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Cathedral Is A Haitian House of Worship

A small restaurant shines bright on Church Avenue

The Good, the Bad, and the Tartare at Manzanilla; Pay to Pray at Cathedral

Spring is (finally) in the air and the warm weather seems to be lightening our moods as well as our wardrobes. Did the rising temperatures have the same effect on our critics? Tejal Rao has mixed feelings about Manzanilla in Gramercy, while Robert Sietsema writes a rave for Cathedral in Flatbush. R ... More >>

The New "On The Go!" Digital Subway Maps Are A Tourist's Dream Come True

Aside from a subway death solution, a review of the G train and a whole slew of transportation inconveniences, the MTA is also in need of a technological upgrade. Luckily, that'll be arriving shortly (the other issues mentioned... maybe not so much). Two summers ago, the agency installed several ne ... More >>

Hamilton Heights Rallies Around Chipped Cup After Marriage Equality Dispute

Last week, the owners of Chipped Cup, a popular coffee shop in Hamilton Heights, put a simple chalkboard sign outside. They drew a red equals sign in support of marriage equality, and posted a picture of it on Facebook with the phrase, "Peace, love, equality. #hamiltonheights." "We put up the equa ... More >>

Where to Get Cheesesteaks and Tofu Desserts in Hell's Kitchen

Welcome to Drinks, Dinner, and Dessert, in which we share three picks in one neighborhood, keeping an eye out for deals, off-the-menu items, and new stuff to check out. This week, get off the C train at 50th Street and use these suggestions to guide you through Hell's Kitchen.

Real Actors Read Yelp Reviews, Freak Out Over Frozen Yogurt

Gotta Kid to Feed Productions has been enlisting actors to read actual Yelp reviews for the past year. Last week, they teamed up with Erin Felgar, who was recently seen in Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson, to create this soul-crushing story of a frozen yogurt store whose spoons were just too damn big. ... More >>

The Leap Second Will Destroy Your Social Media

And we were scared of a measly heat wave.At midnight Saturday, while the ConEd officials were facing off against its workers, the Earth's timekeepers (they exist!) held back the world's atomic time for exactly one second to keep it in line with the planet's rotation. The Network TIme ... More >>

The Windsor Terrace Key Food Is Closing

The Key Food on Prospect Avenue, in Brooklyn's Windsor Terrace, will close at the end of the month. One Wendy A had a bad experience there in March and went on to review it on Yelp, writing "i literally hate this grocery store, and i wish it would go out of business and get replaced by something bet ... More >>

French Toast Bagel at Pinnacle Bagels on the Square

Perhaps the weirdest bagel in Pinnacle's ample arsenal: the French toast bagel Pinnacle Bagels on the Square is one of Greenwich Village's most popular bagel bakeries. The "Square" part refers to Father Demo Square -- a triangle, really, bordered by Carmine Street, Sixth Avenue, and Bleecker Stree ... More >>

Chefs v. Yelpers: The Saga Continues

Have chefs finally had it with Yelpers? In Sacramento, the chef/owner of Formoli's Bistro wiled out on Facebook about a negative Yelp review of his restaurant: "To Chriuh C. from the wonderful site yelp! please pay attention, every review you post involves dinner with mommy and daddy. Apparently, ... More >>

Civilian Foodie Claims Non-Foodie Status to NYMag

​"'I'm not a foodie, I just like what I like,' she says. 'Yes, I know, it's just like hipsters saying, "I'm not a hipster."' (The cliché cracks her up.) 'But it's like when my boss says, "Oh, you're such a foodie." I'm like, Oh God. When I hear the word foodie, I think of Yelp. I don't want to be ... More >>

Nine Culinary Ventures By Hip-Hop Artists

Today, excitable Long Island-raised rap firebrand Flavor Flav will open his House Of Flavor restaurant in Las Vegas. The restaurant—which will have fried chicken and something called a "red velvet waffle" on the menu—is Flav's second attempt to break into the food world, following the di ... More >>

RedFarm, Yelped!

