The earlier reports of the city’s sudden shutdown of Veniero’s pastry café have been followed up with some rather revolting details, sent to Eater by a tipster at the Department of Health. The beloved East Village institution, founded in 1894 by Antonio Veniero, had posted a sign on the door next to the DOH sticker blaming the shut-down on a “pest problem” caused by “a large Capital Improvement Project.” Pest problem, indeed: Veniero’s Café was......

As if offering a final coda (or is it?) to the suspenseful Momofuku Ko reservation saga, the Times’s Frank Bruni has officially opined on the breathlessly hyped, 12-seat restaurant from rock star chef David Chang. Bruni extols it with three stars, calling it “noteworthy beyond its addling all-computer reservation system and the intense, revelatory pleasures of its partly Asian, partly French, wholly inventive food… Ko in its early months serves a few dishes that merely......

To bring the Momofuku Ko Craigslist reservation controversy full circle, Insatiable Critic Gael Greene (pictured incognito) has finally published her side of the story. For those just joining us, one Tom Dobrowski posted a Craigslist ad inviting a guest to buy him dinner in exchange for his impossible-to-get reservation at David Chang’s 14-seat Momofuku Ko. Greene took him up on the offer, but last week witnesses from Eater reported that their date was meal by......

Map via The NY Times Because of rising rents and lowering profit margins, supermarkets city-wide have been disappearing, according to a recent study. New York's boroughs have been especially hard hit, forcing low-income residents like Fort Greene's Della Dorsett to power her electric wheelchair several blocks uphill along Myrtle Avenue, "returning home with plastic bags dangling from handles and nestled between her feet." Something to think about next time the lines jam up at......

Starting tonight (Cinco de Mayo) and continuing through Friday, Crema Restaurante will be offering a special five course prix fixe menu, with tequila drink pairings, that dovetails Mexican and French cuisines. Chef Julieta Ballesteros, from Monterrey, Mexico, calls the menu a “peace offering” of sorts to the French, and most of the dishes draw heavily upon her training at New York's French Culinary Institute. Even if you're not up for dinner, you might want......

That Momofuku Ko "resi" that hit Craigslist recently, where the poster was looking for a culinary companion, was not only filled -- but the story gets juicier than kimchi consommé with pork belly. The woman who accompanied the Craigslist poster, Tom Dobrowski (a real estate investment expert), was none other than the Insatiable Critic, Gael Greene (pictured). She got her in by responding to his post with: “Momofuko Ko with a mouth that has forty......

Freshly fried plantain chips and homemade chimichurri sauce start the meal off right Shachis, the Venezuelan spot in South Williamsburg run by Pedro Boyer and his partner Alan Rodriguez. You can snack on the chips while perusing the menu, which specializes in arepas – Venezualan corn cakes – but also offers delightful Latin American entrees incorporating flavors of saffron and piquillo peppers, yuca, and sweet plantains. A handful of simple salads are a gateway......

The term "diner" usually evokes thoughts of breakfast at midnight and dense menus of Dickensian length. But at the Jackson Diner in the heart of Jackson Heights in Queens, crowds assemble for some of the city's best North Indian food. In the heart of the borough's "little India," a large and casual banquet room with deep purple paper placemats is the go-to spot for a reasonably-priced unlimited lunch buffet and Indian food hankerings of......

The most eco-friendly way to eat on Earth Day – and any day – is by growing your own food, eating it raw and composting the scraps. But for those of us who aren’t urban farmers, there are some good green options happening on or around April 22nd. il Buco (pictured), the Mediterranean restaurant on Bond Street, will be offering a $30 prix fixe lunch menu Tuesday through Saturday, and donating 100% of the proceeds......

Photo of Orphic Memory Sausage by Matthew Weinreb 2008, printed with permission from the artists: Mimi Oka and Doug Fitch. Lots of chefs consider their food to be art, but few artists see their art as food. A new festival called Umami – a Japanese word meaning "savory" or "meaty" – is trying to change all that. The ten day smorgasbord, which started Tuesday, spotlights artists and performers who use food as a medium, and......

