Untitled photo of race at Belmont, by Ray Haddad at flickr It may be a long hike from Lexington Ave. to Lexington, Kentucky, and even farther to Louisville, but New Yorkers are not immune to the draw of the 'sport of kings.' The 134th running of the Kentucky Derby takes place today and many people around the city will be doing what most seem to do at the races--wagering and drinking. Mapfaced has a......

Wine bars are popping up all over town these days, and diners are also gravitating toward food made with local ingredients, so it makes sense that the next wave in the vino trend will be local wineries. Though a Staten Island vineyard is in the works, and the centuries-old Queens County Farm plans to sell wine from its vineyard this fall, the new urban wineries have to make do with grapes from Long Island or......

You've got your bracket filled out for the NCAA Tournament and you wanna cheer on the team you picked to win it all. But where does one go to root with like-minded fans? A new map from Mapfaced solves your problem! They have a list of 33 schools and the corresponding bars that will welcome your Carolina Blue, chant "Hoya Saxa!" with you, or enjoy your off-key singing of "On, Wisconsin!" Mapfaced even has......

Last week's Second Annual Corned Beef Cookoff – a benefit supporting families of the Fighting 69th soldiers in Iraq – was won for the second year in a row by the Upper East Side’s Neary’s Pub. (The Irish-American dish became popular in New York around the turn of the 19th century.) Neary’s will be dishing out the corned beef tonight, as will Murphy & Gonzalez, which tied for second place with Peter McManus Café, which......

New Yorkers like to go out. A lot. A website aptly called Outalot allows fast and easy browsing of three nightlife basics: restaurants, bars, and movies (Gridskipper calls it "menupages-meets-yelp"). The Google Map based-site lists restaurants by cuisine, bars by type, and provides local cinemas' showtimes. You can bookmark your favorites (and check out your friends') and green thumbs up/down symbols quickly signify how others' feel about an establishment. Though many New Yorkers pride themselves......

THE JAKEWALK: This romantic Carroll Gardens wine, cocktail and cheese bar is named after a Prohibition-era malady called the “Jake Walk”: a stiff-legged gait that afflicted drinkers of Jamaica Ginger, an alcohol-based “tonic” tainted with a leg-paralyzing neurotoxin. It’s the third in a growing “Smith Street empire” run by the owners of nearby haunts Smith & Vine and Stinky Bklyn. Their new venture, which opened last night, boasts (deep breath) 50 wines by the glass,......

Clockwise from upper left: Photo of Creamsicle from the Lemon Ice King of Corona by joshbousel on flickr; Jamaican beef patties from Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery; Clam Chowder from Legal Sea Foods; artificially steaming coffee from Dunkin' Donuts Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston are putting it all on the line for Sunday's Super Bowl. After winning the awful bet from Green Bay, Bloomberg has a lot more riding on the line......

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television: Elmo’s Christmas Countdown (Sunday, 7:00 p.m., WABC 7) It is a brand new Sesame Street Christmas special complete with an all star guest list providing music and voices like ABC News anchor Charles Gibson voicing a news reading reindeer and Ben Stiller voicing an elf. From the sound of it doesn’t seem like it will wind up being an enduring classic like A Charlie Brown Christmas.......

Remember that cruel(la) couple from Long Island that enslaved two Indonesian women who worked in their mansion? After their million dollar bail plan was announced back in June we hadn't heard much about these two. Today, however, silence was broken after Varsha Mahender Sabhnani and her hubby Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani's trial has ended...and the latest is not good news for them! The terrible two-some "were each convicted of all charges in a 12-count federal indictment......

Some time ago the New Yorker ran an amusing “Talk of the Town” feature on nightlife crusader Roy Den Hollander, who, unlike most nightclub scolds, isn’t fighting against excessive noise and loose morals – he’s out to put a stop to the scourge that is Ladies’ Night. And not because he disdains the ladies or the night, but because Den Hollander, attorney at law and self-styled pick-up artist, sees it as yet another way The......

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television: 60 Minutes (Sunday, 7:00 p.m., WCBS 2) Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez is interviewed by Katie Couric in the wake of the baseball steroids scandal. Extras: The Extra Special Series Finale (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., HBO) The Ricky Gervais series concludes its run with an 80 minute special episode. Duel (Monday-Friday, 8:00 p.m., WABC 7) No, it isn’t Steven Spielberg’s 1971 feature length film debut made for......

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television: Spike TV's Video Game Awards 2007 (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., Spike TV) It is the fifth annual outing for this awards show for video games. Live From Lincoln Center: Red Hot Holiday Stomp (Monday, 8:00 p.m., WNET 13) Jazz at Lincoln Center is highlighted with this special hosted by Glenn Close. There will be a program of holiday music and jazz, plus it also features the broadcast......

If you were wondering what that posse of Santas wandering around NYC was yesterday, that was SantaCon 2007, when red-suited and bearded men and women roam the streets and crowd the bars of our fine city. If one isn't satisfied by the pictures below, more can be found on flickr here. SantaCon 2004 SantaCon 2005 SantaCon 2006......

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,......

Since an army of sloppy amateurs are expected to mob New York’s bars tonight to toast the anniversary of Prohibition’s end, it might be a good night to pick up a bottle of something or other and bring the celebration home. Imbibers looking for something special in Brooklyn need look no further than the Williamsburg Bridge; the paisans behind the rustic Williamsburg restaurant PT and the romantic North 8th Street D.O.C. Wine Bar have......