We've read a lot about Yelp in the news lately. The company went public on March 2, and the press was abuzz with speculation about and investigation into its financial health and sources of ad revenue. The site also popped up in Pete Wells' latest review of RedFarm, the Times critic saying that the ... More >>

Shake Shack, Yelped

This week, the Times' Pete Wells reviewed Danny Meyer's Shake Shack chain and gave it one star, writing that its food is inconsistent and its burgers unremarkable. Most Yelpers would beg to differ. They have come out in numbers (2,548 reviews have been posted for the Shake Shack in Madison Square Pa ... More >>

French Dip, Once Hip

The past and present of a legendary soggy sandwich

Todd P. Hits The Chinese Buffet In His Search For New Concert Venues

About two weeks after playing a sold-out show at Terminal 5, one of the city's biggest venues that doesn't also double as a sports arena, the rollicking indiepop bands Real Estate has a show lined up in the back room of a Chinese buffet in Queens. Who else could be behind this but Todd P.? The eve ... More >>

Village Voice Media Responds to Clergy

Today 36 clergy affixed their names to a paid ad and open letter to Village Voice and the classified ad site Backpage.com. The full page ad was published in the New York Times. The religious coalition demanded that we close down our legal, adult classifieds. Neither government officials nor God' ... More >>

Live: Secret Project Robot Gets Re-Animated In Bushwick

​Knyfe Hyts (The New) Secret Project Robot Thursday, October 20 Better than: Buzz. Coming through the nearly unmarked door on Melrose Street in Bushwick, one could be forgiven for thinking that the dozen bedraggled people sitting around in the dark on thrift store couches, surrounded by e ... More >>

Not All Yelpers Are Created Equal; OWS Protesters Target Fancy Restaurants

​Junk food is now being blamed for low sperm counts in young adult males. [Business Insider] If you thought the tainted cantaloupe death toll had peaked, you were wrong. A second New York death brings the total up to 25. [Wall Street Journal] Some Yelp reviewers -- Yelpers -- are so influen ... More >>

South Carolina Barbecue: A Few Thoughts

Like the sign says, Dukes Bar-B-Q in Walterboro, South Carolina. The pig on the front lawn isn't real, but the people are. In two trips to South Carolina in the last decade, I've spent much of my time crisscrossing the state and looking at the barbecue there. Yes, sometimes just looking at it.

Who Should be the New New York Times Critic? Foodies Weigh In

Who's it gonna be?​It's the question on everyone's mind: Who will be The New York Times' new restaurant critic? Who will dole out the stars, making or breaking a chef or restaurateur's dream? Today, Josh Ozersky over at Time jabs at the paper, saying that Yelp and Zagat have made critics supe ... More >>

The Original (Really) Ray's Is Closing

Stephanie B./Yelp​The culinary gentrification of the San Gennaro Festival isn't the only change to befall Little Italy this month: Ray's Pizza, the oldest (and first) Ray's in the city, will likely end its 52 years at 27 Prince Street after the festival wraps up on Sept. 25.

Google Buys Zagat, Will No Longer Have to Appropriate Yelp Reviews

​Almost four years after putting their dining-guide empire on the market, Tim and Nina Zagat are finally selling out.

Open and Closed: Say 'Bonjour' to Cedric; So Long to P & G

Restaurants and bars, they come and they go. Here are a few making their debuts and bowing out this week. The Blue Donkey Bar on the Upper West Side has closed after complaints to police, specifically from a neighbor. [West Side Rag via Eater] The Upper East Side location of healthy pizza joint Sl ... More >>

Where Was I Eating? Graham Avenue Meats and Deli

​ So many sandwiches, so little time. Plenty of people surmised the sandwich's Italian-American origins but, sadly, only one person can win "Where Am I Eating?" This week's entry is the famed Godfather sandwich from Graham Avenue Meats and Deli (445 Graham Ave, Williamsburg, Brooklyn). The san ... More >>

