UPDATE — According to a tipster, Jerry Weinstein has been told by NEW MANAGEMENT that he is no longer personally allowed to accept reservations.

I thought I had stepped into the twilight zone on Wednesday when I got home from work and didna€™t recognize a single face behind the front desk. Typically, when I get home, ita€™s either Robert and Robert, or Uninviting Robert and Jerome. But on Wednesday there were three young people behind the desk: Juan, who has been around for a few weeks, and two young women whom Ia€™ve never seen before. Then, on Thursday there was a new guy holding open the front door (a doorman?) and more new people behind the front desk. Oh well, I suppose wea€™ll find out their names when the holidays roll around and we get a little list in our boxes.

This place is swiftly becoming corporatized, and ita€™s a damn shame on a number of levels. But allow me to digress for a moment and tell you a little story: