Hallo Berlin Express: A weird name and a weirder awning, but sometimes good food comes in weird packages (consider Masala Munch.) This new 30-seat joint on 9th Avenue near 50th Street is the sister of the bigger German eatery Hallo Berlin. Eating in Translation stuck his beak in when they opened this week, and walked away full of schnitzel, spaetzle, soup, and cucumber salad. There are also German fish sandwiches, and a German "single soul......

Photograph of the Windermere by edEx on Flickr A judge ordered that the second-oldest apartment building in New York City must be repaired by its owners. The Windermere, at West 57th Street and Ninth Avenue, has been the scene of of landlord and tenant struggles and evacuations as the fire department has found its conditions unsafe. The NY Times reports that Judge Karen Smith ordered "the permanent repair and restoration" of the building. The......

The NYPD has plans to spend $30 million to build a "super high-tech" anti-crime center. The luxe crime fighting emporium will feature high definition tvs to keep watch over the city, with cameras pointed from subway stations to underwater. The 22,000 square foot Joint Operations Command Center is scheduled to be up and running by 2011 and will be annexed to Police HQ. The New York Post describes how the center will work. "Cops will......

After getting spooked and throwing its mounted officer yesterday, Aldo the police horse managed to make its way home to the station house at 6th Ave. and Ericcson Pl. Aldo freaked out at the sound of screeching brakes in Soho yesterday afternoon, causing him to throw his rider, who was taken to St. Vincent's with minor injuries. After getting the cop off his back, Aldo ran free through the streets before ambling about ten blocks......

Between 2008 and the end of 2010, six New York City bridges will turn 100 years old, and the newly formed New York City Bridge Centennial Commission will be making sure they're adequately feted. The six centennial spans are the Madison Avenue, Manhattan, Borden Avenue, Pelham Bay, University Heights and Queensboro bridges. The celebrations were announced this morning by Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler and other officials at Tramway Park the base of the Queensboro Bridge.......

The idea sounds preposterous at first, but a pair of retired NYPD detectives believes that a gang of serial killers are responsible for the deaths of at least 40 young men across 11 states. All of the deaths have previously been determined accidental drownings, but Kevin Gannon, who worked the case of Patrick McNeill's disappearance 11 years ago, and Anthony Duarte believe that the Fordham Univ. student was one of the earliest victims of a......

Note to middle management: today’s the day workplace productivity takes its annual nosedive, as employees across America wait on interminable lines for handouts at Ben & Jerry’s. Free Cone Day – not to be confused with Free Clone Day – lasts until closing time at five participating Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops in Manhattan. Ben & Jerry's at 104th & Broadway (2722 Broadway), Ben & Jerry's at Macy’s Herald Square Food Court, Ben & Jerry's......

Spring is upon us and, with NYC bike month starting Thursday, the surge in bicycle commuting is expected to continue apace. But an increase in bikes also means more bike thievery – as one trusting bike owner found out last week when he let a stranger “try out” his ride. And just because your bike is locked doesn’t mean it’s safe. In 2006, this video surfaced showing how little passersby seem to care when someone......

Though a long-time custom in West African countries, a federal appeals court in NYC will rule whether genital mutilation is grounds for granting women asylum in the United States. According to the NY Sun, three women will be serving as a test case regarding whether the cultural custom--and their opposition to such a practice--is sufficient grounds for asylum in front of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan. Mutilation is a loaded term: Proponents......

Car owners on the Upper West Side are facing some tough times. For one, residents as the swank Apthorp apartment building, at West End and West 79th Street, had their "cars evicted" from the building's parking garage . And further north, cars parked along one street have been broken into--sometimes up to 2 to 3 cars a day. At the Apthorp, building inspectors found the garage had numerous violations, leading to the garage management to......

Wildwood: Pit master “Big Lou” Elrose has come a long way from his Ozone Park lunch wagon; the 6’4 Brooklyn-born behemoth has now transferred from Hill Country to this new Park Avenue South barbecue restaurant, part of the B.R. Guest empire. The atmosphere is urban industrial and reclaimed rustic, with high ceilings and a 50-foot-long bar. Big Lou’s famous ribs, pork brisket, pulled pork and smoked chicken can be paired with such sides as Cast......

Three UPS employees and a fourth man were arrested earlier this week after police followed a package filled with heroin to a 29th St. address. The package had been identified as being filled with drugs at a UPS distribution hub in Kentucky. The package was delivered to its intended address at 104 West 29th St. by an undercover cop dressed as a UPS employee and the NYPD then sat on the address. Eventually, three UPS......

Sure, websites like Menupages are handy when you need to line your stomach for a night of debauchery, but how do Manhattan transplants find the best place to meet up for high fives and car bombs? And how do you find the best bar to avoid them and enjoy your favorite microbrew? A new website, Beer Menus, is more than just a bar search engine; it’s a great resource for tracking down microbrews and......

Working his political connections to score one of the few below-ground burial plots left in Manhattan, former Mayor Ed Koch has announced that he will be buried in Trinity Church Cemetery at Broadway and 155th Street. The 83-year-old New Yorker says, “The idea of leaving Manhattan permanently irritates me.” So when the time comes he’ll be laid to rest in the company of such notables as Jerry Orbach, naturalist John James Audubon, and a slew......

