Grub Street Sidewalk Tables map

200 of their favorite restaurants with sidewalk cafes.

Andrea Strong's Brunch Recommendations

Always on the quest for a good brunch spot? Check out Andrea Strong's list.

Check out the recipe for The Smith's poached eggs on potato waffles here. they're DELICIOUS!

Public Grilling in the City

The Kitchen has a roundup from the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation on where you can legally grill in NYC's public parks. below is the list of manhattan spots.

East River Park - Along FDR Drive at E. 10th Street
Fort Washington Park - North of W. 158th St. on the Hudson River
Highbridge Park - W. 177th Street and Amsterdam Avenue
Inwood Hill Park - Dyckman Ballfields at Dyckman Street & Hudson RiverMarcus Garvey Park
- 124th Street at 5th and Madison Avenues
Morningside Park - Morningside Ave. & W. 121st St.
Randall's Island - At the far end of Sunken Meadow ballfields
Riverside Park - West 145th Street on the Hudson River
St. Nicholas Park
- St. Nicholas Terrace at West 128th Street, and
- St. Nicholas Avenue between W. 133rd -135th Streets
Thomas Jefferson Park - First Avenue between E. 111th-114th Streets
Wards Island - East River & Hell Gate (near the children's playground)

Beer Garden Growing

Grub Street Beer Garden roundup!

July 4 Broadway savings

June 27-July 6th Broadway savings on 10 Shows from Manhattan User's Guide
A CATERED AFFAIR
A CHORUS LINE
GYPSY
HAIRSPRAY
LEGALLY BLONDE
MAMMA MIA
NOVEMBER
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
SPAMALOT
SPRING AWAKENING

Adventures NYC

Saturday June 14th, The NYC Department of Parks & Recreation in conjunction with Backpacker Magazine will host Adventures NYC, bringing some exciting "adventure" sports to Central Park.

Central Park's Adventures NYC will offer a ton of different activities, demos, sponsors and sampling. To name a few:

Special Performance by:

• 70-foot water slide, bring your swimsuit!
• Pro BMX Bike competition on a Red Bull megaramp
• High flying trampoline demo
• Rock climbing
• Kayaking at Bethesda Terrace Lake
• Boot Camp obstacle courses
• Yoga Clinics
• Bike helmet giveaway
• Arts & crafts

see a full schedule here.
coupon for a free water botle here.

Affordable Art

Starting tomorrow (June 12) through June 15, the Affordable Art Fair will take place at the Altman Building and Metropolitan Pavilion (134 W. 18th st. between 6th and 7th). This year there will be more than 70 galleries from around the world. $5 off admission here.
Thrillist buyer's guide here.

Telectroscoping London to New York

"Hardly anyone knows that a secret tunnel runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. In May 2008, more than a century after it was begun, the tunnel has finally been completed. An extraordinary optical device called a Telectroscope has been installed at both ends which miraculously allows people to see right through the Earth from London to New York
and vice versa."

See the entrance to the tunnel thru June 15 at Fulton Ferry Landing near the Brooklyn Bridge. check for planned closures.
via Make Blog

User Generated Pub Crawls

Check out the new site Mapfaced which allows users to generate their favorite pub crawls. Check it out, many are themed. Best Bar Sex Bathrooms?

Back with a Cheesy Post

In heat like today its hard to think about stinky cheese, but there is a festival coming up dedicated to just that. there will even be a stinky cheese eating contest! June 22, 11am-5pm.
Gothamist
Grub Street

Pizza Delivery in the Park

Daily Candy has the scoop on a great idea. Apparently Slice will deliver their organic pizza pies to Central Park. order at 212-249-4353 or on the web and meet the delivery guy at 72nd and 5th or Sheep's Meadow (66th-69th near the beach volleyball court entrance. Perfect for an impromptu picnic!

Foodie Walking Tour of Bleecker Street

The Kitchen has an excellent self-guided walking tour of Bleecker Street which covers some prime butchers, a cheese shop, bread shop, pastry bakery and specialty stores. Foodie heaven.

Cherry Blossoms

This weekend is the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Cherry Blossom Festival, "Sakura Matsuri". The festival is on May 3rd & 4th from 10am-6pm. schedule here. See a time lapse of the 2008 blossoming here. Here's the blossom status map... as you can see, most of the trees are in peak bloom!

