The Gray Lady slums it out to far East Williamsburg to report on the hipster bohemian squalor of the sprawling McKibbin Street “dorms;” two hulking buildings converted from garment factories to lofts in the late nineties by a trio of savvy Stuyvesant alums. It’s since become a filthy, bed-bug ravaged rite of passage for the young DIY arts set, who pile on top of each other in warren-like lofts more crowded than one of Dan......

Photo via Gowanus Lounge Curbed is reporting on the latest victim of luxury condos: Myrtle the Turtle. Who's behind the act of animal cruelty? All fingers are pointing to the construction workers, who have the same shade of red paint on site at 5 Roebling Street. A neighbor, and friend of Myrtle the Turtle, wrote in:It is obviously intentional because she got such a sustained spray that it has drip marks. The face and......

Photo by davidfg's flickr. On January 20th, residents of 475 Kent in Williamsburg were evicted from their apartments, which were deemed illegal, after the Fire and Buildings Departments found multiple violations (including a matzo factory housed in the building). Some of the evictees weren't going down without a fight, however, and have kept the incident in the public eye through everything from art shows to simply fighting the good fight. And while they spent......

Is Luna Lounge the latest casualty of the Department of Health? Eater reports that the venue "was shuttered on Friday and has yet to re-open." Recently another Williamsburg fixture, Sound Fix, was forced to close its doors after being harassed by the DoH -- they told us the irony of being "shut down for not having a food permit - and WE DON'T SELL FOOD! Ice is considered food in the health dept's eyes, I......

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......

Last spring, it was announced that Galapagos was being priced out of their N 6th Street digs in Williamsburg, which the club had inhabited permanently since 1998. More recently, TONY hinted that Southpaw owner Matthew Roff planned to sign a lease to take over the space, and today it's been confimed; from a press release:In an exciting development for New York City’s performing arts and music scene, Michael Palms, Matthew Roff, of Southpaw, & Larry......

With Brooklyn rolling out the welcome mat for Babeland, a sex toy shop, it isn't surprising that the borough is the most sex-driven of them all. The Brooklyn Paper reports that Brooklyn is, in fact, "the randiest place in the country." To celebrate, Naughty America, a porn site (though you probably already knew that if you're from Brooklyn), is throwing a party in Williamsburg. The invite-only event at 507 Bar will bring in five of......

Earlier in the week, unconfirmed reports of a knife-wielding assailant had Williamsburg residents on edge; South Williamsburg in particular has been flooded with patrolmen all week, and we’ve heard from readers who say they’ve been written summons for minor offenses like jaywalking. Though the 90th Precinct and the NYPD press liaison are unforthcoming about the dragnet, two officers walking their beat by the future Pies ‘n’ Thighs location on Driggs and South 4th Street told......

Today Frank Bruni reviews Adour (pictured), the four-month-old St. Regis Hotel restaurant conceived by extravagant French chef Alain Ducasse. While it’s not “rapturous” enough to merit the Times’s highest four star rating, it’s still “first-rate: polished service, a knockout wine list, beautiful oil-poached cod, gorgeous roasted lamb and exquisite desserts.” And Bruni does confirm our earlier speculation about some kind of haute bagel on the menu. On the other side of the spectrum and the......

What could the increased number of NYPD on foot in the South Williamsburg area mean? One reader tips us off to a new South Side stabber who may have the 90th Precinct working overtime. Ladies, hipsters, et al, even though Matchbox 20 and McLovin were bro-ing down south of the Williamsburg Bridge – the ultimate sign of gentrification – you still need to buddy up on those evening walks. A tipster writes:There is a man......

Last night, Gothamist and Slice had our second pizza party at Fornino in Williamsburg. We want to thank those of you who attended and hope that everyone had as much fun as we did. Michael Ayoub and his staff served up a whopping 360 pies--18 different types, from the margherita classica to a decadent tartufo pie--over the course of the evening as well as some other tasty treats including fresh mozzarella and a black truffle......

Yesterday morning a painted swastika was found at 800 Bedford Avenue (between Park and Flushing) in Williamsburg, it was one of five that were discovered on that block, and one of many discovered in recent weeks. The Yeshiva World notes that the last known incident involving swastikas in Williamsburg occurred just this past week, an hour prior to a similar incident in Crown Heights. Independent of that, we received notice of two other swastikas found......

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......

Yikes: A tractor-trailer crashed into a building at Kent and N. 11th Street in Brooklyn this morning. No injuries have been reported, but the building has been evacuated (there are apartments on the second floor) and the Buildings Department has been called. And while some are calling the location Greenpoint, we're using the Williamsburg-starts- at-N.14th-Street route.......

The endless debate over how to classify hipsters has been tearing this city apart for years, pitting brother against scenester, native New Yorker against arriviste, trust funder against squatter, even self-hating hipster against himself. So it's important for everyone to step back a bit and acknowledge that while we may never agree on a singular definition for hipster, like Supreme Court judges watching porn, we know it when we see it. Sure, the word hipster......

For those who can't decide between the suburban and the urban lifestyle, there's a simple solution: build a vinyl-sided house on the top of an old Brooklyn apartment building (which is way better than a trailer on Willoughby Avenue). This gem has been around for a while and is just East of Bedford on the southside of Williamsburg. While its residents most likely enjoy unobstructed city views from their rooftop abode, according to a Google......

