CHOWDER AHEAD: Last year’s Summertime Chowder Dinner was such a swimming success that Beacon restaurant owners Waldy Malouf and David Emil are stirring up the pot again. Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., expect grilled lobsters, roasted and raw oysters, clams, fried chicken and fish, fresh corn and potato salad. The chowders include New England, Manhattan, grilled corn and potato, and seafood. Hydrate with spiked pink lemonade and unlimited pitchers of Brooklyn Brewery beer. It’s $85 (plus tax and tip) at Beacon, 25 W. 56th St. between Fifth & Sixth avenues. Call (212) 332-0500 to reserve.
LADY’S DAY: To mark Tuesday’s reopening of the Statue of Liberty – which was closed to the public on Sept. 11, 2001 – the Ritz Carlton Battery Park (2 West St., [212] 344-0800) is introducing a new cocktail. The Libertini ($13) is a sea-green martini of citrus vodka, pear liqueur, Midori, curacao and lemon with a candy Lady Liberty swizzle stick. Raise a glass to her in the lofty Rise bar, with gorgeous views of the harbor and statue, and an outdoor terrace.
INTERMISSION CONTROL: Do you really want to wrangle with fellow theatergoers when the lights come up between acts? Fifty Seven Fifty Seven restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel (57 E. 57th St., between Madison and Park avenues, [212] 758-5757) cleverly addresses the issue with an Intermission Intermezzo to take away from their pre-theater prix fixe. The $38 three-course meal offers entrees of Nantucket lobster chowder, pan-seared John Dory or grilled sirloin, with a to-go package of water and macaroons for the theater break.
HEADS OF STATE: Brews from around the world convene for one month only starting today at the International Beers Festival, appropriately taking place at the Ambassador Grill at the Millennium U.N. Plaza Hotel (One United Nations Plaza, 44th Street between First & Second avenues, [212] 702-5014). Some 20 countries are represented by their $5 and $5.50 bottles, from Argentina’s Quilmes to Korea’s OB and Belgium’s Stella Artois to domestic brewskies such as Anchor Steam and Sierra Nevada.
BALSAMIC: You love the salt and olive oil they serve at Il Buco, so trust that their new line of products is equally special. Owners Donna Lennard and Alberto Avalle have worked with artisanal producers in Italy on the connoisseur’s collection, which includes an intensely flavored flower of sea salt formed from sea foam, Umbrian and Sardinian extra-virgin oils, and wooden Trilogy Boxes holding threesomes such as vinegars from Modena ($65) with balsamic, red wine and white balsamic (made from sauvignon blanc grapes with a touch of wine). Available at the restaurant, 47 Bond St. between Bowery and Lafayette streets, (212) 533-1932, and at http://www.ilbuco.com.
