The New York City Triathlon is this Sunday and for the 3,000 plus competitors who have the pleasure (privilege? punishment?) of taking a swim in the mighty Hudson at the crack of down, ingesting carbs is a priority between now and then. So what are some of the best pasta dishes in the city to fuel these athletes? Here are our suggestions. Michael Psiliakis' gnudi (pictured) at Mia Dona is a plate of mushroomy truffle......

C'est Bastille Day aujourd hui! Frogs and Francophiles were out in force on Smith Street in Brooklyn yesterday for the Bastille Day celebration, which featured big band music by Baby Blue Orchids, plenty of French food, French cigarettes and heated games of Petanque, played on sand dumped out for the occasion. McBrooklyn reports that "actual French people were everywhere, smoking cigarettes and speaking actual French." If you missed out on all that, there's still time......

Chef Cesare Casella announced that his West Village restaurant Maremma will be closing after tomorrow night's service. Casella said that Maremma, which specializes in chianina (Tuscan beef), will reopen in other location; in the meantime, he is opening Salumeria Rosi, an Italian specialty foods grocery-and-wine bar, on the Upper West Side this fall. As for Maremma's West 10th Street space, Eater speculates it could be an offering from the dell'Anima team (we asked dell'Anima owner......

In spite of recently winning a James Beard Award for Outstanding Wine Service and earning a 5-star review in the New York Daily News and a 3-star review from Bloomberg, the team at Eleven Madison Park is stopping their Saturday brunch service and shuttering on Sundays beginning July 19th. Maybe the only brunch dish they'll continue to serve are scrambled eggs with truffles, but only when Daniel Boulud is in the house. The new hours......

Today the Times’s Frank Bruni relates his multiple visits to West Village Asian barbecue restaurant Bar Q, and by the sounds of it you’d never guess print media is in any kind of financial trouble – an initial trip with one group of ungrateful friends prompted so much "grumbling" he had to "unruffle their feathers" by being “especially profligate with the wine” on his paper’s expense account. The hangers-on who shared his second visit tasted......

It was a big night for New York at last night’s James Beard Awards. The "Oscars of food" took place at Avery Fisher Hall complete with red carpet and celebrity hosts--Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall joined Iron Chef Bobby Flay at the podium, and much like the Oscars, engaged in some rather awkward “witty” banter: Kim: I’d like to have a throwdown with you, Bobby. Bobby: Sure, I’d challenge you in the kitchen anytime.......

While skyrocketing food prices are sparking riots around the world, in New York the crisis is forcing restaurants like Good Enough to Eat to make due with frozen blueberries in their pancakes! The owner tells the Times the blueberries she gets shipped from Maine are now $38 per flat, up from $24 last summer. A five gallon jug of Canadian maple syrup is now $250, up from $200. And a 100-pound sack of flour costs......

Some West Village restaurants can’t catch a break this week; first an old water main broke and flooded them out during Memorial Day weekend, now the city has been stone cold shutting them down. Eater has it that the Department of Health ordered Diablo Royale on West 10th Street to close yesterday for “unsanitary conditions” – a tipster says the inspectors faulted the restaurant’s flooded basement. Now the swank bar/restaurant Employees Only has gotten......

Mark your calendars -- National Escargot Day is rapidly approaching. Really. As a lead up to the big day, Chef Craig Hopson of One if by Land, Two if by Sea, in association with Douglas Dussault of Potironne Company, is serving a 6-course snail-laden tasting menu featuring Wild Burgundy Snails. Yes, even dessert will have a snail of some sort involved. The dinner will benefit God’s Love We Deliver, an organization that prepares and delivers......

Jason Denton has made his mark in the New York restaurant landscape with well loved favorites like Lupa, 'ino, and ‘inoteca. His latest endeavor, Bar Milano, opened in April, serving not only lunch and dinner, but brunch and weekday breakfast. This upscale tribute to Northern Italy is housed in a Gramercy Park space that has been described as "cursed" due to the short lifespans of former restaurant tenants. Hopefully Denton's talent, pedigree, and strong partners......

There's no shortage of fiestas this Cinco de Mayo, so pull out the maracas and get going. Dos Caminos has a "Fiesta de la Calle" menu from May 2 through May 5th, a celebration of street festival food. They're offering tacos de chamorro (braised pork shank), baja tacos de pescado (fried fish tacos) and, perros calientes, bacon-wrapped kobe hot dogs stuffed with pickled jalapeños and chihuahua cheese. And because street food just isn't street food......

If the thought of matzo ball "sinkers" and your aunt's dried out brisket are making you dread Passover, perhaps you can convince the family to eat out for the seder this year. Many restaurants are offering more traditional seders, but some are kicking up the spice. For a Mexican twist, try Toloache for matzo in preparations you'd never imagine. Dig into the Matzo tostada “Yucatan” (crispy matzo tortilla, achiote smoked white fish salad, “Yucatan style”......

The NY Times' Eric Asimov highlights the proliferation of wine bars throughout the city (131 at last count by newyorkwinebarguide.com), particularly those offering snacks and small plates far beyond the charcuterie and cheese one might typically expect. And they're not all Italian either. In fact, Asimov spans the globe in his wine bar visits: Spain at Pata Negra, France at Solex, and South Africa at Xai Xai. The lower cost of real estate involved in......

John DeLucie has been entrenched in New York's restaurant scene for well over a decade, with stints at three-star restaurants and high end hotel kitchens along the way. Most recently running the show at La Bottega, he is currently a partner and the chef at the Waverly Inn, where New York's celebs go to see and be seen while dining on haute versions of comfort food classics. You recently had a group of second graders......

