Bar Boulud: Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni recently lost his patience waiting on hold for 15 minutes to make a reservation, which should give you some sense of how feverish the excitement is for Daniel Boulud’s latest foray. The tony uptown wine bar, across the street from Lincoln Center, enjoyed the raging buzz of a sneak-preview opening on New Year’s Eve and now the 100 seat restaurant is open for real. Judging from the photos,......

The fate of Pier 40, located at West Houston Street on the Hudson, was much discussed and debated last year, and 2008 seems to be a year of further reflection. At one point, there was a $625 million idea for it to become an elaborate entertainment venue with a Cirque du Soleil theater, restaurants, and more, while opposing forces wanted there simply to be more green space. In the waning weeks of December, another......

If you’re thinking about buying into the future Soho Mews condo but still unsure whether the “doorman, concierge and a curator” will be enough for you, the news in today’s Post might just be your tipping point. The under-construction condo, which is comprised of two buildings joined by a shared courtyard garden, has announced a partnership with Centovini, the Italian restaurant on West Houston, four blocks north from the condo on West Broadway, across from......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a construction accident on 23rd Ave. in Queens, a child was struck on West Houston and Thompson St. in Manhattan, and shots fired on 29th St. in Brooklyn. Going along with a network-wide environmentally conscious theme at NBC this season, the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center will be decorated with low power-consuming LEDs. The flat rate for a single subway fare will remain $2 until 2009. The fares will......

EVENT: The NY Horror Film Festival kicks off with a party at Don Hill's tonight. Terrifying short films and some creepy classics are promised throughout the fest, as bands M-16, Kaos From Order and more set the sonic tone tonight. Free Wychwood Brewery beer from 8 to 9pm. More details here. 7pm // Don Hill's [511 Greenwich St] // $10 FILM: Karl Lagerfeld's personal style sort of freaks us out (see photo), so this may......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery at the Washington Mutual on Sheepshead Bay Rd. in Brooklyn, a worker fell into the water off Pier 11 on Governor's Island, and a bank robbery on 57th St. and Broadway in Manhattan. Additional charges could be in store for the woman who allegedly shot a Staten Island commune leader before fleeing to Philadelphia. Maya Rudolph is not returning for the new season of Saturday Night......

Tomorrow, the city and other organizations will mark the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Here's the official city commemoration:7AM: Families start to arrive at Zuccotti Park, where the ceremony will take place. 8:40AM: Mayor Bloomberg begins the program, which includes first responders reading victims' names and readings from NY Governor Spitzer, former NY Governor Pataki, NJ Governor Corzine and former NYC mayor Giuliani. Bagpipers and drummers lead......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian was struck at East 51st St. and Linden Blvd. in Brooklyn, a fatality as a person was struck by a train at West Houston St., and a baby water rescue on Bodine St. on Staten Island. In response to an overabundance of animals at city shelters, Broadway stars gathered to promote pet adoption this weekend at Broadway Barks. Little Leaguers played tee-ball on the South Lawn of......

MUSIC: Courtney Love makes her return to the New York stage tonight for a little birthday celebration show at Hiro Ballroom. The rocker turned 43 on Monday of this week, and there's only one way to see if she's acting her age! Last time she got a little crazy at a suprise show at Plaid, and when she turned 40 she took a trip to Bellevue. 10pm // Hiro Ballroom [371 W 16th St] //......

Expensive designer jeans - the downfall of criminals! The police - and onlookers - ended up chasing a pair of women who had been using a stolen credit card in Soho for many blocks yesterday afternoon. A cashier at the True Religion denim store on Prince Street noticed that Frances Chanelle was using a stolen Discover card - and a forged Virginia's driver license - when buying $1,500 in clothing, so the store called......

Last night, a man carrying two handguns and over 100 rounds of ammunition shot and killed a pizzeria employee in Greenwich Village and fatally shot two unarmed auxiliary police officers, before responding police officers shot him on Bleecker Street. The slain counterman at DeMarco's Pizza is being described as Romero Morales or Alfredo Romaro (we will refer to him as Romaro). The auxiliary police officers were identified as 19-year-old Eugene Marshalik, a NYU student,......

The Villager is reporting that the Greenwich Village Society of Historic Preservation last week submitted a report calling for the creation of a South Village Historic District. Comprised of 38 blocks and about 800 buildings, it would be the city’s first tenement-based district. “Landmark designation of this area is one of the great pieces of unfinished preservation business for Greenwich Village and, indeed, for New York City as a whole,” said Andrew Berman, executive director......

