There may be no television sound more instantly recognizable than dun dun. Now, for two days in October, it could also mean lunch.

NBC’s Law & Order “Dun Dun Diner” is returning to New York City on Friday, October 9 and Saturday, October 10, transforming Bill’s Bar & Burger at Rockefeller Center into an immersive celebration of one of television’s most enduring—and most thoroughly New York—franchises.

Running from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. both days, the pop-up combines themed food, interactive experiences, photo opportunities and exclusive merchandise with something Law & Order has always understood particularly well: New York itself.

This time, some serious New York food royalty is joining the investigation. Ess-a-Bagel, Katz’s Delicatessen, Magnolia Bakery and Serendipity3 are collaborating on a specially curated menu for the event. NBC hasn’t yet revealed every dish, which means the evidence remains tantalizingly incomplete, but the four institutions bring together some of the city’s most recognizable bagels, deli fare and desserts under one very familiar television umbrella.

Fans have two ways to enter the scene. For $30, the Booth Service Dining Experience offers a seated meal inside the Dun Dun Diner, including the guest’s choice of one featured collaborative dish, dessert, Law & Order-branded merchandise and interactive touches inspired by the series. For those more interested in investigating than eating, the free Grab & Go Experience includes merchandise giveaways and a themed photo opportunity. Both experiences require reservations.

Reservations opened September 18 on a first-come, first-served basis, so anyone planning to report for duty should probably move faster than Detective Benson arriving at a crime scene.

The timing couldn’t be better. The Dun Dun Diner opens one day after the new seasons of Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit premiere Thursday, October 8 on NBC, with episodes streaming the following day on Peacock. This year’s event also falls during NBC’s centennial celebration, marking 100 years of the network’s television history.

The pop-up itself has become something of a tradition. Last year’s Dun Dun Diner also descended upon Rockefeller Center, complete with memorabilia, themed experiences and plenty of opportunities for fans to insert themselves into the Law & Order universe. For 2026, the diner moves into Bill’s Bar & Burger and expands the culinary component with its lineup of distinctly New York collaborators.

Because two days hardly seems sufficient to interrogate a pastrami sandwich, select dishes from the collaborations will continue at participating partner restaurants on October 12 and 13. Which dishes and locations will participate have yet to be announced.

There is something wonderfully appropriate about Law & Order turning itself into a New York diner. For decades, the city hasn’t merely served as the backdrop for the franchise; it has been one of its principal characters. Courthouses, precincts, sidewalks, brownstones, restaurants and recognizable corners of Manhattan have given the shows a sense of place that no soundstage could quite duplicate.

Now New Yorkers get to step inside that world—with considerably less danger and considerably more cheesecake.

The Law & Order Dun Dun Diner takes over Bill’s Bar & Burger at 16 West 51st Street on October 9 and 10 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Reservations are available through the Dun Dun Diner reservation page.

In the culinary justice system, the people are represented by two separate but equally important groups: those who secure reservations—and those who wish they had.

Dun dun.

Ahead of Climate Week, Amy Green unveiled Vegetable Cashmere® at The Core Club, bringing fashion, innovation and environmental philanthropy together in one very stylish room.

Amy Green Photo BFA

Luxury has always been about desire. Amy Green would like to add responsibility to the equation.

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On Sunday, September 20, activist, entrepreneur and environmental advocate Amy Green gathered an intimate group at The Core Club for the unveiling of GIADA, her new luxury fashion brand built around an intriguing proposition: what if the sumptuous feel we associate with cashmere could be created without cashmere at all?

Amy Green, Melissa Gorga Photo BFA

At the heart of the collection is Vegetable Cashmere®, a plant-based fiber made entirely from soybeans and designed to mimic the extraordinary softness and hand of silk and traditional cashmere. The material is 100 percent biodegradable, offering an alternative to animal-derived cashmere while maintaining the tactile pleasure that makes luxury, well, luxurious.

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That distinction matters. Sustainability in fashion has too often arrived with the unspoken expectation that consumers must sacrifice beauty, comfort or sophistication in order to make a more responsible choice. GIADA is attempting something considerably more interesting: removing the sacrifice from the conversation.

Amy Green, Ramona Singer Photo BFA

“GIADA was created from a mother’s love for her children and my belief that future generations deserve a kinder, more thoughtful world,” Green said. “I wanted to create something that proves elegance and ethics do not have to exist separately. Luxury can be beautiful, functional and desirable while still reflecting compassion for animals, people and our planet.”