Lou Migliaccio Is a Crank With a Conscience

Yelp​When most people think of legendary curmudgeons of the restaurant business, their thoughts tend towards Kenny Shopsin, Elaine Kaufman, or even Orhan Yegen. All curmudgeons, yes, but also all in Manhattan. Far less attention is paid to Louis "Brooklyn Lou" Migliaccio, the owner of Sam's Re ... More >>

Tales From a Buffalo Exchange Reject...and How Not to Get Rejected This Summer

​One morning, with a sudden burst of determination, you excavate your closet. Goodbye to the pants you hoped would fit again some day, the funky necklace you only wore once, the precariously high heels still nestled in their box. You throw it all into a big duffel bag or two, then haul it over ... More >>

Jekyll & Hyde Closes, Will Take Monstery Self to Times Square

Dave H./YelpGood-bye to all of that.​It's been quite a day for restaurant deaths: first came news of Elaine's closure, then Ray's Candy Store's DOH shutter, and now it seems that Jekyll & Hyde, that bizarro multi-story tourist sinkhole on Sixth Avenue and 57th Street, is leaving the premises. ... More >>

Hopstop: Now Helping You Count Calories, Ride Your Bike

​Hooray for Hopstop, the go-to spot for finding out how to get to wherever you want to go in the New York City area, and elsewhere, too. Just the other day we were calculating how to get to a wedding in Brooklyn (thank you, God, for weddings in Brooklyn) and all of a sudden, after which trains ... More >>

Both Mark Iacono and Benny Geritano May Get Off Scot-Free

Mark Iacono, as seen on YouTube.​Given all of the drama inherent to April's knife fight between Lucali's Mark Iacono and his erstwhile friend Benny Geritano, this comes as a bit of an anti-climax: both men may go free unless one of them testifies before a grand jury.

Is This the Future of the East Village?

​You pass out in the gutter sometime around 11pm to find all your friends have deserted you. You try to get up, bleary-eyed, your face covered with candy wrappers and street scum. As you peel a prophylactic from your face, you look up to see a blindingly bright sign shining right in your blood ... More >>

Yet Another Restaurant Recommendation Site Launches. But Bundle Uses Math!

BundleJust like a restaurant genie​The Internet is filled with restaurant recommendation sites, from venues like Yelp which offer detail-by-detail replays of meals, to Dinevore, which is based upon favorite restaurant lists created by friends. And now Bundle has launched, but this site uses m ... More >>

Yelp Staff Plied with Beer; M. Wells Starts Cocktails Today

​Combine chocolate and beer this St. Patrick's Day with Brooklyn-based Nunu Chocolates' line of "Beer Chocolates." [NY1] At Yelp's headquarters in San Francisco, employees have 24/7 access to a keg of beer, but staff has to log in to an iPad app that records how much they drink. [NY Magazine] ... More >>

The Atlantic's Guide to Yelp Restaurant Reviewers (Plus 5 They Forgot)

quefregados.wordpress.comHail to the Yelpers?​Over at The Atlantic Life Channel (formerly known until yesterday as The Atlantic Food Channel), there's an entertaining guide to the bane of restaurateurs' existences--annoying Yelp reviewers. They include the Ubermensch all-caps user who attacks ... More >>

Benihana Sues Over Crap Review

BenihanaGet out the knives! It's fight time!​It's a good thing Yelp isn't popular in Kuwait. Because that would mean a lot of lawsuits would be coming up. Yes, Mark Makhou, a blogger in Kuwait, has been sued for $18,000 for writing a negative review of chain restaurant Benihana on his blog ... More >>

Chefs Don't Really Like Foodies, Either

​It's not exactly breaking news, but CNN's Eatocracy has found that chefs, like most other people, don't really care for foodies.

National Chinese Restaurant Awards Ceremony Slights New York

​This obscure restaurant near the corner of 16th Street and Seventh Avenue -- which advertises a combination of Sichuan and Vietnamese food -- was declared one of the best Chinese restaurants in the country in the inscrutable "Top Chefs & Owners" category. This past Sunday, correspondent Bil ... More >>

Posts of the Week

Friday afternoon is here, and so is our look back on the week that was. We ranked Our 10 Best 100 Dishes to Eat Now. Jin Fong and Very Tong vie for dim sum supremacy. Pumpkin ale taste-off!

