Yesterday Gawker posted about a little-known LES space that, if you know the secret handshake, will open its doors to you. Once inside you'll find a reception room, a capacious old theater space... even fishtanks. The night Gawker stumbled in they found a band playing, and in booze-induced wonderment, took a short video clip. The clip was included in the post yesterday but now both have disappeared, becoming as mysterious as this secret club itself!......

Community Food & Juice: If you like the Clinton Street Baking Company, you'll like Community Food & Juice. DeDe Lahman and Neil Kleinberg bring the magic uptown with not only the same delicious comfort food, but this time with spot that meets Green Restaurant Association guidelines. 2893 Broadway, between 112th and 113th Streets, 212-665-2800. dell’anima: former Batali alums Chef Gabriel Thompson (Del Posto) and sommelier Joe Campanale (Babbo) team up to create a cozy neighborhood......

On tap for this year’s 33rd Annual Atlantic Antic festival, taking this Sunday from 10 AM to 6 PM (rain or shine, buddy) is the usual bonanza of pony rides, live music, and balloon animals. This year’s Antic has an added emphasis on food, which should hopefully make it a remedy to all the street fair food fatigue that’s been going around recently. For starters, decent street food will be offered in overwhelming abundance-......

FUNDRAISER: It's the 3rd Annual Summer, Sex and Spirits cocktail and shopping extravaganza. Planned Parenthood of New York City (PPNYC), in conjunction with Brooklyn Indie Market join forces for the fundraiser, "an evening of mixing and mingling with retail therapy!" There will be $4 drink specials, 1/2 price sangria pitchers, a deejay and a giveaway...we're also guessing everyone will walk away with at least one free condom. 5 to 8pm // Sugar [311 Church St]......

Sad news about Sludgie the whale: The baby minke whale, who captivated our attention as he frolicked in the Gowanus Bay, died yesterday afternoon. He beached himself near Clinton Street around 5PM. The Riverhead Foundation's rescue program had been monitoring the whale and did not believe he was in trouble when he first appeared yesterday, since he seemed to be swimming normally. Rescue director Kim Durham told WCBS 2, "it suddenly began heavy splashing,......

EVENT: Charles Ray, who is thirty years deep in the art world, will be at the New School tonight for a Public Art Fund talk. The leader of the "conceptual realism" movement with a "lively, self-deprecating sense of humor" will discuss his "virtuoso craftsmanship" and his depiction of "familiar elements of everyday life and modern art in disarmingly altered ways." 6:30pm // The New School, John Tishman Auditorium [66 W 12th St] // $5 SCIENCE:......

Without much fanfare last July, Alex Stupak replaced Sam Mason as pastry chef at Wylie Dufresne's Clinton Street avant-garde institution WD~50. Prior to arriving in New York, Stupak, who will turn 27 later this month, had already accrued a blockbuster resume- most notably he was the pastry chef at Alinea in Chicago, named the #1 restaurant in the United States by Gourmet magazine in 2006. Last week, Stupak talked with Gothamist while plating one his......

The New York Times travel section brings us a fun photo scavenger hunt this weekend. What are you looking for? Well, "scenes and objects intrinsically New York." The Times gives us a bunch of categories that readers can submit photos for - food, business, transportation, living creatures, and nonedible inanimate objects. In this game that anyone can play (as long as they have a camera), The Times will even take user submitted photos to maybe......

Or at least you can get your fat on. You can start by hitting up the newly opened Popeye's Fried Chicken at 40th Street between 7th and 8th. And of course you'll need to follow it up with some pancakes. Lucky for you, IHOP is giving them away free until 10 p.m. today! Here's a list of nearby IHOPs, for your convenience. For other pancake options, the New York post rounds up a wide variety,......

There's always some sort of trouble in West Chelsea. Last night, two off-duty police officers were assaulted by a group around 4AM. Officers Richard Lomax and Robert DeFazio, friends who both graduated from the Police Academy last year, were in a Ford Explorer that apparently slid on ice at West 28th Street and 10th Avenue. They rear-ended a Nissan Maxima, whose driver and passengers were not happy: Lomax, who was driving, and DeFazio got out......

November 18: Gluttony Gotta love an event called "Gluttony," although we were sad to learn there wasn't any food involved. Atlantic food writer Corby Kummer pulls together chefs Mario Batali and Dan Barber (pictured), and James Beard Award winning writer Barbara Kafka to discuss whether the newest high-tech equipment glorifies or destroys the freshest low-tech ingredients. 1:00 PM in South Court Auditorium of The New York Public Library. Arrive early for best seat selection; doors......

Yesterday, a jury found 21 year old Rudy Fleming guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Nicole duFresne. Fleming was also found guilty of various robbery and weapons charges stemming the January 2005 incident on Clinton Street. He and his friends had been robbing and scaring people, and when they came across duFresne, her fiance, and their friends; Fleming pistolwhipped fiance Jeffrey Sparks and duFresne reportedly confronted Fleming, saying, "What are you going......

The owner of Lower East Side bar Barramundi has sued over the liquor license moratorium the State Liquor Authority enacted in Manhattan in September. The SLA has indefinitely halted new licenses for any establishments within 500 feet of other watering holes - and in the Lower East Side, it's like you can't trip without running into a place that serves a drink. Anthony Powe was given community board approval to take over the bar in......

If you’ve been to Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, or Carroll Gardens and kept your eyes open while you were there, you’ve noticed that empty yellow cabs are always cruising up Clinton Street on their way back to Manhattan. What you might not have noticed is that they often make pit stops for a quick bite before crossing the bridge. Quite a few of my cabbie colleagues are Middle Easterners, and they each have their......

