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Alice Waters has no idea why she just won the Legion of Honor, France's highest civilian award. She received the news in a letter Friday that included no information other than the fact she had won. "There were no details in it about whether it's here or in Paris... The letter came on Friday and we've called yesterday and today," her assistant, Varun Mehra, told us. The three-sentence letter from French Consul General Pierre-François Mourier in San Francisco, had only a return address for contact information. "So we're going old-fashioned. We're writing back to them," said Mehra.

Update: Chez Panisse informs us that French Consulate General Pierre-François Mourier will be contacting Alice when he returns from vacation at the end of August to work out details of the award ceremony, which will be in San Francisco.

Alice Waters to Receive France's Highest Honor [SFoodie]

East Village: Ryan Sutton’s prayers have been answered: DBGB now serves a full menu at the bar. [Eater]
Greenpoint: Check out pics from Papacitos’ new brunch menu. [Greenpointers]
Greenwich Village: A place called Monster Pizzas is getting ready to open on Bleecker Street in NYU land, steps away from Pizza Box, Pizza Booth, the Pizzeria, and Ben’s Pizza. [Grub Street]
Harlem: Frizzante hasn’t even opened yet on Frederick Douglass Boulevard at 117th Street, but they’ve been christened with graffiti. [Zinc Plate Press]
Upper West Side: Wing and frat-boy heaven Blondies has been shut down for a tax issue, but hopes to reopen ASAP. [Eater]
West Village: Frederick’s Downtown is the latest Hudson Street restaurant to shutter, after Alfama. [Eater]

According to an e-mail, Rockaway Taco, the oceanside taco shack that uses local and roof-grown vegetables, will be making a special appearance at Macro-Sea Pools, the secret swimming pool located off the Gowanus. That’s right: Rooftop farming meets recycled dumpsters in a one-two punch of urban repurposing! Sadly, we can’t tell you who to e-mail for the pool’s location because we’d get the sort of flak experienced by the reporter who outed that underground climbing facility. But here’s more pop-up news: An Choi, which tells us it has finally scored a liquor license and is serving Vietnam’s 33 Export beer as well as a selection of rosé, Lambrusco, and white wines, is hosting Asia Dog every Monday this month except August 17.

As promised, Brooklyn Bowl debuts its full menu tonight. On it: French-bread pizzas, including an intriguing butternut-squash-and-mushroom variety. When our reporter Bennett Marcus cornered Blue Ribbon owners Bruce and Eric Bromberg at last week’s premiere of Julie & Julia, they called the dish “the best possible item” and explained it thusly: “It's a lot of cheesy, sloppy childhood memories being brought up. It’s a re-creation of a lot of childhood meals of us learning how to cook together and cook for ourselves.” To that end, the sauce is “our own version of ragù.” Other items that will be permanently added to the menu tonight: Pork rinds (!); smoked BBQ wings; family-size salads; roasted Adobo corn (with queso-fresco-chipotle butter and lime); a potato-and-onion knish; malted milks; a “Bourbon Street Shake,” made with praline, Nutella, and bourbon; and Blue Ribbon’s patented banana split. Here’s your first look at the whole shebang.

Brooklyn Bowl menu

A rumor that Marc Jacobs was moving into the old Cafe Doré space on Smith Street has proven to be incorrect. Instead, first-time restaurateur Benoit Rousan will open a yet-to-be-named French restaurant there at the end of August or in early September. Rousan says to expect “French countryside cuisine with an upscale twist,” and, so that the décor is also upscale, he has hired the Brooklyn-based design firm Hecho, who have done the interiors for the Box, Spitzer’s Corner, Delicatessen, and New York’s "Best Neighborhood Hangout" pick, Building on Bond. If this is the first you’re hearing of Cafe Doré’s closure, take heart: The Feed brings news of another Caribbean opening. Crudo will have a 75-seat back garden, a chef with a Ferran Adrià pedigree, and cocktails from Junior Merino.

Crudo, 235 W. 35th St, nr. Seventh Ave.; 212-695-9001