With all the alarming facts about catastrophic climate change at our fingertips, most of us know by now that every day needs to be Earth Day. And one of the easiest ways to start minimizing environmental impact is by considering what goes into our own mouths. Here in New York, Broadway East, a new “plant-based” (but not strictly vegetarian) restaurant, has made sustainability a top priority. Tables in the elegantly designed eatery are made from......

The New York Times has an interesting piece of service journalism for upcoming college graduates around the country planning on moving to New York. As a recent college grad, you are likely to be poor; and getting an apartment will likely be far more expensive and disappointing than you could ever dream. Fueled by expectations of a New York portrayed in the media, people imagine themselves living in neighborhoods like the West Village in a......

Nylon has some shots of the new Keith Haring mural going up on E. Houston as a tribute to the artist on his upcoming birthday, May 4th. Still a work-in-progress, you can find it between Bowery and 2nd Avenue. Last year Cityroom reported that Haring's "Crack is Whack" mural in Harlem River Park is "one of the only — if not the only — public art works by Haring still visible in New York......

Last night's Silent Rave in Union Square seemed to draw a fair number of people. The concept was to have everyone congregate and dance to their own music played over personal headphones. Judging from the pictures, it looks like the event was a success. The event's official FaceBook page has another 600+ photos and counting. Video of the event is available here.......

Police have arrested a bank teller for helping an NYPD rookie pull off two robberies at the East Village bank last year. Christina Dasrath admitted to cops that she received a portion of the $118,000 taken. Police officer Christian Torres was arrested last week after robbing a Sovereign Bank in Pennsylvania of more than $100,000. It turns out Torres was tipped off by Dasrath about the East Village branch's lax security (plus security changes made......

Untitled, by nyer82 at flickr Who knows what the backstory is to this photograph, but it would be nice if New York City had more personnel in this capacity on the job.......

A pair of lawsuits from injured anti-war protesters have caused the NYPD to re-think its pro-active policing policies when it comes to crowd control. The suits, brought against the City by the New York Civil Liberties Union, ended in a settlement that included an agreement that cops would be a little more lenient with protesters. The Sun reports police will now "advise mounted police officers to warn people to disperse before using horses to break......

NYPD rookie Christian Torres has been charged in robbing an East Village Sovereign Bank branch twice. The law enforcement officer who held a second "job" as a felonious stickup man was initially arrested after robbing a Pennsylvania bank of $113,000. Torres robbed the New York bank a month before he entered the police academy and then again while he was a police officer; police found the clothes he wore during those robberies in his Queens......

Three men are under arrest today after a fourth man was found dead at the foot of a stairway in a Harlem building. 1010 WINS reports that when police responded to a call regarding a trespasser, they found a man hog-tied, unconscious and unresponsive. He was declared dead at the scene by emergency service workers.The dead man was identified as 33-year-old Shamod Murray. He was allegedly caught relieving himself in a hallway at 341 Lenox......

It's not unusual for police officers to make side money by moonlighting with second jobs. Christian Torres is a rookie cop, however, who took that practice to a whole new level--allegedly robbing banks when off duty. On Thursday, Torres arrested in Pennsylvania less than a block from the bank he just robbed. Unaware the teller had tripped a silent alarm and that a police officer followed him, he showed his NYPD badge, thinking he was......

Patients at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center are discovering a hidden cost of healthcare: the theft of their identities at the hands of a hospital employee. During a federal investigation, it was revealed that as many as 40,000 patients over the last five to six years had their names, phone numbers, and social security numbers stolen from hopsital records. An audit at the hospital confirmed that the information had been misappropriated. While no specific......

An NYPD officer is accused of using his authority to sexually prey on and assault women. Officer Wilfredo Rosario has been suspended from his position at Harlem's 26th Precinct as he was arraigned on charges of first-degree sexual abuse, official misconduct, unlawful imprisonment and attempted coercion. The charges stem from an incident in which Rosario met a 27-year-old woman with her child while he was in uniform. He told the woman he could help her......

Just hours after an out-of-control car drove onto the State Supreme Court's steps on Centre Street, another driver had a seizure at 29th Street and Fifth Avenue, crashing into a Subway restaurant at the corner. The incident occurred yesterday afternoon around 4 p.m. A person inside the building told NY1, "When I stepped out, the car was inside, halfway through Subway. I noticed that the guy was having a seizure, and everybody was trying......

As its name implies, Pam Real Thai Food is in the business of authenticity. So be forewarned that entrees marked with the restaurant's four pepper rating are seriously spicy, and even two-pepper dishes like Pla Lui Suan—a whole deep fried red snapper colorfully adorned with mango, cilantro, and lime—prove that chef and co-owner Pam Panyasiri isn’t playing when it comes to spice. The reasonably-priced menu offers extensive options for combining sweet, salty, and spicy,......

Manhattan may be more expensive to live in, but, hey, apparently Manhattan residents are less fat and more in shape than folks in other boroughs. The other week, the city's Health Department released a survey that showed New Yorkers were gaining weight at a rate nearly three times that of other Americans, packing on a total of 10 million pounds between 2002 and 2004, becoming more obese and more diagnosed with diabetes. The Times explains......

Photograph of the Cheyenne's exterior at night by Goggla on Flickr The Cheyenne Diner is closing for good today, to make room for another Manhattan residential building. The 68-year-old diner fell victim to the city's own successes and spiraling real estate costs. The owner of the property, George Papas, who owns the nearby Skylight Diner, figures that no matter how successful the Cheyenne is (a hamburger is $4.50, the lumberjack breakfast--two eggs, pancakes or......