History of The Park

John Bachman’s lithograph of Olmsted and Vaux’s design via Racontours.

April 28th was the 150th anniversary of the Board of Commissioners of Central Park choosing the "Greensward plan" by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux for our very own Central Park. A free exhibit titled "Celebrating Greensward"of the original drawings of the architects' plan will be continuing through June 19th at the Arsenal on 64th Street and Fifth Avenue.
via Gothamist
Also, check out the 92nd St Y's "Photographing Olmsted" class to explore the park some more.

The Big BBQ

As summer is coming upon us its time for Madison Square Park's Big Apple BBQ, one of my favorite weekends of the year. For this 6th annual Big Apple BBQ Block Party (June 7-8), some of the best pitmasters from around the country will converge on the park to smoke up some of their best. This event is usually packed, so I highly recommend buying a Fastpass which will allow you to get on a shorter express line so you can try out everything. BBQ is meant to be enjoyed with friends anyway, so if you don't think you can stuff yourself with $100 worth of BBQ split one.

Beer Here

Thrillist uncovers the greatest google mashup of all time- beermenus.com. Search by neighborhood, bar or individual beer! Just to prove it works, I did a search for my favorite hard-to-find beer, Tripel Karmeliet and found 9 bars pouring the magical beverage. The site lists size of the bottle, if its on draft, and the price. AMAZING!

Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day TODAY!!!

The Ben & Jerry's at 104th & Broadway, Macy's Herald Square Food Court, Rockefeller Center, 41 3rd Ave. and in Time Sq (680 8th Ave) will be giving away free cones today. I actually have no idea why, but who cares!!! via Gothamist

Shack Hours Extended

Its that time of year... the shake shack has begun its extended summer hours. the shack will now be open from 11am-11pm.

Tribeca Film Festival

I'm a little late with this one, but tickets for the Tribeca Film Festival are on sale. There's always a great selection of indie movies and documentaries and commercial films yet to hit the theaters. Filmmakers are often on hand for Q&A after the film screening as well. Film guide and tickets here.

As part of the festival there is also the Drive-In the outdoor screening series. Schedule here. I recommend arriving early for that because as with all free outdoor film screenings in nyc, they get crowded.

Comic Con in town

Comic Con is in town this weekend (April 18-20) at the Javitz Center. Tickets are fairly pricey at $40 for friday, $45 for saturday or $40 for sunday ($65 for a weekend pass), but if you're majorly into comics or just looking to see some wild cosplay it'll probably be fun. You'll probably get some free swag too.
Gothamist has additional info

Hours:
Friday 3pm-8pm
Saturday 10am-7pm
Sunday 10am-5pm

For the Big Drinkers

Citysearch has a roundup of bars selling gigantic cocktails. The drinks include the Volcano Blast at Otto's Shrunken Head, Swamp Water at Brother Jimmy's, Mixed Drinks in pint glasses at Finnerty's, Fishbowl Cocktails at Porky's, Shaker Cocktails at Pete's Candy Store, and 96 Ounces of Beer at Mudville 9. I have hazy memories of a big flaming drink at Waikiki Wally's, the connected next-door-neighbor karaoke bar to Lucky Cheng's and a higher end giant cocktail at the Campbell Apartment, the Prohibition Punch (recipe here).

Delivery to your Door

New York offers the ultimate convenience with everything you could ever want within a block. But if you're too lazy to even leave your home. Gothamist covers some of your best delivery options. Besides the obvious seamlessweb for restaurant delivery, they highlight Wakozi a delivery service that seems to specialize in liquor store delivery and allows you to peruse inventory, and maxdelivery which has an impressive array of stores ranging from supermarkets and drug stores to dvd's and including some New York specialty store favorites such as Murray's cheese shop, Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery, and Sullivan Street Bread Bakery. Throw in freshdirect if you actually feel like doing some cooking, and you're all set!

Now you never need to leave home.

First Rooftop Roundup of the Year

This one might be jumping the gun a little, but I like the way they think. Gridskipper's NYC rooftop bar roundup . I'll fill out the list with the rest of my recommendations later in the year so as not to be a tease.

Gourmet Free Bar Snacks Roundup

Grub Street has a roundup of free bar snacks of a slightly higher standing than the cheese and crackers at McSorley's or the hot dogs at Rudy's.