Dead Chef Joseph Cerniglia Featured in 2007 Episode of Kitchen Nightmares

Chef Joseph Cerniglia of Campania restaurant in Fair Lawn, NJ, was found floating in the Hudson River. In 2007, he'd appeared in Season 1 Episode 9 of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. Looking at the show, one of the things that strikes you is how little affection Ramsay has for garlicky souther ... More >>

Facebook Places: It's Basically Foursquare for Facebook (UPDATED) with Yelp

​"This is gonna be a really fun, interesting summer," Mark Zuckerburg noted a few minutes ago from a live, streaming press conference. He was not talking about the lead-up to The Social Network, the movie about what a not-nice person he is. What was he talking about? Facebook Places, which he' ... More >>

Fornino's Michael Ayoub on Children's Menus and Chefs Responding to Critics

Michael Ayoub's grilled pizza with clams.​Earlier today we brought you Fornino chef Michael Ayoub's thoughts on Park Slope's charms and former grit, growing up in the kitchen, and why he jettisoned the wood-burning oven for the grill. Here, in the second part of the interview, we talk about ... More >>

Fat Mike's Not-So-Punk Restaurant Thistle Hill, Now Open in Park Slope!

Right before the first seating. Lovely in there!​It's finally here! The opening date went from March to April to May, the menu went from "new American cuisine" to "European- and Mediterranean-influenced cooking," and every dissolute former punk in Park Slope went from denial to bargaining to f ... More >>

Tortilleria Nixtamal's Fernando Ruiz on Expansion Plans, Great Food in Dirty Places, and Cooking in the Firehouse

AM-NYThe tortilla-making operation at Tortilleria Nixtamal​When Fernando Ruiz and Shauna Page opened Tortilleria Nixtamal in Corona, Queens, just about a year and a half ago, the place became an instant sensation. That's because they're the only known place in the city that makes fresh masa do ... More >>

The Piggery Brings Pork Chops from the Farm to Your Doorstep; Burger King Introduces Fancy Burger

​The Piggery is the first meat CSA servicing the New York area. The family farm, located north of Ithaca, has about 130 pigs that they raise in an open-air barn. Some 45 participants have already enrolled, mostly from Brooklyn. [NY Daily News] Thousands of black farmers who were denied farm loans ... More >>

The 50 Worst Songs of the '00s, F2K No. 10: Fieldy's Dreams, "Baby Hugh Hef"

F2K is a countdown of the 50 worst songs of the decade. Track our progress here. Korn bassist shouldn't quit his day job. No wait, he should do that too.

Primary Culler: Incumbents Stay Strong in Council Districts 2 and 3

​In City Council Districts 2 and 3, incumbents have much more of a lock than Alan Gerson does in District 1. In the former, first-termer Rosie Mendez built the right connections as a district leader, makes meetings, and has all the big endorsements. Her challenger Juan Pagan (pictured) is ass ... More >>

Frank Bruni: On Food Blogs, Restaurants He Would Have Liked to Review, and Advice for Sifton

Soo-Jeong Kang​ Frank Bruni's last review for the Times came out yesterday, and today marks the official launch of his new memoir, Born Round. (Check out our review of the book.) Bruni has been promoting the book everywhere from Nightline to the New Yorker, but he was nice enough to make time ... More >>

Yelping for John Dory

photo: Daniel NeunerLast week, Frank Bruni reviewed April Bloomfield's John Dory (85 Tenth Avenue), giving it two stars worth of love, but how much love is the new seafood restaurant getting from yelpers? Surprisingly, there are only 8 reviews for the John Dory on Yelp, averaging 3.5 stars, due in p ... More >>

Dirty Blonde: An Anatomy of the Nightlife Media's Obsession with Chloe 81

The Populist Appeal of Robot Rock

Le Royale offers raucous parties and actually lets you in the door to enjoy them