The growing backlash against bottled water as an environmental abomination is stretching into some of NYC's premiere eating and drinking establishments. Ten years ago it was the de rigeur of fashion to be toting a bottle of water everywhere one went; now it marks you as a polluting pariah. According to the New York Post, bottled water is being banned at places like the Waverly Inn, Il Buco, Del Posto, Gemma in the Bowery Hotel,......

Eating out and being philanthropic may seem mutually exclusive, but there is a way the money you spend to eat out can help others at the same time. During the month of April, restaurants will pair up with the “Spring for City Harvest” campaign, each eatery offering special appetizers, entrees, desserts, and in some cases complete prix fixe menus. They will donate 10% of proceeds directly to City Harvest, where the money raised will be......

Easter, as you may know, is the holiday that often seems to celebrate the wonders of brunch, although rumor has it there's some religious thing involved as well. Whatever the holiday means to you, here are some Easter brunch (and dinner) options that sound particularly delectable. Lunetta: Chef Adam Shepard is serving up a "Pasqua Supper" for Easter Italian-style. He's pulling out the ingredients you've been craving all winter -- fava beans, asparagus, and lamb,......

Marty Markowitz: President of Mixed Messages? Every summer he tells fat people in Brooklyn to lose some weight already with his “Lighten Up Brooklyn” program, but in the spring he’s all, “You look great! Now eat at as many of these local restaurants as you can!” Last week the borough president (pictured) announced the impending arrival of Brooklyn’s version of Restaurant Week, called Dine in Brooklyn. This year it runs from March 24th to the......

Photo of NYC water drinker by macskata, photo from a tent camp in Mudtukadu Ami Vitale/UNICEF. To raise money and awareness about the lack of clean and accessible drinking water, which is the second largest worldwide killer of children under five, the Tap Project is happening again in New York City (and nationwide) through March 22nd, World Water Day. Select restaurants will be inviting customers to donate a minimum of $1 for the tap......

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......

First there was the Spitzer Spritzer at Teddy's and now, Sandwich #9: Hot Tongue on Rye. Eisenberg's owner Josh Konecky explains to Gobble the creative process behind today's special: So, who came up with the sandwich? Spitzer came up with it. [pause]. No, I came up with it. Did you already order? Yeah. I didn’t order the tongue. What’d you order? The chicken? No, the roast beef. A lot of people don’t like tongue.......

Writing for the Times, Frank Bruni calls the wine and charcuterie restaurant Bar Boulud (pictured) “a terrine machine, a pâté-a-palooza, dedicated to the proposition that discerning New Yorkers aren’t getting nearly enough concentrated, sculptured, gelatinous animal fat” and awards it two stars. Bruni also revisits Fiamma and calls the owners out for jacking up prices by 20% just days after he rated it three stars. The Post’s Steve Cuozzo says the critical raving about the......

Heads up: David Chang's latest creation, Momofuku Ko, will be open for online reservations at 10:00 a.m. today, so cancel your meetings, bookmark the URL and prepare to crash the site's server. Will the dainty new baby live up to the breathless hype that swirls around Chang's burgeoning empire? Only the quick-clicking lucky few will find out anytime soon. As we described last week, Chang deliberately decided not to take reservations by phone and created......

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,......

Wildly successful young chef and restaurateur Michael Psilakis – whose Anthos is one of only two Greek restaurants in the world with a Michelin star – refined his talent not in culinary school but in the kitchen beside his Greek mother during his childhood on Long Island. After earning a business degree, he found himself drawn back to the food world, where he worked his way up from waiter to owner of the Long Island......

Pictured: Fluke Sashimi, Poppy Seeds, Chives, Spicy Buttermilk. Coddled Egg with Sous Vide Onions, Sweet Potato Puree, Osetra Caviar, Potato Chips, Parsley by Kathryn Yu It's the law of supply and demand -- if something is hard to get, everyone wants it. This especially applies to Momofuku Ko, the latest spot from chef-superstar David Chang. There's no secret handshake or phone number needed to get in (in fact, there's no phone), just an internet......

The incoming president of the Obesity Society has resigned amidst controversy surrounding his work on behalf of the restaurant industry. Last month Dr. David B. Allison (pictured), a professor of biostatistics and nutrition at the University of Alabama, drew fire from colleagues when he submitted an affidavit questioning the city’s new rules requiring chain restaurants to prominently display calorie information on their menus. The Obesity Society supports the requirement, which will go into effect at......

On the stretch of Dekalb Avenue in Fort Greene just east of Fort Greene Park is a stretch of reasonably priced, neighborhood restaurants including the local Middle-Eastern favorite, Black Iris. Cash only and BYOB, the friendly servers at Black Iris seat you promptly in a dim brick-walled room hung with tapestries at one of a dozen tables in a room made drafty by people constantly walking in and out. The menu includes standard Middle......

Fans of Ditmas Park favorite the Farm on Adderley, get ready: The newest venture from co-owners Gary Jonas and Allison McDowell, a French bistro dubbed Pomme de Terre, is on the verge of opening. Apparently the regular customers at the Farm are jonesing for another mid-range restaurant in the neighborhood, and it's unlikely a recent shooting on the very same corner will deter them. Jonas and McDowell have teamed up with restaurateur Jimmy Mamary,......

The incoming president of the Obesity Society has filed a 33-page affidavit questioning the city’s new rules requiring chain restaurants to prominently display calorie information on their menus. Dr. David B. Allison (pictured), a professor of biostatistics and nutrition at the University of Alabama, cites a study indicating that dieters who get distracted by calorie information are more likely to overeat. And even if the daunting calorie details prompt diners to go for lower calorie......