Last year we were as surprised as everyone else when Brooklyn pizza staple Grimaldi's suddenly moved next door from its original home to make way for a new pizza joint from the original Grimaldi's pizzaiolo (not that the move made a dent to its lines). But now that the joint has had a bit of time to settle in, the big question is: How's the pizza? more ›

Slice's Adam Kuban takes his life into his hands by conducting a taste test of all the slices in his neighborhood, Park Slope. Although Kuban claims to have learned secrets of such intense pizza samplings "like only sampling slices, not entirely consuming them," he still manages to ingest over 15 slices in some way, shape, or form. In the mozzarella-hazed-aftermath, Kuban deems Tomato & Basil (226 Fourth Avenue, 718-596-8855) the "best in the Slope overall... Lenny's (594 Fifth Avenue, 718-788-8928) coming in a close second overall; best in South Slope." more ›

It seems like every other weekend, Brooklyn is home to some kind of homestyle cooking competition, with a constant rotation of cupcake-offs, chili massacres, a big jerk-off, and probably some vegan tofu spread-a-thons somewhere. Prizes at these things are typically anything from homely trophies to a few cans of PBR, but the just-announced, upcoming inaugural Risotto Challenge is something special indeed: The prizes are going to be very nice. More on that below. more ›

Just last week, the Crosby Connection opened in its new location, continuing its tradition of serving delicious, reasonably priced sandwiches. If you were fortunate to get to Crosby early enough last week, owner Joey Cramarossa was giving away samples of a pizza that he planned on selling from his new location. When we previously talked to Cramarossa, he said that there was nothing like this pizza in the area, something that is painfully obvious to us everyday. more ›

Imagine that final beach scene in Planet of the Apes, but substitute every small patch of sand for a chain restaurant and that’ll give you an idea of where the NY restaurant scene might be heading – all blown up, with Charlton Heston eventually smashing his fists into a huge pile of thermal cardboard coffee cup sleeves instead of foamy surf. more ›

Food bloggers from around the world are offering delicious prizes as part of Menu for Hope 4. Menu for Hope is an annual fundraising event hosted by Chez Pim. Last year, Menu for Hope raised an incredible $62,925 to help the UN World Food Programme feed the hungry. Want more details? Well, here’s the FAQ. From December 10-21, you can buy raffle tickets to bid on any on the food-related prizes being offered. Tickets cost... more ›

Got some Hot Sake for us? Send it our way, credit will be given...or not if you prefer. more ›

Some love it to the point of being freakishly cultish. Others don't see what the big deal is. But everyone can agree on one thing: you can do plenty of productive things with the time you spend waiting on line to get a burger at Shake Shack. more ›

In the crossroads of the "Can't Beat 'Em, So Join 'Em" chronicles and the "____ Diner, R.I.P." annals, there's is the Moondance Diner. The NY Sun reports the SoHo fixture will be razed for - you guessed it - luxury condos. But that's not all: Moondance owner Sunil "Sunny" Sharma was originally going to sell the property, but decided to develop it himself with Extell's Gary Barnett and others. more ›

If you're serious about eating, you should check out the latest addition to the food blog/community scene, Serious Eats. The brainchild of Ed Levine, of Ed Levine Eats and author of New York Eats, the site bills itself as "the first website for serious eaters" with the goal in mind "to provide the best, most satisfying food- and drink-related experience on the internet." Ed is joined by other illustrious food bloggers, including Adam Kuban of Slice and A Hamburger Today, Meg Hourihan of Megnut, Adam Roberts of The Amateur Gourmet, the gang at Roadfood.com and Alaina Browne of A Full Belly. We want to extend our congratulations to the Serious Eats team on the launch of their new venture -- go check out the stories, videos, and even photo cartoons, and let us know what you think! more ›

The NY Times covers the turf war between Domino's new Brooklyn Style Pizza and actual Brooklyn style pizza. Reporter Kim Severson actually brought a Domino's pie into Totonno's, where owner Louise Ciminieri said, "Get that thing out of here." Heh! The article is great reading if you want to catch up on the hallmarks of chain-style pizza and what Totonno's uses ("unadulterated tomato sauce and thin slices of fresh mozzarella hand-pulled with just a little salt in it, and a dusting of pecorino-Romano cheese"), what goes into good pizzas, and like a mandatory Marty Markowitz quote. And, yes, you'll get very hungry. Just not for a Domino's pizza. more ›

- Thing you've got bocce balls? Then you should test your stuff this weekend at the 12th Annual Citywide Bocce Tournament. Over 200 bocce enthusiasts from around the New York City area will compete Saturday and Sunday to see who's got the best. The tournament is free and open to adults of all ages. The prelims are in four of the five boroughs (sorry Manhattanites) with the finals to be played Sunday in Pelham Bay Park. more ›

-- Gawker has Jared Paul Stern's book proposal. Better get those presses running quick, boys-- his 15 minutes are running out fast! more ›

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- Long live Craigslist - Sally Tomato finds someone to wait on line for Shakespeare in the Park tickets for her (we remember when tickets to The Seagulls were being sold for $200 - and that was pre-Craigslist!) more ›

