Are you ready to meet the Real Housewives of New York City? Bravo is spinning off their Orange County-based reality show with a look into the lives of some select East Coast ladies. The show will air March 4th, and The Daily News reports that the "stars" will be Bethenny Frankel, LuAnn de Lesseps (that's Countess, to you), Ramona Singer and Jill Zarin of the Upper East Side and Alex McCord of Cobble Hill.......

Native New Yorker Melissa Murphy is the mellifluous force behind Sweet Melissa Patisserie, a beloved Brooklyn house of tempting treats that opened in Cobble Hill in 1998. A graduate of New York’s French Culinary Institute, Murphy has spent the past decade building a budding dessert empire, bolstered by a profile-raising appearance on the Food Network and a baking book to be published by Viking in March. Last year Murphy added a second Sweet Melissa location......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a truck stuck underneath a train platform at 237th St. in the Bronx, an armed robbery on 4th Ave. in Brooklyn, and a burn victim at McKeever Pl. in Brooklyn. The husband who was strangled to death, allegedly by his wife in their new $1 million Long Island home, had a criminal record that included serving several years upstate for rape, robbery, and burglary. A fire at a homeless......

Insert obligatory phoenix metaphor here: Brooklyn’s Freebird, the used book and corn dogs mecca that closed earlier this year, is set to re-emerge a little later this week from The Embers of Gentrification. While the NY Magazine article linked in that last sentence is about the real estate debacle of Red Hook, the shuttered Freebird, which is technically in Cobble Hill, is sometimes considered (with restaurants like Alma) to be an extension of that troubled......

Given the city's more nuanced real estate market, NY magazine covers "degentrification," focusing mostly on Red Hook. Adam Sternbergh chronicles the neighborhood's ups and downs - for pre-gentrifiers, the stroller set and real estate enthusiasts, of course. He tells the story through a 30 year-old named Ivy Pochoda, who grew up in Cobble Hill when "Smith Street was still too sketchy to walk home on alone." (NB: Smith Street still was sketchy into the 1990s.)......

Up above you have Park Slope #17 and Carroll Gardens #13, respectively. Jennifer Loeber is bringing nude photography close to home with her series that show different Brooklynites in the flesh, in their apartments. They could even be your neighbors! And her inspiration? It came from a flasher on the subway, of course: "The idea to shoot nude portraits came about as I rode the NYC subway and pretended not to notice, across the......

Yay! It's that time of year when the Straphangers Campaign announces the winner of the annual Pokey Award for the slowest city bus service. And this year, there's a new award: The Schleppie, for least reliable service. The 2007 Pokey Award goes to the M23: "The M23 had the slowest bus speed at 4.0 miles per hour as clocked at 12 noon on a weekday. This is not much faster than the 3.0 mph maintained......

Hot on the heels of 6-year-old Natalie Shea being caught and fined for chalking up her sidewalk, a second chalker has been nabbed! This one, Ellis Gallagher, is older -- so his punishment was a bit more serious. Seriously! For chalk! The dusty, porous sedimentary rock that leaves markings which wash away in the rain. The Brooklyn Paper reports:The city’s crackdown on sidewalk chalk “vandals” is officially out of control! It was bad enough when......

Drivers living on exceptionally clean streets could earn a respite from the burden of alternate-side-of-the-street parking. Residents of Red Hook, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Park Slope were granted a stay of parking execution by the Dept. of Sanitation yesterday. Because the area has consistently received scores of 90% or higher for street cleanliness over the last few months, residents will no longer have to move their cars to comply with street cleaning requirements. According......

READING: Our interviewee from yesterday, Adrian Tomine, will be reading tonight at Book Court. The graphic novelist not only has his work in some of the more prestigious rags, he's also got a full length graphic novel, titled Shortcomings. 7pm // Book Court [163 Court St, Cobble Hill] // Free At a very different reading in Manhattan, Chris Matthews will be promoting his new political memoir Life's a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me About......

