dead bandmember Phil Lesh is busy opening a restaurant and music venue in Marin County called Terrapin Crossroads. Meanwhile, the "earthy, savage blend" of the Dead's Steal Your Face album inspired a Mendocino winemaker to make a Syrah blend and name it for the album. [Mass Live]

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We Can Totally Relate

"Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the reason I have trust issues." — Patriots running back Stevan Ridley, exposing a little bit of his psyche. [StevanRidley/Twitter, AH]

Claire Danes Lunches Vegetarianishly at UpStairs on the Square

By Kara Baskin

No meat, but plenty of Puddin'.Photo: Patrick McMullan

The actress, in town to receive a Hasty Pudding award, adjourned to UpStairs on the Square to fuel up for the Harvard fete. Upon what did the dignified Danes up? Per the Globe: "Danes and her dashing husband had a leisurely lunch at UpStairs on the Square. The couple, who are traveling with their dog Weegee, had a vegetarian lunch of butter lettuce, ruby red grapefruit and avocado, half of a cider-glazed acorn squash, warm farro, tuscan kale and quince, and vanilla white chocolate cake and passionfruit caramel and crème legere." Luscious!

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Andrew Zimmern Feasts on Roasted Raccoon for Breakfast, Banana Pudding for Dessert

By Alan Sytsma

Zimmern digs in at Craft.Photo: Melissa Hom

As the host of Bizarre Foods on Travel Channel, which kicked off its latest season this week (airing Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT) , Andrew Zimmern made his name eating some seriously strange stuff. But he swears that things are different when he's off the clock: "I go home at night, I pick up the dry cleaning, and I make a roast chicken and some crispy potatoes and my wife and son and I sit down to a nice dinner." But that doesn't mean it's impossible for some errant offal to sneak into his day-to-day routine, especially when chefs recognize him in their restaurants. "The disaster for me is when I'm with my wife and son and we stop at a burger bar or something," Zimmern says, "and the chef decides to send out a month-old pig head from the freezer. I just want to eat a burger with my son!" Fortunately for Zimmern, there were no surprise pig heads this week while he was in New York — Zimmern, a native New Yorker who now lives in Minnesota, says he gets back to town about once a month — but there were plenty of other interesting things. For tales of sauteed duck testicles, calf-brain sandwiches, and much, much more, take a gander at this week's New York Diet.

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