The current trend in moving zoning away from shaping big buildings toward how buildings and places are used and perform can already be seen at the recently opened East River Esplanade, where a balustrade as wide as a lunch counter and bar stools are mandated.

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With some guests gathered on throw pillows around a low table, and others on bar stools at the kitchen counter, we talked of food and travel, photography and arranged marriages (a few glasses of wine among strangers often leads conversations in unexpected directions).

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At the tiny, deli counter-style Monk Bar Chocolatiers, a diet-threatening array of treats is on display.

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After a back and forth of claims and counter claims, the Ferrell and David lowered the bar and offered to pay J.

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To reach for the salad bar rather than the hamburger counter, or to turn away from merchandise in a shop window something difficult for most of us to change.

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The bar itself has an under-lit agate counter that's flanked by a pair of Casa Pupo porcelain leopards a late 1970s byword in bad taste and a complete triumph in this room.

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Walk into a specialist bourbon bar and you will see scores, perhaps hundreds, of brands arrayed behind the counter.

ECONOMIST: American beer and spirits