Whoa, tonight's wild thunderstorm has hit Staten Island in a serious way: There's an island-wide power outage right now, not to mention "starting fires, flooding streets, causing car crashes downing tree branches," according to SILive. Also, we're hearing that a police officer was struck by lightning. Be careful out there! more ›

Jay Smooth caught this quintessentially cheesy moment at Joe's on Bleecker Street on Sunday. Improbably, Adam Kuban from SliceNY did not get an invitation to the event. more ›

The NY Times reports that six waiters at Jing Fong, the dim sum palace in Chinatown, have sued the restaurant over their tips, claiming that the money is actually going towards paying the dim sum cart ladies. Plus, the 35% service charge that Jing Fong charges for parties over 30 has also not made it back to the wait staff. Tips make up the bulk of servers' wages (even Times food critic Frank Bruni seemed to think tips under 15% were terrible when he moonlighted as a waiter for a week) and the article points out that NY State law allows waiters to be paid under the $6.75 minimum wage, but they must keep all their tip money "though it can be redistributed among the waiters." Jing Fong denies the charges, saying their workers (waiters and dim sum ladies alike) get a base salary plus tips; owner Ming Lam says, "Our way of practice is 100 percent legal, otherwise my attorney wouldn't let me do it." That's a good one! more ›

- Chef has quit South Park! No more big salty chocolate balls? more ›

- There have been 1,407 shootings in the city so far more ›

Yesterday, LIFE Magazine held a "Battle of the Boroughs" pizza contest to determine the best pizza in New York. Competing for the trophy were DeMarco's in Manhattan, Joe & Pat's in Staten Island, L&B Spumoni Gardens in Brooklyn, Louie & Ernie's in The Bronx, and Singas Famous in Queens. Because it involved pizza, Adam Kuban from Slice was there, not only to cover it, but as one of the judges. Adam writes that the pizza was judged on five factors, "Presentation (worth 20%), Crust (20%), Sauce (20%), Cheese (10%), and Overall Quality (30%)" and that the pizzerias were selected on the LIFE website a few weeks ago. Seems like there are some odd choices to the bunch, but so it goes. The eventual winner was DeMarco's from Manhattan. Pretty impressive for a new establishment that had mixed reviews after it opened. more ›

Gothamist Food editor Laren Spirer was one of the judges last night at the Vendys-- but she seems to have overdosed on street meat, and hasn't yet reported in! If you see her wandering around downtown, dazed and smelling like sausage, please let us know so we can come pick her up. Until then, we'll just have to rely on the mainstream media for accounts of the fierocious vender battle that ended with Rolf Babiel crowned as the winner. The Times gives us his reaction: more ›

In August, we told you about the Vendys, the first annual streetfood awards sponsored by Streetvendor.org. The awards are a wonderful idea-- they celebrate the hard working people that produce some our city's most delicious food, and help dispel those old notions that everything you buy on the street is poisonous, tastes bad, or both. From the looks of it, the four finalists are tightly matched: more ›

- And in this update about the closest baby panda to NY, aka the little guy in DC at the National Zoo, it looks like his eyes are open! more ›

Gothamist is happy for evergreen NYC topics that everyone can revist over and over again: What the MTA can do better, what the Mayor can do better, when is a NY team going to win a championship, and what is a great slice of pizza. Newsday chats with the cutting edge of pizza conoisseurship. Experts include Ed Levine (whose book, Pizza: A Slice of Heaven, is just out), Long Island pizza chef Geof Grayson, Audrey Aponte who writes on pizza.tienmao.com, eGullet's Sam Kinsey and, of course, our good friend, Adam Kuban of Slice. Kuban has been impressing commoners and the esteemed media alike with Slice's so-good- it-oughtta-be- patented "pizza bottom" shot (at right). Gothamist loves these articles not because they make us ridiculously hungry for pizza early in the morning, but because they give us the rest of the day to plan our Wednesday pre-America's Next Top Model Cycle 4 dinner. more ›

Wow, it seems like Christo and Jeanne-Claude are like the Sean Penn and Madonna of the art world - at least for a few moments - as Newsday reports that the most famous public-art touting-and-building couple, plus their photographer Wolfgang Volz, tussled with a Newsday reporter and photographer:

Jeanne-Claude, whose saffron hair has evoked comparisons to the billowing bright sheets in Central Park, seemed to see red yesterday when a Newsday photographer tried to take the couple's picture in the park's northwest corner. more ›

Adam Kuban, Pizza Enthusiast more ›

Read Gothamist's exclusive interview with GOPizza creator Adam Kuban, which includes his thoughts on what will happen to GOPizza after the convention (yes, there will be "after the convention," when we hope all our worrying will have been for naught). Adam, your plan to infiltrate the pages of the Post has worked - congratulations! And you can download Slice's guide to pizzas onto your iPod - piPod! GOPizza is especially useful these days, since the NYC host committee took down Mayor Giuliani's restaurants picks for delegates and guests. more ›

With less than a month until the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden, the editors of Slice (Gothamist's favorite pizza site) have released GOPizza.net for the thousands of people in town for the convention. No news on whether there will be an Counter Convention pizza site from Slice. Now on the site, those hailing from the nether-regions of the country can learn how to order pizza in New York - it's a slice, stupid - and learn how to hold your pizza. more ›