Behind Closed Doors

Gridskipper covers New York's "semi-private nightlife scene". So far I've only made it past the doors (phone booth?) of PDT, which was pretty awesome, so I can only hope the others live up to the hype.

Values of a Family Watch Company

In honor of the new Patek Phillipe salon on the 5th floor of the Tiffany's store, April 24th-25th they are hosting the Values of a Family Watch show demonstrating the proud history of one of the finest watch companies in the world.

Brooklyn Restaurant Week

March 24th through March 31st is Brooklyn's Restaruant Week. A 3-course meal is $23.00. More than 175 restaurants are participating.

The Elephants are Coming! The Elephants are Coming!

Late Tuesday, March 18th and Early Wednesday, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus are walking their elephants through the Queens-Midtown Tunnel to Madison Square Garden (just like every year!) You can watch them anywhere along 34th St. between the tunnel and MSG starting somewhere around 12pm (last time I went they didn’t show up until closer to 1 or 1:30am. It’s a very surreal experience seeing elephants walking down the block and I highly recommend doing it at least once.
Check out the video Gothamist took last year.

Celebrities and Poetry

Goldstar events has discounted tickets to this tribute to American Poetry on April 1st. Readings of America's best-loved poets will be given by Meryl Streep, Liz Smith, Katie Couric, Candace Bushnell, John Guare, Jonathan Demme, Philippe de Montebello, Robert Caro and other luminaries.

Foody

All White Castle locations are giving away two free sliders to anyone who comes in between 1 and 2 a.m. this Sunday, in honor of daylight savings time. via Grub Street

Lombardi's, Naples 45 and Zero Otto in the Bronx made Forbest Traveler's list of best pizzerias in the country.

There'll be an erotic cooking workshop at sex toy purveyor, Babeland in Soho Sunday night.

Billionaires Abound in New York

There are 71 billionaires in New York according to the new Forbes richest list
Gothamist comments

Wowee Whoawee!

A new Shake Shack is coming to the upper west side. Lucky bastards, first a new Magnolia's and now this? Danny Meyers discusses his reasons here.

Dessert Truck Battle!

Tonight an epic battle goes down in front of the Whitney in honor of the first night of the Biennial. The Treats Truck and Dessert Truck will be standing off for 5 hours! via Eater

New York Wine Expo

This weekend (March 7-9), the Javits center will be hosting the New York Wine Expo, a trade show for the wine industry. The good news is there are special consumer hours that allow you to sample over 600 wines from over 170 winemakers.
Consumer show hours are Friday 7-10 and Saturday 2-6 tickets are $85 on friday and $95 on Saturday with $10 off if you buy before March 7.

20 at 20

Through March 9, you can see any of these 20 off-broadway shoes for only $20 (if there are seats left 20 minutes prior to the show). There are a few fun ones if you haven't seen them (Stomp, Jump), but overall nothing too exciting.

New York Magazine Best of...

New York Magazine just published their "Best of New York" list for 2008. It makes for some interesting reading and debates. Even when "best" isn't the right superlative, what they say is "best" is always at least VERY good.
Gothamist commentary here
Grub Street here (obviously biased considering its from the same magazine)

Wine on a Dime

Citysearch provides a roundup of cheap places to drink wine, you wino.

Savory on Video

Grub Street points us to Savory New York's web site that has online videos of tours of great New York Restaurants given by their proprietors.


Check out their video of Blue Hill, and once you're completely enticed, sign up for the actual tour of the grounds where the food is grown and raised, given by chef and co-owner Dan Barber. At $195 it seems expensive, but given the price of a meal at Blue Hill its actually not so bad.

Homemade Hummus Class

The New York Times says:
The finer points of making hummus will be taught by the chefs of the Hummus Place chain on Sunday from noon to 1 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Avenue (76th Street). Reservations: (646) 505-5708. A tasting of hummus will be held from 1 to 3 p.m.

From 6 to 7:30, there will be a tasting of Israeli wines. All events are free.

B-R-O-O-K-L-Y-N Puzzle Tournament

The 31st annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is going to be hosted in Brooklyn this year! The tournament begins tomorrow (February 29th), and runs through March 2nd.

Color Me Informed

A visual guide to what each day's Empire State Building lights mean

The building's own schedule

I Dream of an Africa...

Time Out New York has a roundup of African restaurants in the city. Now THAT sounds like some excellent exotic food. There seems to be a lot of focus on this cuisine with the newcomer Merkato 55.