Love 'em or hate 'em, hipsters have made their way into a real-life bounded book that will be available for purchase next spring. What does Generation Hipster look like in black & white? It ain't pretty. 6 Sick Hipsters, by Rayo Casablanca, follows "Williamsburg's reigning elite" and brings some noir to the neighborhood...as well as a feral baboon. The press release tells us a bit of what we can expect: "Lately someone has been laying......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., HBO) A look at America's favorite insult comic and last surviving member of the “Rat Pack”, the octogenarian Don Rickles from director John Landis. Everyone from Chris Rock to Bob Newhart to Clint Eastwood to Sidney Poitier talk about the comic. 1968 (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., History Channel) 1968 was a turbulent and tragic year and Tom Brokaw not......

With the MTA's vote whether to raise subway and bus fares coming in less than three weeks, speculation is running high about what will happen. Even though Governor Spitzer said that the base subway and bus fare will remain $2, unlimited Metrocard fares - which 85% of riders use - will rise. The MTA has insisted the fare hikes are necessary, given projected deficits and upcoming capital construction, but many elected officials believe that the......

The feds must believe if you try, try, try and fail, fail, fail, you must try again, because it seems they are going to charge John Gotti Jr. with a new set of murder charges. The Post reports "Junior will likely be charged with at least five murders," including a Queens man who Gotti Jr. "allegedly disemboweled" in 1983, using a boxcutter or linoleum knife. And that's not all: Junior allegedly got help from "more......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Lincoln Center Tree Lighting 2007 (Monday, 5:30 p.m, WABC 7) Good Morning America’s Sam Champion and WABC’s Sade Baderinwa host the first televised tree lighting of the season. There will be some performances by Lincoln Center’s resident companies and some guest’s from channel 7’s owner Disney on hand for entertainment for the 8th annual Lincoln Center Holiday Tree lighting. America at a Crossroads (Monday, 9:00 p.m &......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Prospect Pl. in Brooklyn, a collapse at Flushing Ave. at Portland Ave. in Brooklyn, and an armed robbery on 157th St. and 109th Ave. in Queens. The Queens courtroom where three cops will be tried on charges of shooting Sean Bell to death is undergoing $175K in renovations in preparation for the trial, even though attorneys for the defense are arguing for a change of venue.......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: 2007 American Music Awards (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WABC 7) Most awards shows are basically useless and awards shows where people vote on line are even more so. This year this awards show invented by Dick Clark in 1973 gets even more useless. Jimmy Kimmel hosts. Nature: The Beauty of Ugly (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WNET 13; Wednesday, 8:00 p.m., WLIW 21) A look at some of the strangest......

First amNewYork outs the secret bars around town, and now the NY Post is revealing the up-until-now secret shows happening soon at UCB. The casts of 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live, both taking part in the WGA strike (as the actors are also writers), are bringing their shows to the stage. Each will perform new episodes live, in the small 150-seat theater -- 30 Rock on Monday the 19th and Saturday Night Live on......

AMNY ruined elitist drinkers’ fun today by outing some “secret” watering holes around town. One of them, The Back Room, is no secret, just a pain to find for first-timers. The capacious bar is tucked away at 102 Norfolk Street two doors down from a "Lower East Side Toys" sign; pass through a gate and down some steps to a narrow alley that leads to an unmarked door. Or just look for the bouncer standing......

It appears the rumors of autumn's demise have been greatly exaggerated and you're going to have to start wearing a jacket outside after all. But the change of seasons is not without its perks; there are those hot winter drinks to look forward to, and a number of bars around town offer the perfect accompaniment for your hot toddy: a crackling fireplace. Below are some of New York's best places to chill out on a......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Art in the Twenty-First Century (Sunday, 10:00 p.m., WNET 13) Four artists - Robert Adams, Mark Dion , Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle Ursula von Rydingsvard – who explore the intersection between nature and culture. Billy Crystal: The Mark Twain Prize (Monday & Thursday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13; Saturday, 7:30 p.m. WLIW 21) Billy Crystal receives the tenth annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in......

While 30 Rock writers are on the picket line, Alec Baldwin is worried about his neighborhood.. And listening to the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. This morning, during a segment where Brian was discussing the future of NYC's streetscape with Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and the Open Planning Project's Mark Gorton, the acclaimed actor and gossip target made his debut as a caller. After joking that he needed a job, here's a transcription......

As health-code inspections in bars and restaurants continue apace in the wake of The Great Rat Rodeo of Aught Seven, strange, unheard of violations are coming to light: a bartender at Red Hook’s Moonshine bar was recently cited for “having bare-hand contact with one slice of ready-to-eat lime while placing on top of beer bottle for patron in bar.” In other words, every time you see your bartender poke a wedge of lime into your......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: The Simpsons (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WNYW 5) This is the annual Treehouse of Horror episode airing after Halloween thanks to Tim McCarver and bad baseball coverage. Family Guy (Sunday, 8:30 p.m., WNYW 5) The good news is that it is the 100th episode, the bad news is that it is a clip show. Thankfully the clip show is followed by a new episode entitled “Stewie Kills Lois”......

East and West Village sweet tooths went into withdrawal last weekend with the abrupt closure of both Mary’s Dairy ice cream and chocolate bars. The plucky little parlors had developed a loyal following since scooping out their first location in a former West Village leather shop. They soon became a favorite pit stop for lithe model-types who swore by their tasty fat-free soft serve, which, according to the Times, succeeded in avoiding “the chalky taste......