Jolly’s Dueling Piano Bar will be opening Friday. There will be 2 dueling baby grands, room for 125 and a menu put together by Brendan Smith of *Smiths. [Meal Ticket]

If Jose Garces decides to open a New York restaurant he says it will be an Amada. [Grub Street]

Meal Ticket has a slideshow and the menu for Grey Social,  French bistro spot that is promisingly swimming against the Old City current. [Meal Ticket]

Grey Lodge didn’t stop their refurb with new urinals, they also have gotten a glorious new sign. [The Grey Lodge]

Year after year Zagat polls diners to find out who is most generous. And year after year Philadelphia comes out on top. [KYW 1060]

Shinju Sushi at 930 Locust Street is moving to the former site of Aso Sushi at 719 Walnut Street. They’ll also get a cool new name, The Fat Salmon. [Meal Ticket]

MidAtlantic has started weekday lunch. [The Insider]

Sarcone’s Deli is adding a franchise in Delaware. [The Illadelph]

FINALLY!

We almost fell off of our chairs yesterday when we saw that the blog Consumerist had picked up a story from the comments–yes, the comments–of the City Paper’s online listing of Arbol Cafe. The big story being that commenters were sniping back and forth about Arbol’s purported policy of keeping server’s tips and Arbol’s owners had allegedly even written in, but seriously! It’s the internet and anyone can pretend to be anyone.

[Our current favorite comment: "Did anybody read the PW write up of Arbol this week? It seemed a desperate cry from the owners. It was all about how great the owners are. Not many mentions to the food. It seemed like it was geared at fixing this thread. The service wasnt mentioned until the last paragraph, when it stated that the service was poor, but it wasnt worth not coming. I am angered by PW printing this in a blatant remedy for Arbol. Looks like somebody was paid off!" Maybe the owners are using all those stolen tips to pay off our colleague Adam Erace? Ah, conspiracy theorists.]

Then, of course, the always-opining eGulleteers rang in with their pronouncements of doom and so did Phoodie and then Consumerist ran this ridiculous regurgitation and nobody ever bothered to actually go down there or pick up the phone and talk to the owners to see whether or not any of this was even accurate! Or maybe check with a former or current waiter for the same reason.

So we were glad to see this post from supersleuth Drew Lazor, promising the real story along with the full legalese from our favorite food-loving attorney PhilaFoodie. We are so looking forward to someone actually reporting on this story. We know you’re a famous Food Network star now, but what took you so long, buddy?

UPDATE: Arbol Cafe owner responds to Clog comments. The Arbol Cafe Question: Owner Beth Acuna says her piece [The Clog]

Yesterday, we discussed the slippery nature of the auto-gratuity. Today, we find out if it’s even legal!

What happens when you’ve received crappy service and an automatic gratuity is applied to your bill? Are you within your rights to refuse to pay the gratuity or to pay a lesser percent? Or are you legally bound to pony up? The answer, in all of its litigious glory, after the jump…

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While looking over the menu at Bindi, the new Indian-ish spot in the Midtown Gayborhood, we were slightly taken aback by a notice on the menu that a gratuity of 20% would be added for parties of five or more.

Even though we were only a party of two, we had a nice long discussion about auto-gratuity policy in general. Five or more? 20%? What’s the deal?

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Yes, Philadelphians are still tops in tipping, adding 19.4% on top of the bill over the past year.

While some other nations’ diners pay much more for their meals, they are not big tippers. Americans, on the other hand, are more generous — especially in cities like Orlando and Philadelphia (both 19.4%) and St. Louis (19.3%) where tipping exceeds the national average (18.9%). Inexplicably, West Coast diners tip less than those on the East Coast, up to a full percentage point less in San Francisco and Los Angeles (18.4%)

Zagat Releases 2007 America’s Top Restaurants Survey [Yahoo! Finance]