Writing for the Post, Andrea Strong feasts at Broadway East (pictured), the chic new Lower East Side organic restaurant with the dainty carbon footprint: The restaurant composts, filters and carbonates its own water, uses a green linen company, and donates waste cooking oil to the Environmental Energy Recycling Corp. Oh, and the food? Strong calls it “a brilliant compromise” between carnivores and vegetarians, “showcasing veggies along with organic meat and sustainably harvested and locally procured......

At the beginning of March, the Plaza Hotel welcomed the public back after a three-year, $400 million makeover, which transformed part of the 1907 landmark building into private condominiums – where the super-rich tenants are complaining about how lonely and desolate their lives are. (Seriously.) And now reviews are trickling in for the famed Palm Court (pictured) and the new Champagne Bar, both under the auspices of chef Didier Viro. If you’ve got no problem......

It's another story of emotional duress from a resident of the super expensive Plaza Hotel residences! This time, it's not about being lonely, it's about a resident being stuck in the trash room for seven hours. "Top real estate broker" Joanna Cutler went to throw out her trash on February 20. Thinking she would be gone for a minute and leaving her apartment door open, she went to the garbage room, only for the door......

The NY Times' Styles section describes the lonely existence of new residents of the Plaza Hotel condos. Why lonely? Well, if you can afford the pricey digs ($6,400 per square foot!; an owner interviewed paid $5.8 million for a two bedroom), your neighbors are also rich people who probably have other residences and don't live there very often. In other words, does the Times seriously expect us to feel sorry for these people? Maybe......

Andrea Schwartz, the Brazilian ex-pat who settled in Manhattan and became a madam with powerful clients, is back in the news. And she's as saucy as ever, this time denying that she's a lesbian. Tell us more! Schwartz, who was arrested in 2006 after the vice squad busted her Midtown prostitution ring from her apartment (where she also sold coke to customers), was sentenced to 18 months in jail, which she's already served, and probably......

Arthur Emil, the man behind the late Windows on the World and The Rainbow Room, has won the coveted contract to operate the famous Oak Room and Oak Bar (pictured) in the Plaza Hotel, which is near the end of a three-year, $400 million makeover. The 18 story landmark building opened in 1907 and operated as a hotel until 2005, after being sold for $675 million. After delays blamed on “red tape”, the Plaza......

As noted earlier today, a number of consumer activists, sweatshop protesters and anti-capitalist agitators have for years been working to turn Black Friday into Buy Nothing Day. Spearheaded by the anti-advertising gadflies at Adbusters, the event calls on individuals to suspend purchases for 24 hours and engage in creative activism to highlight the unsustainable patterns of mass consumer culture. Naturally, New York’s anti-corporate performance icon Reverend Billy is all over this. We spoke with......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Sutter Ave. in Brooklyn, a water rescue off the Breezy Point Jetty in Queens, and a missing child on East 178th St. in the Bronx. Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum is upset that Coney Island native and Knicks star Stephon Marbury donated 3,000 pairs of his new Starbury basketball shoes to male high school basketball teams, while ignoring the female players. The Brooklyn Paper reports that the......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A large fight at Heritage High School in Manhattan, a trench rescue in Queens, and a suspicious substance at Canal & 6th Avenue Aw, Hakan Yalincak, the NYU student who conned people out of millions, filed an ethics complaint against his lawyer; his lawyer's lawyer told Yalincak (who faces prison time), "You are the ultimate evil person. Have a good time in jail. Watch out for the bathrooms." Peter......

THEATER: Obie Award winner Adam Rapp has just unwrapped (sorry) his new play Essential Self-Defense at Playwrights Horizons. Set in a mean Midwestern town called Bloggs, the play has, fittingly, been generating big blog buzz. The “grim fairy tale” revolves around a disgruntled misfit “who takes a job as an attack dummy in a women’s self-defense class and finds himself mysteriously drawn to the repressed bookworm who’s beating on him. But all’s not well in......

In an effort to keep the United Nations in NYC, Mayor Bloomberg may revive an old plan to create more office space that could benefit both the U.N. and other city developers. The NY Sun reports that the plan would involve building "swing space" for the U.N. during the renovation of the Secretariat building. One possible place for the swing space: Long Island City. Picture it, ferries of U.N. employees across the East River! The......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: 10-75 at the Milford Plaza Hotel, DOA floater in Bay Ridge, and a water main break in East Midtown. Barclays, the bank that just bought naming rights to the Atlantic Yards arena, is demanding newspapers retract stories that mention Barclays' past involvement in slavery. The NY Times speaks to an "expert on the early British Empire" who says that all banks at the time had relationships with the slave......

-- Can you believe they're going to destroy the grand staircase at the Plaza Hotel? Outrageous. -- Garth is posting 1980s NYC clips to Vimeo-- marvel at how dirty the East Village looks! -- Babies: they're whats for dinner in Park Slope. -- From the not-surprising file: "bonecrusher" brand heroin is producing overdoses around the city. -- Today's clubland crime: A 17-year old Queens girl went out drinking at Don Hill's in Soho on......

