March 1, 1995

Senate Republicans, a lone Democrat short of the 67 legislators they need to adopt a balanced-budget amendment, reneged tonight on a promise to vote on the measure and abruptly threw the chamber into recess instead. Asked later when the Senate might vote on the amendment, the majority leader, Bob Dole, replied with a half-smile, "Maybe this week." A second Republican who is leading the amendment debate, Senator Larry E. Craig of Idaho, predicted a vote on Wednesday.

In a style as grand and audacious as its leader, the Nation of Islam opened a new $5 million restaurant complex on Chicago's South Side today. The opening marked a return to the food service business that helped establish the Nation, the black Muslim religious sect, as a steady economic presence in African-American neighborhoods across the country in the 1960's and 1970's. Unlike the Nation's earlier restaurants -- small places with Formica-topped tables and tiled floors -- the new Salaam Restaurants and Bakery is a lavish two-story, 15,000-square-foot mosque-like structure.

THE coffee of the day is usually hazelnut, and the question of the day is whether to tip for it. All over Manhattan, coffee-bar patrons are being confronted by jars and bowls with signs like "Tips create incredibly desirable karma!" and "Out of pity, out of generosity, whatever! We don't care. Tips!" And many New Yorkers, only recently having mastered the art of ordering espresso and lattes, are confounded by this facet of coffee-bar culture.

Keeping up with Sonny Bono -- make that Representative Sonny Bono, the California Republican -- is no easy task. He's quick. Fellow members of Congress who want a word with him as he hustles to the House floor to vote must jog alongside. He just keeps on walking. Mr. Bono has to be fast. The trip from his fifth-floor office in the Cannon House Office Building to the House chamber requires two elevator trips and a scramble through labyrinthine basement hallways.

EVERY restaurant has it, though practically every restaurateur denies it: a best table, the one that, all at once, confers and confirms a customer's status. In a secluded corner or in full view of everyone who comes in the door, with a heavy marble top or spindly legs, it can be a deuce, where a mogul and a power broker can go fork to fork at lunch time, or a booth for four with a velvety banquette. What makes a table sought after varies from restaurant to restaurant and even from noon to night. Consider the Four Seasons, at 99 East 52d Street: some of the most powerful people in the world sit in the Grill Room during lunch, but never, ever at dinner time.