Hyatt Corporation

The Fourth Opens Near Union Square

"Were those used in the London Olympics?" whispered our dining companion as we sat down at the bar at The Fourth. He was referring to the sculpture work hanging from the ceiling, which is oddly reminiscent of the hospital beds into which children were tucked in the opening ceremonies as dozens of Ma ... More >>

Not in My Backyard! Brooklyn Residents Say New Hotel Will Bring Prostitution and Drugs to East Flatbush

​East Flatbush is a lovely neighborhood in Brooklyn -- but it's just not really a tourist destination. So if a developer is looking to open a hotel in the area, it can only mean one thing: Prostitution, drugs, and other bad, bad activity. Right?  This is the line of thinking behind a new not- ... More >>

Happy Leap Day! Celebrate Your Once-Every-Four-Year Birthday With These Deals

Depending on your life outlook, having a birthday on February 29 is either really cool (yay for uniqueness) or really sucky (too bad you can only celebrate on your actual birthday once every four years). Well, if your birthday happens to be today, Leap Day, many New York City restaurants and bars ar ... More >>

André 3000, Most Valuable Supporting Player

The erstwhile OutKast member has a great year without a single starring role

Top Chef Just Desserts Will Return August 24

BravoHalf of these people secretly want to kill each other.​Sweet freaks and couch potatoes, rejoice: Top Chef Just Desserts is returning on August 24 at 10 p.m.

Betty Ford, R.I.P.

​In recent years, people holding the vice-presidential seat have had complicated, if not vaguely hostile, relationships with pop music. Before Al Gore became Bill Clinton's veep in 1992, his wife Tipper founded the PMRC. In 2002, six years before taking his seat to the back-left of Barack Obam ... More >>

Keith Olbermann Takes New York Times Out to the Ballgame; Anthony Weiner Invests in Them

​Media reporter and movie star David Carr takes on a giant ego in a feature from this weekend's New York Times Magazine, posted online today, about Current TV host Keith Olbermann. After Olbermann's unceremonious exit from MSNBC, the loudmouth anchor spent most of year the silent except for on ... More >>

Top Chef Is Nearly Over, so It's Time to Start Thinking About the Next One

​Now that Top Chef: All Stars is finally drawing to a close, the folks at the Feast are determined to make us think about the next season. They attended contestant casting calls in four cities, including New York, and shone the spotlight on 10 attention-craving lunatics hopefuls who we may or ... More >>

Celebrity Has Its Downside in Somewhere

Open & Closed: Say Hello to Ciano; Goodbye to Donald Sacks

Restaurants and bars, they come and they go. Here are a few making their debuts and bowing out this week. Bossa Nova Brazil in Hell's Kitchen has closed to make room for Flavor, which looks like it could be a martini bar. [Life with Food and Drink]​ Donald Sacks in Battery Park is closing do ... More >>

Tom DiNapoli's Appointment Logs: He's Just Too Nice a Guy

​Tom DiNapoli is too nice a guy. The state comptroller apparently can't say no to anyone who wants to meet with him, though he has a mixed record when it comes to delivering what his bellringers want. I've been reading half a foot of DiNapoli's appointment schedules from 2007 to now an ... More >>

Park Slope Food Coop a Hot Ticket; Snooki to Dress Up as Pickle for Halloween

​In the last few years, whole-wheat pasta options have expanded and gotten tastier, with varieties made of farro and spelt going for $10 a pound or more. [NY Times] Wal-Mart has officially announced that it will source produce from local, sustainable small and medium-size farmers. [NY Times ... More >>

Place Your Bets: Bookies Pick the Four Seasons as Next Bedbug Strike

​Now that we've basically resigned ourselves to the fact the bedbugs are New York City's most terrifying (terrorist?) threat  it only makes sense that oddsmakers are handicapping where the next major NYC bedbug strike will go down. And where are they saying it's going to happen? The Four Seas ... More >>

Christian Ragano Leaves the Windy City for the Big Apple; George Mendes Invites Pastry Chefs to Cook Dinner

​Christian Ragano has left his post as executive sous chef at NoMI in Chicago to relocate to his native New York. He'll be the chef de cuisine at the forthcoming New York Central at the Grand Hyatt. [The Feast] Cesare Casella has plans to expand Salumeria Rosi, possibly to the Upper East Side ... More >>

Anita Lo Gets a Feng-Shui Boost at Annisa; Starbucks Launches Low-Cost Coffee Brand

​Steve Cuozzo takes aim at bad hotel restaurants, listing The Fives at Peninsula, Arabelle at Plaza-Athenee, and Commodore Grill at Grand Hyatt among the worst offenders. [NY Post] Despite being something of a "non-believer," Anita Lo hired a feng-shui consultant to help her redesign the inte ... More >>