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The debut collection centers on beautifully conceived vests marrying soft-touch vegan materials with plush vegan shearling, creating pieces intended to move easily between practicality and polish. Thoughtful details include dedicated iPhone and lip-gloss pockets—because sustainability needn’t mean abandoning the realities of how women actually live—and the collection even includes matching “mommy and me” styles.

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There is another smart layer to the concept. Rather than feeding fashion’s relentless appetite for newly manufactured material, GIADA transforms existing in-stock materials into limited pieces. Each vest is handmade in New York by skilled women artisans, placing craftsmanship and longevity back at the center of the luxury equation.

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That makes the collection less about seasonal disposability and more about intention. In an industry built around convincing us that last season is already obsolete, there is something refreshing about creating fewer pieces, making them well and expecting people to keep them.

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Caroline Alt, Ramona Singer, Amy Green, Kari Wells, Candace Bushnell Photo BFA

The luncheon itself reflected Green’s ability to bring together seemingly disparate worlds. Melissa Gorga, Ramona Singer, Scarlet Rose Stallone, Caroline Alt, Candace Bushnell, Jackie Siegel and Natalie De’Banco were among the guests gathered for the intimate presentation, with special gifting from Re-Q Health and LashnSpice.

Jackie Siegel, Amy Green Photo BFA

Caroline Alt, Jackie Siegel Photo BFA

But the timing of GIADA’s unveiling is hardly incidental.

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The launch arrives just ahead of Climate Week and leads directly into Green’s Footprint of Life Gala on Thursday, September 24, where leaders from entertainment, fashion, sports, philanthropy and environmental advocacy will gather for an intimate evening honoring Adam Met and Planet Reimagined.

Amy Green Photo BFA

This is where the story becomes considerably larger than a vest. Green has long understood something that can get lost in the enormous language surrounding climate change: ideas accomplish very little sitting alone in a room. Innovation needs advocates. Conservation needs funding. Environmental movements need people capable of opening doors, creating alliances and turning concern into action.

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GIADA applies that philosophy to fashion.

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It is also why Green has committed 15 percent of GIADA’s proceeds to conservation initiatives through The Green Vision, her organization supporting wildlife, biodiversity, oceans, forests and the ecosystems upon which all of them depend. The purchase therefore becomes connected to something beyond the garment itself.

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There is, of course, an enormous amount of work still to be done around fashion’s environmental footprint. No single fabric or collection solves an industry’s problems. But innovation rarely begins by solving everything. It begins by asking whether something we have accepted as necessary actually is.

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Do luxury fibers have to come from animals? Does sustainable fashion have to look overtly sustainable? Does environmental responsibility have to exist outside glamour, celebrity and aspiration?

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Green’s answer is clearly no.

Candace Bushnell, Cindy Karen Photo BFA

Caroline Alt, Ramona Singer, Amy Green, Kari Wells, Candace Bushnell Photo BFA

What she unveiled at The Core Club wasn’t an argument against luxury. It was an argument for redefining what luxury means.

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Perhaps the most modern luxury isn’t simply possessing something beautiful. It is knowing that beauty did not have to come at quite so great a cost.

There are photographers who document New York society, and then there are photographers who become part of the society they document. Annie Watt belongs firmly in the latter category.

Sometimes a photograph does something far more important than document who was in a room. Walking into Watt’s 20th anniversary photography exhibition at The Consulate, hosted by owners Kiril and Miki Mihajlov, one photograph on the wall stopped me. There was Annie with Judy Gilbert and my friend Errol Rappaport, who passed away last year. For a moment, Errol wasn’t someone I was remembering. There he was again, caught in a living moment among friends. That is the peculiar magic of a photograph: it can collapse time. Someone who is gone can suddenly walk back into the room.

Prince Mario-Max

Nearby were photographs of Prince Mario-Max, another familiar figure in New York’s social and philanthropic world, among the many faces Watt has captured during a career chronicling New York—and, during the season, Palm Beach. Taken together, the walls weren’t simply displaying photographs. They held pieces of lives, friendships and celebrations, a social history preserved one shutter click at a time.

Rod and Judy Gilbert

On September 16, Watt turned the camera back on her own remarkable journey with a one-night-only exhibition and fundraiser celebrating 20 years of the Annie Watt Agency, 2006–2026. But the evening wasn’t simply about looking backward. Net proceeds benefited scholarship programs at the School of Visual Arts, helping promising young artists move forward.

For two decades, Watt has been a familiar presence at galas, benefits, openings and celebrations. Her ability to make people comfortable in front of a camera, coupled with her celebrated eye for posing, turned what began as the work of one independent photographer into the far-reaching Annie Watt Agency. As her bookings grew beyond what one photographer could handle, Watt began sharing assignments with other photographers, eventually building an agency whose work now extends from New York and the Hamptons to Palm Beach and beyond.