This is what a hot real estate market has wrought: One of the city's oldest Jewish cemeteries has had construction debris fall onto dozens of tombstones in Chelsea. Congregation Shearith Israel built three cemeteries in Manhattan, and the Chelsea location, at 21st Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, was in use in 1828-1851 (one is at 55 St. James Place and another is at 76 West 11th Street). It seems like mortar from The O'Neill......

The Milford Plaza Hotel, whose jingle and retro ads from the 80s are stuck in many a head, is being sued by the family of a man who died two years ago. Rydian Phillips fell out his 22nd floor hotel room window in the middle of the night, and the lawsuit claims the room's living conditions are to blame. The room was apparently "cramped" with a broken air-conditioner, so Phillips went to open a window......

Well, perhaps it's not a wise idea if you have a studio. Today is the last afternoon you can view various objects on sale from the Plaza Hotel at Christie's (the viewing is open until 5PM), but you can look at the catalog online and get ready for tomorrow's auction. Gothamist imagines some restaurant or hotel - or maybe a props department - will go for the furnishings, as well as some people who may......

After yesterday's massive freaking downer of a mashup, we thought today's map should be on the lighter side-- so here's The Geography of Seinfeld. Most of the action predictably takes place around the Upper West Side, but there are some outlier points in the Bronx (Yankee Stadium), Queens (the scene of the Kramer late-pickup episode), and Coney Island (Nathan's). Amusingly, the map was obviously programmed by someone who has never been to NYC: at......

The 2006 Zagat guide to New York City restaurants comes out today. First, the stats: Over 30,000 people surveyed 2,003 restaurants. The average meal cost in New York is $37.61, making it the most expensive in the U.S. The most popular restaurant list looks quite a bit like last year's: Gramercy Tavern, Union Square Cafe, and Babbo knocking Daniel out of it's previous number three slot. Top food rankings go to Le Bernadin, Daniel, and......

While the city has stepped in (sort of, as Curbed points out) to make sure jobs are saved during the renovation of the Plaza Hotel into a luxury apartment and boutique hotel, some people still not happy. Namely, the parents of Maria Hillman. Caren and Melvin Hillman are suing the Plaza and new owners Elad Properties for fraud and ruining their daughter's wedding dreams. They had booked the Plaza in July 2004 for a July......

Following up last summer's news about the Plaza Hotel's sale to a developer to be converted to condos, it turns out that New York Region > Condos and Stores Planned for Plaza" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/26/nyregion/26plaza.html">retail stores and a small hotel will be included in the plan. Gothamist is relieved that the Oak Room will be reopened; the Palm Court will reopen as well, since it's a landmark. The developer, Elad Properties, says that their goal is to......

Joel Sherman, Professional Scrabble® Player...

- Robbers in Olso gotta have art - The Warriors remake gets a screenwriter - LED subway ads are 'disrespectful' - The city unveils a new mentoring program for new public school teachers - Getting around in NYC is not that easy - Does the subway map need revising? Some say yes - The F train burnishes its reputation as the luv train - And the bulk of our week has been consumed by the......

Since aerial shots are a little tougher for photobloggers to capture, Gothamist is thankful for the local news choppers, which are taking a break from traffic reports to show images of the protest banners on New York City rooftops. WNBC's RNC coverage page has these photos (above and below) of what some people have put on their roofs for passing planes. Welcome to NY, folks. In other protest news, the Plaza Hotel rappllers were......

Like kids who get their Christmas gifts a few days early, or, depending on how you look at it, like kids who get a pop quiz on the chapter they didn't read, New Yorkers were treated to some early protests. From naked ACT UP activists in front of Madison Square Garden (photo above from Daily News) to protesters taking their climbling skills to the side of the Plaza, New Yorkers started to feel pumped/weary/uncertain of......

This morning, a protest group, Operation Sybil, had members rappel down the side of the Plaza Hotel and display a huge anti-Bush banner. Gothamist received some photos that the intrepid Lucie Eber took before the protesters were arrested. Hopefully more details will emerge on how this was orchestrated, because we're curious if they needed to reserve rooms or just walked into the hotel and made their way to the roof. It's just really stunning.......

The Republican National Convention hasn't even started, but Gothamist feels like it has! We can't decide if it's because every other thing we read is about the convention or if it's just wishful thinking...probably some of both. We can't wait to head to the West 30s to check out the helmets with surveillance cameras the Department of Homeland Security outfitted the Federal Protection Service with - they look like slightly more modern welders. Homeland Security......

Friday, it was disclosed that The Plaza Hotel, a New York landmark, was sold for the price of $675 million. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, the fourth richest person in the world, and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels sold the hotel to Elad Properties NY, a real estate developer. Because the hotel has been losing money recently, Elan plans to turn some of the rooms into condominiums. Donald Trump, who had previously owned The Plaza, was surprised......

Our favorite Baldwin brother is Daniel Baldwin (reasons: starred in Homicide; does not own annoying 'hip' restaurants; does not bother us with his political views; does not seem very boring; is the "fat" Baldwin), who is now going to star in a new cable series called "The Strange Detective". The show, according to the Hollywood Reporter, is about a "San Francisco detective who, during a car chase on the Golden Gate bridge, plunges into the......