Inqlings | Hot N.Y. chef will check in here

Though name and concept haven't been nailed down, it will be "sexy, modern, sophisticated and casually elegant - keeping the grandeur of the dome but at the same time creating an intimate space," Ripert said Friday. Unlike his formal New York seafood restaurant - where adherents drop $107 and up for the tasting menu - this will be a "good value in terms of price." He said he'd export a chef from Le Bernardin to run the kitchen.

Ripert (sounds like "repair") consults for Ritz-Carlton, with two restaurants in Grand Cayman, and just announced a similar project at the Ritz-Carlton in D.C.'s West End.

An upright guy

Eagles kicker David Akers' assignment next Sunday: He'll officiate at the marriage of Tracey Detweiler, who oversees Eagles' travel, to Jeff Leinen, who has the same role with the Detroit Lions. (Sheer coincidence that the Lions play the Eagles here this season, on Sept. 23.) Detweiler, a Lansdale native in her 13th season with the Birds, credits Akers with providing her spiritual guidance. Akers is not ordained, so the Rev. Herb Lusk, the team's chaplain and a former Eagle, will sign the license. You may wonder where two travel experts will honeymoon. So does she. Her fiance booked the trip; all she knows is that they'll go July Fourth weekend.

Big break

The quartet Bamboo Shoots - two of whom are Voorhees' Avir Mitra and Cherry Hill's Karl Sukhia - turned up on Conan O'Brien's TV show the other night as they won a deal with Epic Records worth $1.5 million in an online contest sponsored by the label and cable outlet mtvU. Bamboo Shoots, formed at Middlesex County College, melds upbeat rock, electro and South Asian/Indian sounds. The band will be documented in an mtvU series premiering in the fall.

Charity stuff

The local Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation raised $1.3 million last weekend at its Promise Ball at the Loews. Would have been only $1 million had three people, including a 12-year-old girl, not stood up during the program and donated $100,000 each.