Saturday's Beach Blanket Bungalow at Pink Southampton was apparently a misery loves company meeting spot. Amy Sacco was looking for ideas for her quickly dwindling reality show. Daniel Koch was there checking out the competition. His Day & Night Brunch party has had to battle one of the rainiest summers in recent history coupled with it's location's bankruptcy. And then there's LiLo. Broken up, back together; Dadio knee deep in a totally weird bromance. Drunk. Sober. We can barely keep track.

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Yesterday Merkato 55 filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Crain's broke the news that wasn't much of a surprise given the restaurants inability to capitalize on anything other than their famed boozy Saturday brunch parties.  After changing it's name to Le 55 this month and using stakeholder Brazilian model Fernanda Mott to market the "new" and "improved" spot, they will attempt to reemerge from bankruptcy. In the meantime, according to the Koch Brothers the Saturday brunch party will continue per usual:

"Our brunches will continue on in our tradition at Merkato 55 while the ownership gets the time they need to deal with the ravages of the recession. We know that many restaurants in NYC are suffering now and we will continue to provide our support where we can and deliver the very best experience for our clients at Merkato." More»

For those of you that missed it, Merkato 55 was recently renamed Le 55. Not a hard miss given that the name change has happened with little fanfare (at least up to this point).  But what might have caught your attention is the increased exposure of one of the restaurant's early stakeholders Brazilian super model Fernanda Mott and her relationship to the boozy brunch franchise. More»