A scrap of news is no replacement for pulled pork, but fervid fans of the defunct Williamsburg DIY barbecue joint Pies ‘n’ Thighs will have to take what they can get. It seems the owners are indeed moving forward with their new location on the corner South 4th Street and Driggs, and there will be another Community Board meeting next month. (Last we heard, owner Sarah Buck had yet to sign the lease.) And......

While Anytime in Williamsburg isn't actually open at any time, their doors swing freely when a hipster craves a jalepeño popper just before sunrise. So news of their possible demise is sending panic to those who crave post-imbibing tater tots and stormy night cigarette deliveries. Word is that "in the past few days, the familiar Anytime sign has been removed and replaced by an even more-familiar 'Commercial Space for Rent / Capri Jet Realty Corp'......

Appearing on Letterman this week, Rainn Wilson (aka Dwight Schrute) served as a warning bell for the long-awaited, post-strike return of The Office. What did he discuss with Dave? Not Scranton, but his old stomping grounds in Williamsburg."At the time I lived with my friend out in an abandoned beer brewery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. And this wasn't the cute little Williamsburg with all the little hipsters and cafes. This was like packs of stray wild......

Not many people would leave a role as Natalie Portman's husband in a film, but Williamsburg resident Abe Karpen has to do just that. Karpen, who is a Hasidic Jew, told the Daily News, "It's not acceptable in my community. It's a lot of pressure I am getting. They [the rabbis] didn't like the idea of a Hasidic guy playing in Hollywood." Portman and Karpen had been filming a short called "Kosher Vegetarian" for New......

Laurence Elliott, owner of old Williamsburg's sorely missed Read Cafe (now the more upscale coffee shop El Beit) is opening up a new and bigger place in South Williamsburg, on Bedford between South 4th and South 3rd. First things first: the Read Cafe tradition of backyard garden lounging will live on behind Elliott's new home, called The Rabbit Hole. Elliott, who trained at the French Culinary Institute while running Read, has been obsessed lately with......

A few blocks south of the Lorimer L stop in Williamsburg there was once a beloved cafe, Hope and Union, which served divine pastries and stellar brunch in a cozy room with exposed brick walls and a tiny kitchen. A handful of name and management changes later, the space is occupied by Elote, a inexpensively priced breakfast-lunch-dinner-and-tequila drinking spot that retains all of the previous architectural elements but offers a Mexican menu. A full......

The rowdy drunken yahoos stumbling out of nightclubs on the Lower East Side and East Village have some residents nostalgic for the old days of pre-gentrified lawlessness. 47-year-old Frances Ayers, who lives at Rivington and Ludlow streets, tells the Post, "At least with the drug dealers there wasn't any noise." Since July 2007, when the city’s stricter noise code went into effect, complaints recorded by local community boards have boomed. Between July 1st, 2007 and......

Last month The Brooklyn Eagle had a report on how Brooklyn has been sucking the creative lifeblood right out of Manhattan. In recent years Brooklyn has experienced a 33.2 percent increase in the number of self-employed creatives, while Manhattan’s growth during the same period was a mere 6.5 percent. On Wednesday the Center for an Urban Future held a forum addressing the impact of Brooklyn’s growing cluster of self-employed creative freelancers on the borough’s economy.......

It seems like every other weekend, Brooklyn is home to some kind of homestyle cooking competition, with a constant rotation of cupcake-offs, chili massacres, a big jerk-off, and probably some vegan tofu spread-a-thons somewhere. Prizes at these things are typically anything from homely trophies to a few cans of PBR, but the just-announced, upcoming inaugural Risotto Challenge is something special indeed: The prizes are going to be very nice. More on that below. On April......

Left cover by Gretel sent to subscribers, right runner-up cover by Wieden + Kennedy. New York’s Best of New York lifestyle catalog is out, and among the rightful winners, like Best Old School Lobby: The Chrysler Building and Best Dive Bar: Mars Bar, there are some curious ‘bests’ to ponder. In the New York Classics section, for instance, the sterile, six-month old Music Hall of Williamsburg is hailed for its “unequaled” sound and sightlines. This......

DRINK: The raucous and ribald cabaret duo Kiki & Herb may be on semi-hiatus, but they’re resurfacing tonight for a very special ‘Eclectic Salon’ event at Bottlerocket, the “dog and child friendly” wine shop in the Flatiron district. It's not exactly clear what kind of performance is planned tonight, but the boozy surroundings are sure to provide ample inspiration. Playfully dubbed “The Year of Magical Drinking,” the evening features free wine tastings to wash......

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......

Kaki King (MySpace) is a guitar player and singer-songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia. She lived in Brooklyn for 7 years until last summer, when music started taking her on a permanent tour around the world. Her upcoming album is called Dreaming Of Revenge and will be released March 11th on Velour Records. King was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Score for the music she played in the Sean Penn film Into the Wild,......

THEATER: Hemingway’s play The Fifth Column takes its now-familiar name from the Spanish Civil War, when General Emilio Mola, advancing on Madrid with four columns of troops, boasted of a hidden “fifth column” of fascist sympathizers waiting within the city. Hemingway, of course, was there for the action as a newspaper correspondent and dashed off the play while fascists bombarded his hotel. His rarely produced drama tells the “surprisingly funny story of the private......