Here is one last winter recipe before all the glorious spring and summer produce sweeps in. Chickpea-Stuffed Delicata Squash for the chickpeas 1 C (200 g) dried chickpeas 4 C water (or, better yet, mushroom broth) 1/2 C dried cranberries 1/2 C tawny port 2 large (4" diameter) delicata squash Salt, sugar, olive oil, and macademia nuts to taste Preheat your oven to 475 F. Mix the dried cranberries and port together in a bowl.......

Starbucks unveiled its new everyday coffee brew--the Pike Place Roast--in stores today. The Seattle-based chain's press release explains the new brew has "Starbucks signature bold flavor with a smoother finish balanced by soft acidity and subtle, rich flavors of cocoa and toasted nuts." Additionally, the stores indicate when the coffee was roasted and will "brew smaller batches with a hold time of no more than 30 minutes." A store in Chicago actually ran out......

Dating and eating converge in a new Brooklyn-based program called the Feed Me Show...and it looks like the producers need some Brooklyn singles to heat things up in their kitchen:We're looking for a few attractive Brooklyn singles who have it where it counts -- in the kitchen. No acting experience necessary, but you must have an exhibitionistic streak, cause we're going to get up close and personal on video, in a series that hits the......

Colors, the feel-good restaurant on Lafayette Street owned and operated by Windows on the World employees who were spared on 9/11, is reportedly back from the brink of ruin. The fine dining restaurant opened two years ago as one of New York’s few cooperative restaurants, with everyone from busboys to chefs sharing ownership and a menu featuring international cuisine created by the multi-ethnic staff. Though Colors did well during the first burst of publicity, business......

Today Frank Bruni files a second review of Mas (pictured), the organic, locally-sourced West Village eatery he bestowed with one star four years ago. Today he bumps the cozy French-inflected restaurant up a star, noting that Mas isn’t “for diners with big, blunt appetites. It’s for those who revel in little surprises and unexpected nuances, like the smoked celery root purée that came with grilled turbot.” Meanwhile, Alex Witchel enlists cookbook author Arthur Schwartz in......

After widespread outrage that the city Parks Department might end more than three decades of Latin American cuisine dished out during weekend soccer games in Red Hook, it was announced yesterday that the longtime vendors have been granted a six year permit. In the end, they were the only group to apply. Last summer the Department of Health cracked down on the vendors for health violations, and it was feared that the vendors would be......

Since 1993, Robert Sietsema has been eating his way through New York on behalf of the Village Voice; his specialty is shedding light on restaurants and cuisines that may have gone otherwise undetected by a broader audience. Sietsema's approach to the city's sprawling restaurant scene can perhaps best be summed up the titles of two of his books, Secret New York and Good and Cheap Ethnic Eats (now in its third edition). Tonight the Voice......

ART: Unhappy with your old point and shoot? Today marks the opening of the National Krappy Kamera Competition, proving that even inexpensive cameras can snap good shots. "The exhibit features images that are produced using equipment from the lowest end of the technological scale. The concept underlying this show is that an artist can use any piece of equipment to create engaging photographs. Cameras generally range from the well-known Diana, Holga and Lubitel to......

The holy Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, adored for its succulent burgers, righteous shakes and hellish lines, will soon expand into multiple locations. Owner Danny Meyer has signed a lease for a branch at 366 Columbus Avenue (at 77th Street), the former home of New Orleans import Jacques-Imo's. The new location will be entirely indoors, enabling delicate Upper Wide Siders to do their time on line out of the elements. And two Shake Shack......

Images from WNBC and WABC The police are looking for a man suspected of stabbing two Key Food employees, one of whom died at a hospital two hours after the afternoon attack. Other employees at the East Village store say James Gonzalez, a part-time maintenance worker, stabbed ex-girlfriend Tina Negron with a 10-inch knife, because he was upset over their breakup. Negron had been in the elevated manager's booth when Gonzalez apparently attacked. Bookkeeper......