Highlighting other photographers work

The Consulate proved a natural setting for an exhibition built around people. Guests mingled over wine and delicious hors d’oeuvres while live jazz played and Watt’s photographs transformed the restaurant into a temporary gallery. The people in the room weren’t simply looking at photographs; many were part of the world those photographs preserve.Even better, guests were encouraged to take their portraits off the wall and bring them home, allowing the exhibition itself to disappear piece by piece as the evening progressed. What had been part of the gallery became a personal keepsake.

G.H. Harding

BACHARACH FOR SURE — Regular readers of this column know that I hold a special place in my universe for Burt Bacharach. His music, from “Alfie” to “What The World Needs Now” are just exquisite works. Each one totally special but fused with Bachrach’s complex chord structures and time signatures. More often than not, you can spy a Bacharach-tune immediately.

 At the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater on NYC’s West Side, located in a YMCA no less, there’ s majestic show going on called Going Bachrach. 

With a terrific band led by Adrian Galante, and singers Ava Locknar, Meecah and John Pagano, they tackled Bacharach songs that are simply delightful to hear. Be it “Alfie,” or “Don’t Make Me Over,” these are just timeless classics in the Great American Songbook. They also did another personal favorite, Burt’s own “This Guy’s in Love With You.” A classic for sure from 1968!

I am a Bachrach fan, but the album he did with Elvis Costello in 1998, entitled Painted From Memory, is my all-time favorite. It’s even the album I’d take as a Desert Island Disc. Costello said that when the pair decided to team up, the songs they would create would be about lost love. Each and every song on the album is joyous and bittersweet. My favorite track on the album is “God Give Me Strength” and the team performed it. Just incredible. Take a listen:

Burt Bacharach and John Pagano

Pagano, who toured with Bacharach for decades, paused at one point to introduce a special guest in the audience, Burt’s widow Jane.

One of the best shows I’ve seen this year. Bacharach’s art was his marvelous songwriting. Staggeringly sensational show.

GOIN HOME — Enroute to my Going Bacharach show, I arrived in midtown a bit early to see what if anything had changed since I worked there some 11 years ago. I got off at 49th and 7th and walked uptown, passing the just re-opened Carnegie Deli. Now it sits about two blocks south from where it originally opened. At 5:15 PM it didn’t look all that crowded, but impressive nonetheless.

I continued on 7th to see the decades-old Wellington Hotel gone, and I suspect a new condo is in-store.

Nordstrom now occupies most of 57th and Broadway, TJ Maxx still occupies 57th and 8th, but Lee’s Art Shop and Salon Ziba are gone forever. Also, the Red Eye Grill is empty too, but the wonderful Trattoria Dell’Arte and sweet-shop Myzel’s,still stands.

I said to Tom Cuddy, after a brief, but satisfying dinner at the Astro on 55th and Sixth and who would join me for the show, it’s amazing what’s new, but also amazing what has stayed. It felt basically the same, but the foot traffic as well as the actual traffic has increased substantially.

I guess you can go home again!

SHORT TAKES – RIP Duncan Sheik. Loved his “Barely Breathing” and Broadway’s Spring Awakening. So sad. Take a read here: https://www.ocregister.com/2026/09/18/duncan-sheik-obituary/?utm_email=5484F4615516C44984F46420F6&g2i_eui=03856d5b039d3c9a315bd8ce19c296fb5da104b4694ec00c727ed48a7a8ae1ea&g2i_source=newsletter&active=no&lctg=5484F4615516C44984F46420F6&utm_source=listrak&utm_medium=email&utm_term=https%3a%2f%2fwww.ocregister.com%2f2026%2f09%2f18%2fduncan-sheik-obituary%2f&utm_campaign=scng-orange_county_register-newscycle&utm_content=curated …

Micky Dolenz at Ameoba/West Hollywood

Here’s Micky Dolenz’s at last week in-store appearance at Amoeba Music in Hollywood tub-thumping his new EP Timeless … Happy Bday Donnie Kehr; Mark Bego; Richard Branciforte; and Suzan Kressel!

NAMES IN THE NEWS — Jarvis Cocker; Tom & Lisa Cuddy; John Boulos; Tony King; Pete Bennett; Allan Steckler; Cori Gardner; Roger Clark; Tom & Lisa Cuddy; John Sykes; Keith Sherman; Bill McCuddy; Tony Bennett; Bill Maher; Cindy Adams; David Fricke; Ken Sharp; Tone Scott; Mark Simone; Herb Rosen; Judy Kaufman; and CHIP!

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