This Sunday, Time's Up! is organizing a 2006 Cyclist Memorial Ride that will honor all cyclists who were killed on NYC streets last year. There are two routes - one for Queens/Brooklyn/Manhattan and one for Bronx/Upper Manhattan - that will converge at West Houston and LaGuardia Place, where Derek Lake died in June and then visit other spots where cyclists were killed. More information after the jump; additionally, here's a list of Ghost Bike Memorials......

Manholes on West Houston Street near Sullivan have exploded, creating a smoky, chaotic scene. Windows are blown out and civilians are panicking. Firefighters, police, Con Ed and other rescue workers are everywhere. Jake just went down to the scene-- it's total chaos. Houston is shutdown from Laguardia to 6th Avenue, traffic being diverted. Pedestrians are gawking behind fire lines on the corners of Thompson and Sullivan. A smokey fire is still raging in the......

September 21: Sagra del Maiale Leave work early and head over to Il Buco for some succulent roast pig. What better way to celebrate fall? Tasting plates are $7 a piece. 12:00 PM - 7:00 PM, 47 Bond St.212-533-1932. September 25: Slow Food Greenmarket Cocktail Party Audrey Saunders, celebrity mixologist and proprietor of Pegu Club, is mixing up a batch of Greenmarket-inspired cocktails to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Greenmarket. Three featured cocktails will be......

Critics of red light cameras, take note. A woman was given a $50 ticket after the camera didn't catch her license. Yes, didn't! Lisa Sims of Ohio who has never been to New York City was issued the ticket when, somehow, her license plate which starts with DQN was mistaken for a car with DON that ran a red light on West Houston in June. Sims offered pitch perfect quotes to the Daily News, "I......

Times Up is organizing a memorial ride tomorrow night, in memory of Dr. Carl Nacht and Derek Lake. The ride will begin at 6:30PM at the West Side Greenway at 42nd Street (in front of the Intrepid). The ride will stop at West 38th Street, where Nacht was hit by an NYPD tow truck, and then make it way to West Houston and Laguardia Place, where Lake was killed near a construction site. Bring flowers.......

We had heard some wire reports of a fatal bike accident on West Houston and LaGuardia, and NY1 just had an update. A cyclist headed down LaGuardia and was trying to squeeze between a truck and van in the construction area. He fell off the bike and got caught under the truck, with a wheel going over his head. Houston Street has long been a dangerous road for bikers; last year, there were a few......

A cab carrying a group of friends early Sunday morning crashed into a building, causing one passenger to be thrown from the car and then fatally hit by an oncoming cab. The accident claimed the life of Danielle Ricco, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, as the cab headed south on the West Side Highway. The cab's other passengers claim the driver, Hassan Afzal, was trying to scare them by driving quickly, after......

While the most posh our hovel of an apartment has seen is the Dwell sample sale, our ex-boss registered at Moss; now, happily she (and you, presumably, after a date with your sugar daddy) can drink there, too. Centovini the newest venture from Moss and the people behind I Trulli and Vino is both a wine store and bar, open evenings and, soon, for breakfast and lunch (We can totally rationalize breakfast drinking, especially with......

Yesterday's the story about the car crash at West Broadway and West Houston got a bit of a twist when it turned out an assistant chief of police was driving the SUV was crashed into another car, then a building, as well as pedestrians. That's why the scene was positively swaming with cops! John McManus is second-in-command in Internal Affairs and was driving a city-owned Jeep Cherokee when he was making a left turn......

A car apparently just drove onto a sidewalk on West Houston - into a building and hit three pedestrians. Anyone see what happened? Update: It's at West Broadway and West Houston - a car crashed through that huge, gaping Con Ed project on the SE corner of WB and WH, onto the sidewalk and into Dos Caminos SoHo. Two pedestrians are injured. Update: Looks like there was both a car and a SUV involved -......

Just in time for tonight's Critical Mass bike ride, it turns out that rapper Foxy Brown may have hit two bicyclists during the pre-Republican National Convention August ride last year. Her former friend, Ayesha Quattara, says that Brown blamed her for driving a Land Rover on West Houston Street, while it was really Foxy behind the wheel. Apparently the women were trying to get from one Louis Vuitton store to another before it closed since......

Petur Magnusson, Young Curmudgeon...

Yay! Spellbound finally opens at Film Forum today! Gothamist has been following this spelling bee documentary for a while, and will try to make it to West Houston today to see it. A.O. Scott loves the film, and mentions, one contestant, "Harry, a voluble boy from New Jersey, who struggles with an Anglo-Saxon plural noun (to write it would be to spoil one of the film's most excruciating and hilarious moments) referring to a......