Meals on Deals

Steve Hanson, owner of the too-trendy-for-Seinfeld haunt Isabella's, is opening a new downtown restaurant that combines Arthurian enchantment with commercial networking. Park Avalon debuts this month, and Hanson has signed on talent agent J. Michael Bloom and commercial-casting queen Joy Weber as partners. Since its Park Avenue South location counts as neighbors some of New York's hottest modeling agencies, the restaurant should lend new meaning to the term "power lunch." "I plan on making Park Avalon my downtown executive dining room," announces Weber. Bloom, who runs J. Michael Bloom and Associates, one of the largest independent talent agencies in the country, says, "All of my agents need a place to do lunch. Where do you think I'm going to send them?" Can you say synergy?

No problem, says Hanson, whose Isabella's has achieved a certain notoriety from Seinfeld's prime-time rebuff. (Seinfeld, in real life, eats there regularly.) "It will make Park Avalon a hot place," Hanson says. "But I don't do flashes in the pan. I want people fo keep coming back." Seinfeld's invitation is in the mail.

SEAN MURPHY