A detail of a mural at The Leopard, a club house for museum directors and auctioneers.

New York Times restaurant critic Sam Sifton is no dilettante when it comes to art. Mr. Sifton has, for instance, compared Recette's s'more dessert to "an Elizabeth Peyton canvas" and argued that Graffit's "platings … owe something to Kandinsky." Sweetbreads with butter beans at the St. John Hotel in London? "A Constable landscape of flavors and textures, of menacing clouds and plump trees and soft grass for the lamb, Britain on a plate."

It turns out the critic has an eye for art world power players as well.

In his review of the new Upper West Side spot The Leopard at des Artistes, published in the paper today, Mr. Sifton spots a "dapper" Glenn Lowry, the director of the Museum of Modern Art, dining with Whitney director Adam Weinberg. (They were sitting near former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine.)

According to Mr. Sifton, "This pairing appeared to pique the interest of Harold Holzer, a vice president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, seated across the room." (Mr. Holzer is in charge of external affairs at the Met.)

Mr. Sifton even has the auction world covered, noticing Sotheby's auctioneer Jamie Niven, the vice chairman of the auction house, leaving the restaurant.

On the art front, the critic notes that a recent cleaning of Café des Artistes' iconic murals has uncovered that the "cavorting nymphs" have "copious nubile flesh and shining white teeth."