The New York Times's City Section this past Sunday had a special focus on seventeen-year-old New Yorkers. According to the paper, more children were born in 1990 than at any point since the Baby Boom. Now they're on the cusp of adulthood and the Times has a series of oral histories that one can read or listen to online. It's an interesting project; here are a few of the teens:Neil Allicock lives in East New......

The NY Times takes a look at Smith Street and the corporate companies creeping into the area and setting up shop. The most recent big announcement is that Trader Joe's is taking over the old bank on Atlantic Avenue and Court Street. How long until more big fish come to feed? Urban Outfitters originally wanted the new Trader Joe's property, so we suppose they'll be hawking "Ski Cobble Hill" T-Shirts soon enough. Just last week......

As we mentioned, City Councilman Charles Barron held his press conference yesterday to announce his candidacy for the 2009 Brooklyn Borough Presidency. He told the crowds that his platform included affordable housing, health care accessibility, more jobs, standing up to developers who use eminent domain, ending mayor control of schools and more would help everyone. "Am I going to be a borough president for all the people? Absolutely. But I'm letting y'all know now, I'm......

This week in the Times, Bruni dines at Mercat, awards the restaurant one star. He likes the food; doesn't like the noise level. "Some wonderful food, some clangorous acoustics: these are the defining traits of Mercat," he says. Prices at the Spanish restaurant are quite reasonable, and with it come some tradeofffs: the food is sometimes uneven (particularly the seafood), service a bit off, noise level too high, desserts less than spectacular. In Dining Briefs,......

Earlier this year, The Sun reported that AvalonBay Communities would "begin construction this summer on a 42-story, residential market-rate tower with approximately 600 units. The property will have ground floor retail, which could house the borough's first Trader Joe's market." And even earlier this year it was suspected that TJ's would move into One Brooklyn Bridge Park. Today, The Brooklyn Eagle is reporting that Trader Joe's will soon be stocking the fridges of many Brooklynites......

June 21-23: NYC Food Film Festival, Part 2 See last week's calendar for the full description of the festival and the website for the schedule of events. This weekend's fim focus in on hot dogs and sausages, currywurst in particular, and even includes a hot dog eating competition, so get your gullets ready. At Water Taxi Beach. June 21-24: Staten Island Restaurant Week In their first ever restaurant week, over 50 of Staten Island's restaurants......

We can't possibly choose only one music event for the weekend, so check out OhMyRockness for the jam packed weekend listings. We will say, however, that one of the openers for Snowden at Maxwell's tonight...is We Are Scientists, trying out some new tunes. Though closer to home are The Clientele and Beach House at Bowery Ballroom. Listen: Apple Orchard.mp3 - Beach House THEATER: A mysterious little two-actor, umpteen character play called The Eaten Heart concludes......

Some updates to two Tuesday murders that took place in Brooklyn. First, Janine Harrington, who ran over one of her boyfriends with her SUV, was denied bail. Harrington, who thought that Jeffrey Moore had cheated on her, ran over Moore as he was riding on a bicycle near Chauncey and Rockaway. The SUV belonged to Harrington's different, live-in boyfriend. Police are still looking for William Van Utrecht, who is suspected of shooting his brother Steven......

Yesterday afternoon, Steven Van Utrecht was shot to death on his Butler Street townhouse's front steps - and the suspect is his brother. The Daily News reports that William Van Utrecht allegedly said, "Call the police! I just shot my brother!" after the incident, but the 53-year-old then fled. His 46-year-old brother's body was left on the steps of 109 Butler Street for hours as police investigated, and neighbors were shocked by the grisly scene.......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Rivington St. in Manhattan, a fatal stabbing on Malcolm X Blvd. in Brooklyn, and a stabbing on 102nd St. and Corona Ave. in Queens. Cobble Hill residents on Douglass St. will no longer be able to save on their electric bills by relying on the super-bright lights of American Apparel as their street-level reading lamps. The retailer is turning them off and neighbors must now fend......

