Nick Paumgarten writes in the “Tables for Two” feature of this week’s New Yorker :

The 92nd Street Y is a little bit like a desert well, attracting people to what would otherwise be a cultural wasteland at night: restaurants have begun to spring up around it, like date palms. Last Valentine’s Day, a couple from the neighborhood, Silay Ciner, a Turk who grew up in Istanbul, and his wife, Jill, who is from Denver, opened Peri Ela, a block south of the Y. The food is traditional Turkish, but the space, formerly home to a Greek coffee shop, of all things (Molon lave!), is what you might call Manhatto-Turko-NATO chic: exposed brick, pressed tin, semi-nudes on wood-panelled walls, Amy Winehouse on the stereo.

We’ve written about local dining options before and recently went to Peri Ela with a group of co-workers, including one who is from Turkey. Smiling nods all around, our enthusiastic recommendation is authentic and earnest.

While we have food on the mind, here are two great programs at the Y this week: Hedonistic, Healthy and Green: Can We Have It All? with The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food author Michael Pollan and Wine, Cheese and Treats from Around the World with Fairway Market’s Steve Jenkins and Joshua Wesson of Best Cellars.