- Have Metrocard, will eat: the Taste of the New York Subway guide is a directory of New York City restaurants within 200 meters of a subway station organized by stop. - Clinton Street Bakery is now serving some scrumptious-sounding milkshakes made with ice cream from the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory: chocolate raspberry, fresh banana, peach melba, white grasshopper, or toffee coffee, all served with fresh whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles. Drool. - eGullet founder......

Just over a year old, but with a window full of gastronomic accolades, former Le Cirque pastry chef Iacopo Falai's eponymously named Clinton Street joint radiates with new flavor and experimentation of Florentine style brought to the Lower East Side. With white tile, white tables, white chairs, white candles, and a white-bricked garden, Falai relies upon the reflections of dining patrons in the mirrors and the color of food on plates to bring color......

When a restaurant like Frankies 457 in Carroll Gardens decides to open another outpost, it's like bringing the world its younger, addictive, potentially more endearing younger brother. Welcome Frankies 17. A 26-seat rustic sliver at 17 Clinton Street, the new Frankies-- the little Frankies--boasts an identical menu cooked up by the Franks: Frank Castronovo (formerly of Bouley and Bocuse) and Frank Falcinelli (formerly of Moomba). Spuntino, snack in Italian, is an apt word to......

DeDe Lahman, Co-Owner, Clinton St. Baking Company...

Gothamist loves indulging in weekend brunch just as much as the next person, but the hour long lines that linger outside downtown favorites like Clinton Street Baking Co. and Prune, can drive even enthusiasts away. Head up Avenue B and you'll find yourself at Rue B, where an all-inclusive $10 covers a breakfast cocktail, endless cup of coffee, and generously sized entree, served without the rush of those scowling at you from the long......

Ask.Metafilter is our favorite answer site-- the NYC tag provides a weekly dose of New York questions and answers. This week, the theme seems to be food: I'm in New York City and I'm hungry. What's a good, cheap place for breakfast? Some answers: - Floridita, 3219 Broadway at 129 St. - Veselka, Union Square. - The Hungarian Pastry Shop We'd add: Cafe Gitane in Nolita (order the waffles!), the Grecian Corner diner in Park......

December 24: Bûche de Noël Tasting at Payard Payard Pâtisserie & Bistro will be hosting a Christmas Eve lunch with a Bûche de Noël tasting. Warm Maine crab with oakwood shiitake, Kalijira rice galette and mushroom broth will begin the meal followed by roasted pheasant breast with leg confit, Hokkaido squash, baby brussel sprouts, apples, sage and black truffle jus. Then, it's on to the Bûches de Noël -- in more than one variety! You......

Gothamist has been on a perpetual quest to find the perfect Bloody Mary for about 3 years now. Perhaps this quest has been created as an excuse to drink before noon, but it seems that in a city with over 2,000 brunch options, finding a good Bloody Mary has resulted in the Goldielocks complex. They have been too spicy, too bland or have enough horseradish in them to choke, well a horse. Recently, Gothamist’s......

- An Eater reader spotted a sign on the window of the space that was briefly Yumcha from Marc Murphy, the chef and owner of Landmarc, announcing his intention to open a new oyster bar after minimal renovation. Andrea Strong now reports that it will be named Watermarc. - The New York Post shows us where to find some of the city's spiciest food and found the hottest heat on East Sixth Street -- try......

Maybe Rupert Murdoch should think about selling his place to one of NYC's celebrity chefs. According to Forbes Magazine, some of them are making some long green. On their list of the top 10 most influential chefs in America, we counted six who are doing business in NYC, and most of them (except poor Wylie!) are making a least a few million. Mario Batali $4m/year (Babbo, Lupa, and a many others) Lidia Bastianich $1.3m/year......

It's unclear why the Snack Dragon Taco Shack even has a listing on Menupages, because there's not much of a menu, per se. They sell four types of "California-Mexican/New York Style Tacos": Carne Asada, Chicken Verde, Quinoa Pilaf & Bean (vegetarian), and Carnitas. But if you're only going to do one thing -- do it well. And Snack Dragon does. We stopped by one afternoon after a fantastic brunch at the Clinton Street Baking Company,......

Any restaurant whose URL reads greatbiscuits.com is worthy of review and Gothamist is happy to report that the Clinton Street Baking Co. does, in fact, have great biscuits. A plate of five buttermilk mini biscuits, served in lieu of rolls at the start of the meal is part of the rave-reviewed Lower East Side locale’s recently expanded dinner menu. Adding to a repertoire of breakfast, lunch, brunch and custom baking, Gothamist sat down with three......

A 28 year-old actress-playwright, Nicole duFresne, died from gunshot wounds during a robbery on Clinton Street near Delancey early Thursday morning. The Brooklyn resident had left Max Fish with her fiance, Jeffrey Sparks, and two friends at 3:15AM when they were approached by two teenagers, demanding their money. Sparks pushed past one of them, who hit him in the face with a gun. Then, according to the police, it seems that the would-be robbers demanded......

Eating In: 71 Clinton Fresh Food's Warm Stuffed Figs...

J. Ralph, Composer...

Foodies, LES-ers, everyone, here's an excellent way for you to put your mouth where your heart is: The Taste of the Lower East Side next Thursday, April 15, which has thirty-four restaurants raising money for the Grand Street Settlement. The Grand Street Settlement offers a number of programs for the Lower East Side community's kids, teens, and seniors, ranging from after-school to career help. Restaurants include: 71 Clinton Fresh Food, AKA Caf�, Alias Restaurant, Apizz,......