The Cedar Tavern has been closed for over a year now, and someday soon New Yorkers will finally get more of what they so desperately need: more condo units priced at $1.7 million and up! The famous tavern on University Place, long associated with the drunken hi-jinks of notables like Jackson Pollock and Jack Kerouac, shut down in December 2006 for “renovations” and never reopened. Promises to come back as part of the nine-story condo......

Former President Bill Clinton may love to eat foods like osso bucco, but he's not so happy with the restaurant Osso Buco. Clinton's lawyer sent owner Nino Selimaj a letter demanding that a photograph of Selimaj and Chelsea Clinton, which had been featured in the University Place location's window, be taken down. The AP reported that lawyer Douglas J. Band (apparently using letterhead from "the office of William Jefferson Clinton") noted the young Clinton's status......

The Grey Dog's Coffee has been open in its Carmine Street location since 1996, and has been a neighborhood favorite for years. David Ethan, who co-owns The Grey Dog with his brother, Peter Adrian, recently opened a second location on University Place. We caught up with David over a cup of coffee (naturally). So, tell us about the birth of the newest Grey Dog. Life got too expensive, to be honest. I had a full......

The long awaited second location of Grey Dog's Coffee is now open for business. The University Place branch is serving the same fantastic coffee (and iced coffee), and full menu as the West Village original. Stop by and wish them well on their first day and be sure to check out the whimsical dog photos inside -- we had to restrain ourselves from running off and adopting a puppy, iced coffee in hand. The Grey......

A bicyclist and three pedestrians were injured as a man driving a stolen van jumped a curb in an attempt to escape the police. The incident occurred on Eighth Street, as the police - driving one of those undercover patrol cars that look like taxis - were pursuing the van up University Place. The driver "made a hard right onto Eighth," according to the Post, which also has pictures. That "hard right" the van made......

The Cedar Tavern is next in the long list of establishments giving way to condo development. The tavern has been located at 82 University Place (between 11th and 12th Streets) since 1963, though it's original location, in 1866, was on Cedar Street, from there it moved to 24 University Place. Best known for its legendary patrons: Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and countless others - most of......

Workers at Vietnamese restaurant Saigon Grill have gone on strike - and have also been locked out by the owners - for over two weeks. Now, the workers have filed a lawsuit against Saigon Grill for a wide range of labor violations. According to the Justice Will Be Served, the group that is working with the workers: "The owners demanded workers sign an illegal contract, stating that they have received minimum wage, even though......

For those of us who may have forgotten what winter is like, the Times has a fascinating feature on past snow storms and their effects on the city. There was a time, when street cars were drawn by horses, communication and power lines were above ground, and buildings were heated by coal, that the city would be brought to a dangerous standstill by a blizzard. The mother of all storms was the Blizzard of......

Yesterday, the papers reported that a man, Martin Barreto, was found dead in an apartment at 23 East 10th Street. And now it turns out that Barreto was a former press aide under Mayor Giuliani and had been strangled. The doorman apartment building, The Albert, is right off University Place, and Barreto lived in an apartment owned by his cousin and his cousin's wife. A doorman said one to two men visited Barreto late Sunday......

- MUG gives us a list of outdoor dining spots in Manhattan. What are your favorites in the outer boroughs? - Midtown Lunch claims that Café Cello might do roast pork even better than Margon. We're still a bit skeptical. - The Greenwich Village branch of Saigon Grill opened on University Place this week; the reviews are as wildly mixed as for the other branches. - And really, who doesn't want to cuddle up with......

Peeking through the windows in a space on 8th Street just East of University Place in Greenwich Village that once housed a Krispy Kreme, we saw a sleek, minimalist, modern looking space with long, narrow tables designed for communal eating. We looked a little more closely and saw a few more things that clued us in -- a menu filled with pan-Asian dishes, from Thai to Laotian, to Malaysian, and more, and a sign......

Lana G, Celebrity Make-Up Artist...

Even though your sushi is fresh, perhaps flown in from Japan if you're hobnobbing it at some posh sushi or ceviche place, it's been frozen. The Times looks at the little-known government-stipulated (and widely accepted, though not really enforced) practice of freezing the raw fish you eat. The freezing helps kill parasites, which is always okay with Gothamist. Restaurants that use at least some frozen sushi: Nobu, Geisha, Jewel Bako, Sushi Yasuda, even Masa. One......

More details about news of a third apparent NYU suicide: Sophomore Michelle Gluckman said, "I can't take it anymore" and jumped out the kitchen window at 1 University Place, a building not owned by the NYU. Acording to the Post Gluckman and three friends smoked half a joint before she jumped. Witnesses reported Gluckman was throwing things "blocking the kitchen window." A neighbor tells the Post, "When I asked what happened, she said [Gluckman] was......

A sophomore died after falling from the 6th floor window at 1 University Place. The Daily News reports that the police call it "an apparent suicide." The student, from Brooklyn, apparently went to another student's room in the non university-owned building to jump at 10PM last night. She was pronounced dead at St. Vincent's Hospital later. It's unclear whether she lived at 1 University Place or in Brooklyn. Gothamist is in no way an expert......

The Mandoo Bar on University Place is finally opening up! NY magazine says that the downtown offshoot of the Koreatown institution has "pumpkin noodles with tofu in coconut-dill sauce, beef-and-miso stew, a seasonal prix fixe matsutake-mushroom menu, and the oxymoronic 'New York�style soy cheesecake.' One of the fun things about the Koreatown location is that you can see them make mandoo (the University Place location's kitchen is in the basement). NYC Eats has a photo......

Scientists and entrepreneurs are launching their implanetable tracking microchip in the Mexican market. [AP, via CNN] Now, this is something Gothamist has been interested in - we just didn't realize it was already available here in the states. VeriChip is a product from Applied Digital an "advanced digital technology development company that focuses on a range of early warning alert, miniaturized power sources and security monitoring systems combined with the comprehensive data management services required......