Zagat's updated Best of Brooklyn 2008 guide was released yesterday, filled to the brim with all that the city's largest borough has to offer, including 216 restaurants, 141 nightspots, 355 shops, 25 tourist attractions and more. Like all Zagat guides, this one is a complilation of surveys from the public and each entry is rated on a scale of 1-30. The guide is broken up into five sections: Dining, Nightlife, Shopping, Gourmet Shopping & Entertaining,......

What’s worth watching on food-TV this week? Martha Stewart’s all about Thanksgiving this week; she even has a hotline up T-Day emergencies (email thanksgivinghotline@marthastewart.com). Her mashed potatoes tip? Use buttermilk instead of heavy cream or cream cheese—“Delicious,” she says. On Monday, she’s making sides and teaching people about heritage birds and how to find the perfect turkey. On Wednesday, she’ll be answering people’s last minute holiday questions—sent in via the hotline--throughout the show (Monday-Wednesday, Friday,......

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? This Wednesday on Kitchen Nightmares (9pm on Fox), Ramsay does his thing on Finn McCool’s in West Hampton. Are we the only ones who wonder if his advice actually does any good? Most places that he revisits after his makeover revert—at least in part—to their prior ways. But if you own a restaurant you want Ramsified, now’s your chance. Download an application to be featured on the......

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? Next Sunday is the finale of The Next Iron Chef (9pm on the Food Network). Michael Ruhlman has a comment from Chef Chris Cosentino on his blog about the airplane episode—he was clearly getting crowded by cameras, but for him the crowding was to the degree that he couldn’t work, and he wanted to clarify that fact “now that 1/2 the country thinks i am an asshole.”......

Whether or not you're going to the annual Village Halloween Parade this evening, it'll probably effect your day in some way if you live or work in the area. If you want to avoid the mayhem, don't be anywhere in the vicinity of 6th Avenue between Spring and 22nd Steets. The streets intersecting the route will be closed off at 5pm sharp! If you want to watch, get there early to stake out a spot.......

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? We’re in the thick of it now on The Next Iron Chef (Sundays at 9pm on the Food Network). The Amateur Gourmet says “Finally, it gets juicy!” and puts his money on Symon or Besh. He also points out that these chefs—with national reputations—have much more to lose than your average reality food show competitor. “It’s not really a laughing matter when your business hinges on your......

A confession. In general, we’re not big Food Network Fans. We do make an exception for Iron Chef (it always sucks us in), and we love it’s latest incarnation. Last week on the premiere of The Next Iron Chef (9pm on the Food Network, Chef Traci Des Jardins got the ax, brought down by her salmon roe dessert (ick). Read the Amateur Gourmet's unique and often hilarious take on things on his blog on the......

MUSIC: Frequenter of the Hotel Chelsea, Country Joe McDonald (pictured at Woodstock) will be taking the Joe's Pub stage tonight to perform a tribute to Woody Guthrie where he "deftly conveys all the charm, talent, and social and political consciousness of the legendary folksinger from Oklahoma." 7pm // Joe’s Pub [425 Lafayette St] // $30 EVENT: Move over spelling bee...The Define-a-Thon Word Challenge hits Brooklyn tonight. The competitive word challenge is good for the spelling-impaired,......

What’s worth watching on food-relatedTV this week? Tonight on No Reservations--in another repeat--(10pm on the Travel Channel), Bourdain goes to Brazil. ">Martha Stewart has Chef Tom Colicchio on Tuesday making Cornish game hens. The show airs Tuesday through Friday this week at 1pm (NBC). Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares is on Wednesday at 9pm (Fox). This week, Ramsay makes over Seascape in Islip, NY. The LA Times calls the show “noisy and dissident.” All the TV......

Beard on Food: The Best Recipes and Kitchen Wisdom from the Dean of American Cooking was first published in 1974. This collection of Beard's favorite newspaper columns has been reissued to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the James Beard Foundation, the culinary haven and educational institution created in his honor. The short columns are a pleasure to read, combining culinary education and history with easygoing recipes, travel stories and are brimming with his love......