Jurassic Park the Play

I can't vouch for this one, but it certainly sounds interesting. Wham City is putting on Shoot Her! Jurrasic Park the Play at Market Hotel in Bushwick. For $7 and a subway ride, might be interesting. Monday, March 3, 9:30pm.

In the Cheese Caves

Gothamist takes a tour of Murray's cheese caves and finds the experience interesting and pungent. Tours are offered on the third Saturday of every month for $10 (including a tasting of two cheeses). Sounds like a great deal!

McSorley's Turns 154

Last weekend McSorley's Ale House, the oldest Irish tavern in NYC turned 154. It was established in 1854! unbelievable.

Foody

Author and TV personality Anthony Bourdain discusses the New York restaurant scene with Fodor's. You can also see him here kicking it with Eric Ripert (Le Bernadin) after a stint back in the kitchen at his restaurant, Les Halles, for his TV show No Reservations.


AM New York covers the top tasting menus in the city.

Upcoming at the Museums

Lots of anticipation for Cai Guo-Qiang's installation at the Guggenheim thru May 28th.

And beginning March 6th (thru June 1) is the Whitney's Biennial. Its so big this year its stretching to the Park Avenue Armory

Food around the World

Metromix tastes the cheap international eats available on Roosevelt Ave. in Queens. Grub Street provides some other Roosevelt Ave resources.

Time Out Magazine explores whether you could eat and drink out on only $20 for an entire week. Many of the solutions are cheap international foods.



The New York Times Travel Section covers New York’s ethnic markets and lists a few places to pick up groceries from around the world. Also, don't forget to check out Gothamist's occasional "At the Ethnic Market" column.

Dominican- Pueblo Deli Grocery, 129-135 Ridge Street, (212) 358-9989.
Indian- Foods of India, 121 Lexington Avenue, (212) 683-4419.
Thai- Bangkok Center Grocery, 104 Mosco Street, (212) 732-8916.
African- West African Grocery, 535 Ninth Avenue, (212) 594-7399.
Brazilian- Buzios Brasil Boutique, 20 West 46th Street, 2nd floor, (212) 869-6552.
Mexican- Tehuitzingo Deli Grocery, 695 10th Avenue, (212) 397-5956.
British- Myers of Keswick, 634 Hudson Street, (212) 691-4194.
Worldwide, but primarily Indian- Kalustyan’s, 123 Lexington Ave, 212-685-3451.
Korean- Han Ah Reum Supermarket. 25 W 32nd St, 212-695-3283.

The Bodega Chef: Picadillo

As a reminder...
Here are the rules: Any meat, any spices, the rest of the ingredients must be available from one of the bodegas within a 3 block radius from me.
sidenote: I typically keep chicken and ground beef or turkey in the freezer and I have a pretty decent collection of spices.



Picadillo is a traditional Cuban dish that lends its self particularly well to bodega cooking, as recipes vary greatly and many substitutions can be made. For example, the vinegar can be left out completely or replaced with any type of vinegar or even a little wine.
Its also a pretty quick dish to cook.

Picadillo

Ingredients

2 lbs ground beef
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 large white onion, diced
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes (can be replaced w/ another 8 oz. can tomato sauce)
1 Jalapeno (4-5 slices), diced*
¾ cup pimento stuffed olives, sliced
1/3 cup raisins
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar*
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar*
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
* If you have it

Preparation

1) Sauté diced onions and garlic in olive oil.
2) When onions become transparent, add ground beef, breaking it up as it browns.
3) When mostly browned, add tomato sauce, vinegars, and diced tomatoes and let simmer.
4) Add sliced olives, jalapeno, raisins and spices, continue simmering and stirring for approximately 20 minutes, or until most of the liquid has drained.
5) Serve with rice and black beans, in taco shells with lettuce and tomato, or in a roasted red pepper.

Butta

The New York Times covers local dairy producers making artisanal cream, cheese, butter and other dairy products. I would have thought it was overrated had I not tried Momofuku Ssam's bread and butter myself only a couple of weeks ago. I'm not used to being charged $8 for something that's usually brought to the table for free, but it was totally worth it, the butter was amazing, and it was a highlight of the meal! Ronnybrook Farms is also the dairy provider I used for my own cheesemaking foray.