FOOD: Drinking With the Professor: a Look at Jerry Thomas and His Liquid Legacy: Join cocktail maestro Dave Wondrich as he shares recipes from his latest book, Imbibe! plus a few that were cut in the editing process. Wondrich has an in-depth knowledge of nineteenth-century classic cocktails, so step up and taste the benefits. - Laren Spirer Friday // 6:30pm // Astor Culinary Center [399 Lafayette St] // $75, tickets available online THEATER: As you......

EVENT: Tonight's Downtown Third Thursday seems promising. Pete Hamill, author of Downtown: My Manhattan, will be on hand at 41 Broad Street, a "Classical Revival style building designed by Cross and Cross Architects completed in 1929 as the headquarters of the Lee-Higginson Bank. The original grand banking hall with its marble mosaic columns now houses the Broad Street Ballroom." The NY Times has more on the rarely seen space. 6pm // 41 Broad St //......

EVENT: Julian Schnabel will be screening clips from his latest flick, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly tonight. Lou Reed, who Schnabel recently documented in Lou Reed’s Berlin, will also be on hand. 7pm // Apple Store [103 Prince St] // Free READING: The Desk Set's "Drinks with an Author" series continues tonight at Greenpoint's WORD. This evening chat with Kara Jesella and Marisa Meltzer, authors of How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter......

MOVIE: BAM pays homage to the late Barbara Stanwyck tonight with a screening of Forbidden. The 1932 Frank Capra-directed film (which tells the tale of a librarian who has fallen for an unobtainable/married man) was supposedly influenced by his real-life affair with the leading lady. Critic and historian Elliott Stein will discuss the film after the 6:50 screening. 4:30, 6:50 and 915pm // BAM Rose Cinemas [30 Lafayette Ave., Fort Greene] // $11 Meanwhile, the......

Did you ever wake up one morning and feel like something's not quite right with the universe? The other day, we had that very feeling. During the course of the day we learned that not one, not two, but THREE new Pinkberry locations are in the works in addition to the four existing branches. Do we really need three more Pinkberrys? Some people say yes. We mentioned the word "Pinkberry" in front of a......

There's nothing like an endorsement from Gray's Papaya to show that NYC generally likes Mike. But it seems that to hinge upon his subway straphanger credentials - will the hot dog eatery reconsider, given that he is chauffeured to a subway station 22 blocks away (when there's one four blocks away), only likes to take the express and that his spokesman thinks people who like riding the subway need a shrink (hello, universal health......

January 25: Beer & Cheese Pairing Affair Beer and cheese, a match made in heaven. Join Elizabeth Lyons of Dogfish Head Ale and Chef Monica Byrne of Tini as they guide you through their pairings. $25, 7 p.m., RSVP online. 414 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn. 718-855-4206. January 27 - February 4: Navarra Gastronomic Week From Saturday, January 27, through Sunday, February 4, the cuisine of the Navarra region (it's in the north of Spain and......

- Sadness fills the NYSE as the Stock Exchange Luncheon Club closes its doors. - The image of Bill Buford lugging a whole pig around on the front of his Vespa so he could take it home and butcher it is enough to keep us smiling all day. Only in New York. [New Yorker] - Megnut turns her focus to food. Yum. - And some of us are very happy not to live in Chicago......

Gothamist Food editor Laren Spirer was one of the judges last night at the Vendys-- but she seems to have overdosed on street meat, and hasn't yet reported in! If you see her wandering around downtown, dazed and smelling like sausage, please let us know so we can come pick her up. Until then, we'll just have to rely on the mainstream media for accounts of the fierocious vender battle that ended with Rolf Babiel......

In August, we told you about the Vendys, the first annual streetfood awards sponsored by Streetvendor.org. The awards are a wonderful idea-- they celebrate the hard working people that produce some our city's most delicious food, and help dispel those old notions that everything you buy on the street is poisonous, tastes bad, or both. From the looks of it, the four finalists are tightly matched: Thiru “Dosa Man” Kumar -- "the fresh made......

It has always been one of our dreams to live in Spain. Be it the food, the wine or the flamenco dancing, this magical land, home of the siesta, has always held a special place in our hearts. While we haven’t been able to pack up and move just yet, we got a little taste of it recently at the P.J. Wines Spanish Wine Festival. It may have been a tease, but it sure whet......

