Rising food prices are prompting some serious penny-pinching at restaurants across the country. Gramercy Tavern has replaced its caviar-topped hamachi appetizer with a beet-garnished tuna tartar, and Isabella's on the West Side has eradicated sirloin from pasta dishes. On the upside, maybe the culinary cutbacks will prompt New York's diet-conscious diners to do a little Read More

Governor Spitzer makes plans to save Moynihan Station... and possibly his reputation. [City Room]

The Park Slope mommy brigade debates the neighborhood's equivalent in Baghdad. [Gowanus Lounge]

Brooklyn's own version of Restaurant Week, Brooklyn Eats, begins April 30. [Grub Street]

The best milkshakes in New York. [Gridskipper]

The Park Slope Food Read More

Will a personal nuclear reactor be the latest luxury home amenity? It's "super-safe, small, and simple;" can run for 30 years without refueling; and, rest assured, it doesn't violate the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. [i09 via Curbed]

Dumbo's biggest landlord David Walentas charges some artists below-market rates to rent space in his less luxe properties. In Read More

Forbes includes Lombardi's, Zero Otto, and Naples 45 in its list of the best pizzerias in America. [Forbes]

A Brooklyn bike enthusiast tries to move all her possessions to her new apartment by bike. [Biking Toronto via City Room]

Saudi Prince Al Waleed bin Talal will be the first guest to stay in Read More

The bassist of indie rock band Team Robespierre gives a guided tour of his semi-legal, grungy East Village pad. [Village Voice]

First, the Upper West Side gets a Magnolia Bakery; now a Shake Shack. Danny Meyer will open an indoor branch of his much-loved burger joint on 77th and Columbus. [NY Post]

A building Read More

The proprietor of Manhattan's see-and-be-seen nightspot Beatrice Inn is tasked with transforming the home of a Howard Johnson's hotel and a Holiday Inn in Atlantic City into a boutique hotel. [NY Times]

J.C. Penny buys Manhattan's only bona-fide food court (also home to its only Arby's) in Herald Square. [Midtown Lunch via Curbed] Read More

Did you know that New York's Ginkgo biloba trees are very interesting? Also, the gender differentiation of Ginkgo biloba ("the females produce fruit with a foul smelling fleshy cover") provides an odd metaphor for gender relations in Manhattan. [NYT City Room]

Horrifyingly, Manhattan's eerie maple syrup smell is back and better than ever. [NY1] Read More

Racked's new Like/Likely feature takes a look at all the mixed-use developments on the horizon in Williamsburg and weighs in on the future retail landscape. [Racked]

The School of Visual Arts is buying the Chelsea West Cinema building on West 23rd Street. [Media Bistro]

A Staten Island bar scraps plans for a "dwarf bowling" Read More

Now that Mercato 55 has piqued New Yorkers' taste for African cuisine, Time Out has some suggestions for some off-the-beaten track (and cheaper) spots. [Time Out New York]

Opponents of the Trump Soho hope advertisements boasting "owner's closets" might be the smoking gun that brings the hotel-condo tower down, literally and metaphorically. [Curbed]

Critics Read More

The Plaza Hotel re-opens this Saturday, welcoming the first official guests since its renovation, and charging $715 a night. [NewYorkology]

The author of The Field Guide to the Natural World of New York City on the best outdoor excursions for all you nature-starved urbanites. [City Room]

Subprime woes forced further belt-tightening on the Read More

The Daily News and the Post both ran profiles of a bitter, bigoted Bay Ridge super who likes to write his (predominately Arab) tenants abusive notes with racial slurs. Creepier still, he has a doggie named Pretty Girl. [Gawker]

Some photos of the future Gowanus Whole Foods. [Gowanus Lounge]

The real estate travails of Read More

Even the shameless campaign to brand a neighborhood "So-Ya" is not going to make Yonkers cool. [Jeramiah's Vanishing New York]

Will a two-acre vineyard in Staten Island transform New York's most blue-collar borough? [NYDN]

Another relic of Harlem's grittier past is set to disappear when a notorious shooting gallery goes condo. [City Room]

Roosevelt Read More

A New York-based nonprofit created a video game called ICED to teach students about immigration laws. Each player chooses between five teens of different ethnicities and varying immigration status to learn "how immigration laws deny due process and violate human rights to all immigrants." [Gothamist]

"Don't kill Dutch Kills": In the damned if you Read More