What’s worth watching on food-TV this week? Tonight on No Reservations (10pm on the Travel Channel), Bourdain goes to South Carolina. He’s also got an upcoming holiday special that features Queens of the Stone Age (wearing Christmas sweaters from QVC, no less). We can’t wait for that one. Read about it in ">Rolling Stone. On Top Chef, Episode 12 airs Wednesday at 10pm (Bravo). The guest judges are Sirio Maccioni and Andre Soltner. Grub Street......

This week on food-TV, we've got: Tonight on No Reservations (10pm on the Travel Channel), Bourdain goes to Buenos Aires and Patagonia, Argentina. On Top Chef, Episode 11 airs Wednesday at 10pm (Bravo). Chef Jimmy Canora is the guest judge. Frank Bruni blogs about the show in the Times, calls Howie “the season’s best villain, the toque you’d love to choke.” And Bourdain is guest judging again this week as well; says that this episode......

What’s worth watching, food-wise, on TV this week? Tonight on No Reservations (10pm on the Travel Channel), Bourdain goes to Hong Kong. His show is followed by Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, who goes to Alaska to eat jellied moose nose and reindeer pizza, among other things. On Top Chef, Episode 10 airs Wednesday at 10pm (Bravo). There are seven remaining contestants, and this week Michael Schwartz is the guest judge. And PBS continues their......

What’s worth watching, food-wise, on TV this week? Be warned: it’s the dog days of summer, so there’s not much new on the air… Tonight on No Reservations (10pm on the Travel Channel), Bourdain goes to Cleveland, Ohio, where Michael Ruhlman shows him around town. Serious Eats recaps last week’s ep (visit to French Polynesia), shares the recipe for poisson cru. Top Chef is a repeat this week. It’s the “All-Star” episode where top competitors......

The Princeton Review released its annual "The Best 366 Colleges" rankings, and NYC college schools make some interesting showings. The New School is number 1 for "Best College Town" (Barnard, Columbia, and NYU are also in the top 10), while Queens College is the third most sober. Here are some rankings for some area schools: Barnard: Best Quality of Life (16), Great College Towns (2), Nobody Plays Intramural Sports (18) Brooklyn College: Professor Get Low......

Beautiful lawns, flowering bushes, and planters with lush greenery: This morning, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden announced the winners in its 13th annual Greenest Block in Brooklyn Contest. The residential first place winner was MacDonough Street between Stuyvesant and Lewis Avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant (pictured above) while first place for a business/commercial block was Hoyt Street between Atlantic Avenue & State Street in Boerum Hill (pictured below). MacDonagh Street's Greening Coordinator Wilma Atwell said, "Our hard......

The prolific journalist and author David Halberstam died yesterday in a car crash outside of San Francisco. Halberstam, a New Yorker, was traveling in a car that was broadsided while trying to make a left turn. Two other cars were involved in the crash, none of the drivers were seriously injured. The NY Times obituary notes that Halberstam "was killed doing what he had done his entire adult life: reporting," as he was on his......

READINGS: Jonathan Lethem reads from his new novel You Don't Love Me Yet. In it, Lethem leaves Boerum Hill for LA "to recount the near-fame experience of a Los Angeles alternative rock band". A girl, a boy and a band - sounds like a hipster love story to us! 7pm // Barnes & Noble [33 E 17th St] // Free Saul Austerlitz talks about his book Money for Nothing: A History of the Music Video.......

A look at some noteworthy televison this weel: Nature - The Best of Nature: 25 Years (Sunday, 7:00 p.m. WNET 13) Don't be fooled by the title, but this is a pledge drive clip show special. http://abcfamily.go.com/dukeboys">The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (Sunday, 8:00 p.m. ABC Family) If you liked The Dukes of Hazzard, you will probably like this made for TV movie. The Winner (Sunday, 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. WNYW 5) The buzz......