Sandwiched between Park Slope and Gowanus, along 4th Avenue, the Sheep Station bills itself as an Australian restaurant even if the bar seems to get the most attention. It has none of the kitschy video games, dated beer posters, or anything really that might muck up its design. It’s all straight lines and clean surfaces, and in that respect feels a little like Gothamist favorite Bocco Lupo in Cobble Hill. Like that enticing wine bar,......

Of the many bars that line Atlantic Avenue between Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill, The Brazen Head doesn’t seem like much of a draw. They don't have bocce ball, an indie rock juke box, an old man sailor vibe, or even a full menu. The garden they advertise from the street is a triangle of concrete reaching some 10 feet out and overlooking an abandoned lot. So why should anyone go? This might seem......

When Rafael Hasid shuttered neighborhood standard Hill Diner, it seemed that the promise of a proper Israeli breakfast was retreating ever further into the horizon. Hasid reopened the spot this month as Miriam, a second location of his modern-Israeli concept, which has held court in Park Slope since 2005. The Israeli breakfast survived the switch unscathed. Gothamist credits Miriam with breaking the falafel autocracy to which most Israeli restaurants in New York have resigned.......

Ugh. Gothamist had a long night last night. There was liquor. There were dancing girls. There might have been someone named Thomas (call me!!). Today there’s a headache, light sensitivity and dry-mouth to alarm the most devoted stoner. We need coffee and, while we’re loyal to our favorite haunts, we’re in no mood for innocuous conversation with our (rather handsome, incidentally) barista. We want a deep, almost bottomless vat of big, bold, black coffee consumed......

Sad and insane day on the Gothamist Newsmap: "Baby found DOA in Garbage" in the Bronx, a bank robbery in Cobble Hill, and an unusual incident on Riverside Drive: "2 PEOPLE FIGHTING AND DOUSING EACH OTHER WITH GASOLINE AND ATTEMPTING TO IGNITE IT." Here's an unusual method of pedagogy: New York blogs as assigned reading. Tales of skullduggery at the Idiotarod: "The blonde girl on that team, Rebecca, tried as hard as she could......

The Department of Education ended up cutting less school bus routes than expected, but the changes are still causing some big problems with only one week of notice. For instance, what if you were the kid who had previously been picked up at 7:05AM, but now have to get a bus at 5:28AM? That's what's happening to a child who lives in East New York, if he want to take his school bus to PS......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting at the Turkey Nest Tavern in Williamsburg at 4:41am, a police officer struck by car in Farragut, and an armed robbery in Central park at 8:23pm last night. Starbucks is opening its second location in Cobble Hill, and local cafe owners aren't happy: “The rest of us will be killed... because Starbucks’ plan is to saturate every neighborhood until its coffee shop is the last one standing.”......

Donna Da Vine is either a minefield of perfectly single, beautiful women quietly sipping on oversize glasses of wine in purple-tinged light, or a bar where all those ladies go to get away from men. Either way it’s gorgeous, and women seem to love it. The two times we stopped by the clientele was almost exclusively female inside. Even accounting for the occasional male date, the purple interior, low light, and all female bartenders seem......

The déjà vu you may get upon entering Buck's Lodge on Atlantic Avenue is not from the country paraphernalia you’ll recognize from similar southern-tinged bars around the area. Even though there seems to be an overload of deer heads on bar walls, it's not that specifically which will make you do a double take. Just think for a moment, order a drink, plop on the evergreen couch, grab a bowl of peanuts and try to......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: person down elevator shaft in Cobble Hill (!), a suspicious package at 96th and Lex, and an escaped prisoner in the Bronx. Bad news if you're a junkie squatter in the greater Park Slope area: the Batcave is now closed. Hank Greenberg is taking a run at the New York Times, but the Ochs-Sulzberger family seems unlikely to lose control, given that they control a restricted class of powerful......