Two female Key Food employees at the Avenue A and East 4th Street store were attacked by a knife-wielding man. The police originally said one of the woman died, but it turns out that one is "clinging to life" while the other is in critical condition. The Sun reports the women were in the "elevated manager's booth" when the attack took place at 3:15PM. According to WNBC, the attacker may have been a delivery......

MOVIE: After Marion Cotillard took home the gold for best actress in La Vie en Rose last Sunday, French cinema is sure to be all the rage. Today the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2008 series kicks off with a screening of Roman de gare (pictured). Buy tickets and get the schedule here. Friday// 6:30 and 9pm // Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts [70 Lincoln Center Plaza] // $12 (stand......

Anyone who’s ever gotten off the 7 train in Flushing and walked to the Queens Botanical Garden knows that the majority of the area’s Chinese eateries and businesses are clustered around the northern end of Main Street. As you move further south, Indian sari shops, chaat houses and grocery stores start to appear. But lately a handful of Chinese restaurants have elbowed into the southern end; one such newcomer is Oriental Express Food Garden,......

Today the Times’s Keith Dixon, a self-described “clumsy, overambitious cook,” offers tips for cooking dinner in a crowded city apartment made even more cramped by a newborn baby. Dixon has adapted his cooking technique to accommodate a light-sleeping baby who, awakened by a clattering spatula, derails dinner plans as he and his wife “labor to get her back to sleep.” So he’s evolved into a “Silent Chef” with “ninja stealth” and suggests, among other things,......

It's a no-brainer: Most recipes need exact measurements. But do you have what it takes to tackle that cookie recipe? Maybe, maybe not. With NYC apartments being so tiny and kitchen cupboard space being non-existent, some of you might be relying on your liquid measuring cup to appraise how much sugar or flour you need, which would make Alton Brown cringe! The difference isn't so much about the volume - pour flour into a liquid......

The Oscars are in town! Well, at least some 8-foot Oscar statues for the official New York Oscar night celebration at the Carlyle hotel, where east coast industry folk will come together Sunday night as the show goes down in Hollywood. Nominees were announced on January 22nd with Best Picture nods going to Michael Clayton, Atonement, There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men and Juno. The love and buzz continues to surround the......

taxi, by Runs With Scissors at flickrToday on the Gothamist Newsmap: an amputation on Hudson St. in Manhattan, an under-a-train fatality at Lenox Ave. and Central Park North in Manhattan, and a stabbing on 34th St. in Queens. Auvryn Scarlett, the sanitation truck driver who mowed down a pair of British tourists as they strolled down a midtown sidewalk, was arraigned on manslaughter charges yesterday. Saturday Night Live will attempt to make up for......

About a year ago, Village Voice restaurant critic Robert Sietsema attended a taping of Iron Chef America at the Food Network's Chelsea studios. Thanks to a friend's invite, the Food Network had no idea he was watching and waiting to blow the cover off the whole phony operation once the episode finally aired. Now Sietsema is here to report that the series is “more bogus than even I had imagined.” How bogus is it? Well,......

Halfway through that chocolate chip cookie recipe and realize you’re out of brown sugar? If, like many New Yorkers, you’re not on borrowing terms with your neighbors, here are some handy substitutions you can make for common baking ingredients:1 cup buttermilk = 2/3 cup yogurt + 1/3 cup milk 1 cup confectioner’s sugar = 1 cup granulated sugar + one teaspoon cornstarch 1 cup light brown sugar = 1 cup granulated sugar + 1 tablespoon......

Forget going out to a restaurant -- the way to woo your sweetheart (or potential sweetheart) is by cooking. Before the fear courses through your veins, don't think that "cooking a romantic meal" needs to be overwhelming or complicated. The simple act of cooking a meal for someone, no matter what the menu, is romantic and special in and of itself. Perhaps the most romantic meal possible is breakfast in bed, and it doesn't have......