A look at some noteworthy programs this week: The Morning Show With Mike & Juliet (Monday, 10 a.m. WNYW 5) Fox takes another stab at a morning show. Just the thought of a Fox morning show brings back memories of the insipid Fox After Breakfast from the mid 90s that had Tom Bergeron and Viki Lawremce hosting from a faux Manhattan loft. The new entry is fronted by Mike Jerrick and Juliet Huddy of the......

A look at some noteworthy programs this week: 60 Minutes (Sunday, 7:00 p.m. WCBS 2) George W. Bush is interviewed days after his announcement of the Iraq War escalation . 24 (Sunday, 7:00 p.m. WNYW 5) Yet another season of 24 starts with the first two hours of its new season tonight. Jack's back, but does anyone still care? Nature - The Best of Nature: 25 Years (Sunday, 7:00 p.m. WNET 13) A 90 minute......

Now that the spring has given way to summer, grass is getting long everywhere - much to the chagrin of teenagers whose parents want to know if they have mowed the lawn yet. What this means for the eaters here in NYC is that chickens born in early spring are just getting up to their market weight (3 ½ - 4 ½ pounds) while feasting on flavor-enhancing grass. People can talk at length about......

Tom Scharpling, Writer, Producer, and Host of the Best Show on WFMU ...

The American Theater Wing announced the 2006 Tony award nominees, and there are a lot of notables: - The Drowsy Chaperone stormed the gate with 13 nominations, including Best Musical, four acting nominations and a ton of others... - The Color Purple followed with the most nominations (11), including Best Musical, Best Book, Best Original Score, Best Leading Actress and three Best Featured acting awards. However, in spite of the Oprah factor, we give......

This week's new film releases are a lovely New York melting pot: ballroom dancing teens, Arab/Israeli anxieties, motor skills-challenged geeks, neurotic female friends, and a thoughtful Polish director thrown in for good measure. Spring may have sprung outside but it's also a great time to be inside at the movie. If you saw last year's documentary Mad Hot Ballroom, you're already familiar with dancing teacher Pierre Dulaine and his work with children around the country.......

It's the itch we can't scratch - the Academy Awards. We make sure we see the announcements at 8:30AM and then rush to work, thinking about the nominations while on the train. This morning, Academy President Sid Ganis and Mira Sorvino (who isn't doing anything else, anyway) announced the nominations. As expected, Brokeback Mountain, Good Night and Good Luck, and Capote earned many nominations, and Crash made a surprising showing with Best Picture, Best Director......

Gothamist loves that “before they were famous” kind of celebrity trivia. The jobs that pre-celebrities held down, the apartments they lived in, that meager road they traveled on their way to the paparazzi-and-Bungalow 8-filled highway. We love knowing that maybe some of the performers we watch in the back of a bar or in a theater above a sushi restaurant might someday be propelled to that level of success and we are lucky to have......

Since it's obviously National Hangover Week and no one does hangovers better than New York artists, it's a rather slow week (again!) in readings and literary events. Next week looks like it's picking up a fair bit, though, and we're excited about several events, so tune in next Tuesday. For you science fiction fans, tonight the New York Review of Science Fiction hosts its first reading of the year, at the South Street Seaport Museum's......

Okay, so awards shows have gotten out of hand. You’ve got the People’s Choice, the VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards, and now the Video Games Awards. Who really deserves props most? It’s that guy down on the street corner that you see every day, standing out in the freezing cold serving New Yorkers their food on the go. This November kicked off the Vendys, the new annual awards for New York City street vendors . Gothamist queued......

John Hodgman is everywhere! Not that we are complaining of course, but Gothamist has already seen his interview from the Daily Show repeated, he was at Mo Pitkins earlier this week, and tonight he will be a guest at How to Kick People. Surely there will be talk of hobos, but there will also be other guests, including Onion editor Carol Kolb, comedian Susie Felber and Andy Friedman & The Other Failures. If you aren’t......