More on George Rekers, The Latest Anti-Gay Crusader to Love Massages From Men

George Rekers, looking straight as hell​Please excuse most of the forward-thinking, tolerant world for being a bit excited and snide about the news of Baptist minister and public homophobe George Alan Rekers' taste for hiring men to touch him. Each and every time this sort of thing happens, it ... More >>

Canadian Burrito Chain Invades U.S.; Grand Hyatt Launches DIY Room Service

​The Grand Hyatt's new Market allows guests to grab what they want and go, a do-it-yourself approach to room service that the hotel hopes to implement in other locations. [NY Times] A new fresh-Mex chain from Canada is opening its first U.S. location in mid-May. Mucho Burrito, based in Missis ... More >>

Empire State Building Goes Dark Tonight as New York Observes Earth Hour

​The Empire State Building will be shutting off its lights tonight for an hour at 8:30 in observation of Global Earth Hour 2010. Earth Hour is an initiative of the World Wildlife Fund, which asks "individuals, schools, organizations, businesses and governments" to turn off or dim their lights ... More >>

The James Beard Awards Semi-Finalists Have Been Announced

Will the spirit of James Beard smile upon New York chefs?​The James Beard Foundation announced its list of semi-finalists for the annual James Beard Awards today, kicking off the food world's very own Oscar season scrum. The semi-finalists were selected from a pool of 21,000 online entries; th ... More >>

Election Night: Snyder to Supporters -- I'm Out of Politics and Off to China!

Leslie Crocker Snyder entered what could have been her victory party in the ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Hotel at 10:42 p.m. to cries of "We Love You, Leslie." Looking worn-out, she went to a podium to make her speech. After thanking supporters, her husband, her grandchildren, her law firm colleagues ... More >>

"Fuck You!" Says Ed Koch at Crocker-Snyder Fundraiser

At an event at the Grand Hyatt for Leslie Crocker-Snyder, whom he has endorsed for Manhattan D.A., former Mayor Ed Koch recounted the heartwarming story of the day he greeted well-wishers at a supermarket just after he left office. One of those who approached Koch told him he had been a terrible may ... More >>

Trump's Ravitch Attack: The Back Story

Anyone wondering about the real source of Donald Trump's venom for newly-minted lieutenant governor Richard Ravitch might want to take a peek in the city's back pages. Trump's blast at Ravitch made state-wide news Monday when he gave New York Post political editor Fred Dicker a copy of his two- ... More >>

James Beard Semifinalists Announced

The semifinalists for the illustrious James Beard awards have been announced, with a quite a few hometown favorites in the lot, including Dan Barber and Tom Colicchio in the the Outstanding Chef category; Babba and Jean George for Outstanding Restaurant;  Corton, Momofuku Ko, and Scarpetta for ... More >>

Bloomberg Protested, Protesters Arrested at Hyatt Speech

Yesterday Mayor Bloomberg gave a "Future of New York City" speech at a Crain's event at the Grand Hyatt, for which attendees paid $249 a seat and the Mayor "argued that wealthy people, developers and profitable businesses are crucial to keeping New York City afloat," says the Wall Street Journal). ... More >>

Why MySpace Music Won't Succeed

Rupert Murdoch's pride and joy is trying to go legit; mayhem may ensue, and success may not

Bruise Brother

Supposedly Democrat-Friendly MSNBC Has Let a Clinton-Hating Joe Maul New York's Senator

New Year's Eve Event Guide

Strikebound

Tick Tock Transit

Transit Breaks

Labor Pain

Transit Countdown

The Miseducation of Tom Wolfe

College kids say the darndest things: Awesome, sexiled, dormcest, and . . . mons pubis!

Film

Inside Bush's Indian Bureau

A labyrinth of lobbyists is manufacturing millions

A Dirty Trickster's Bush Bonanza

The man who stopped Miami recount makes gaming millions

Warren Zevon, 1947–2003

The Poet of Gower Avenue Winds Down His Dirty Life and Times

Listings

After Sunset

Coppola's Camera Karaokes Through Tokyo and Finds Bill Murray Singing Roxy Music

Last Bus to Baghdad

Peace Tourists and Profiteers on the Road to the War

The Double Standard

While Unions Are Scrutinized, MTA Bigs Get Free Ride

Toussaint's Transit Express

All It Took Was a Little Respect

Dead Man Running

Ray Harding's Strategy for Liberal Party Survival

As the Whorl Turns

Long the Difference Between Guilt and Innocence, Fingerprints Themselves Are on Trial

Heads Shot

Underground Rumblings

A Modern Militant Vies to Revive the Transit Union

Gratis Goodies Grease the Fourth Estate

The Super Bowl Gravy Train

Out of the White House Closet

Gay Rights Steps Out As Presidential Politics Comes to New York