We adore Pearl Oyster Bar. The raw bar, the fried oysters, and of course, the lobster roll. Several weeks ago, when we first heard of Black Pearl, a clam-shack-style window tucked into the back of the East Village bar Julep, we were intrigued. When we read the New York Times review, we knew we had to go immediately, if not sooner. The review described the lobster rolls as "the real deal. Top-loading hot dog buns......

July 3-4: Prix Fixe Menue at Barmarché They'll be donating a portion of the proceeds to City Harvest. Gotta love doing good while you eat. 14 Spring Street (at Elizabeth), call 212-219-2399 for reservations and more information. July 4: Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest Check out what is "believed to be the 90th installment" of this Fourth of July favorite at Coney Island watch four-time world champion Takeru Kobayashi of Japan......

Why's that, you might ask? Because it lasts for five years when stored in a cool, dry place. Five. Years. The next time you decide to clean out the crap in the back of your cabinets and the stuff that's been lurking in your fridge since who-knows-when, check out this handy guide from the folks at Real Simple. It provides expiration dates for your beer (unopened: four months), dried pasta (one year), vinegar (42 months),......

People are all in a fuss about the foie gras. Sure, some people love it, even celebrate it, but others aren't so enamoured of this gourmet delicacy. In fact, there is legislation in the works at the state Assembly which would ban foie gras production. New York Metro recently focused on the fight between duck-loving activists and duck liver lovers. Given all the hoopla about foie gras lately, we'd love to know your opinion on......

June 23: PJ Wine Spanish Wine Festival Who doesn't love Spanish food and wine? Well, maybe someone, but we're certainly crazy about the stuff. Join Gothamist at this benefit for City Harvest and taste over 150 of the top Spanish selections from every major wine region of Spain, including the classics, like Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Priorat and Sherry and emerging regions like Toro, Bierzo, Jumilla and more. Tickets are $75.00 per person and are......

Between a trip out to Fire Island this weekend, and New York Metro's wrap-up of new fish shacks, Gothamist is ready for summer. While our all-time favorite is Pearl Oyster Bar, we're eager to try the newbies -- Black Pearl, in the East Village, and Bar Minnow in Park Slope. We've already had a sample of the fish shack at BLT Fish, and while we only got a tiny taste of the raw bar and......

It's unclear why the Snack Dragon Taco Shack even has a listing on Menupages, because there's not much of a menu, per se. They sell four types of "California-Mexican/New York Style Tacos": Carne Asada, Chicken Verde, Quinoa Pilaf & Bean (vegetarian), and Carnitas. But if you're only going to do one thing -- do it well. And Snack Dragon does. We stopped by one afternoon after a fantastic brunch at the Clinton Street Baking Company,......

Gothamist joins oenophiles around the country in lifting a glass to celebrate the Supreme Court's ruling yesterday that sets the stage to allow winemakers on Long Island and elsewhere to ship across state lines directly to out-of-state consumers. The New York Times describes the decision and the restrictive laws that were impacted: By a 5-to-4 vote, the court overturned state liquor laws in New York and Michigan that gave preferential treatment to in-state wineries. Both......

If you like food as much as Gothamist does, you might get a kick out of the NYC Cuisine group on flickr. Want to see what the offerings at the Shake Shack look like? Take a look. Want to see pictures from Katz's Deli? Mmm, pastrami. For whatever reason, people love taking pictures of their food -- there's also a general food porn group, but you can just look at the NYC subset if you......

Because there are so many ways to celebrate, we can hardly decide what to do! If you're sick and tired of the same old "sinker" matzo balls and dried-out brisket that you've had every year since you were six, convince the family to come join you for one of the Passover menus being offered throughout the city. New York Magazine rounds up a few, including Coco Pazzo, where chef Mark Strausman is preparing a......

Tucked beside B Bar on East Fourth, Gothamist tried the sweet little wine bar called Aroma that doesn’t just smell good, it sparkles. Partners Alexandra (at the door) and Vito (behind the bar) came from the corporate business and wine sales world respectively but clearly adore working in candle rather than florescent light, and with each other. They found their chef, Chris Daly, working in the not-for-profit world and brought him in on the plan......

We've got another Gothamist blog in the public beta oven - Gothamist Food. Edited by Laren Spirer (who also has blog Sweet Blog o'Mine) and Jeremy Frost (he writes Frost Street), Gothamist Food strives to bring you food news, both local (hello, Sahadi's) and from faraway (like the awesome square watermelon from Japan). Plus, there's a weekly column by Joe DeSalazar, the master chef behind foodie - in the first one, he gives step-by-step instructions......