A few months ago Red Hook beekeepers were surprised to find their bees drinking juice from the local maraschino cherry factory and producing red goo instead of local, golden honey that could sell for a pretty penny. But why let the inventory go to waste? According to Grub Street, Red Hook beekeepers will be giving away free samples of the red stuff at Brooklyn Kitchen on February 12th from noon to 1 p.m., and small batches will be available for purchase. What's the over/under on how long it takes the mixologists to add it to whiskey and sell it for $15? more ›

Lately the city has been looking like a nature preserve, but the keeping of bees, even the nonaggressive honey-producing kind, still isn't allowed. That may change though—tomorrow a Department of Health and Mental Hygiene board will consider lifting the bee ban. The potential change is prompted by stats that show NYC bee stings are rare and a petition by beekeepers, who maintain the practice promotes sustainable agriculture. If successful, it will mean that covert rooftop apiarists—who loose the bees to pollinate their plants and also harvest honey from their hives—will finally be in the clear. more ›

The Village Voice's Robert Sietsema discovers South Indian restaurant Southern Spice in Flushing, and files a rave review that begins, "Sometimes a restaurant makes such an impression that it changes your way of thinking about an entire cuisine...Dish after dish was astonishing in the power and immediacy of its flavors." His colleague Sarah DiGregorio checks out two East Village cured-meat "specialists," Cure and Ballaro. The former "looks like a boudoir—a boudoir stocked with meat and cheese...Stick with the meat for best results. Even the most successful salad is made mostly of meat—a mess of a half-dozen kinds of chopped charcuterie, rendered even less healthy by the addition of sliced fresh mozzarella, all on top of a portion of mixed greens. The quiches, unfortunately, are heated to sogginess in a microwave." And over at Ballaro, "the proprietors are more serious about their food." more ›

Apiary, in the East Village, is named for a collection of bee hives, but the restaurant is not devoted to honey the way S'Mac is to mac and cheese. Chef Neil Manacle's "New American" menu is eclectic, occasionally taking inspiration from Middle Eastern spices and fusing them with familiar edibles like chicken breast and pork tenderloin. A franchise of Ligne Roset, the luxury French design house, created and owns the place, which is sleek and sophisticated without being pretentious. Up front, a modest bar serves about 30 micro brews and emphasizes New York State wine. more ›

This week Frank Bruni at the Times bestows two glittering stars on Allegretti, where one of his dining companions swoons for the fish soup, sounding like an absolutely insufferable food snob: "'It tastes exactly the way it should," she said, rushing the words out as soon as the soup was down. She wanted the rest of us to know. She wanted to crow. She wanted to be done with talking and get back to the soup. She was even making those mm-mm noises...What she meant, as I learned when she passed the soup to me, was that it tasted of Mediterranean waters — scorpion fish, rouget — and of Mediterranean sunshine, the tomato flavor robust and true...Watching and nodding as I myself made joyful sense of it, she said, 'Are we in the south of France or what?' Actually, we were in Chelsea, though it was easy to be confused." more ›

This week the Times's Frank Bruni has a mouth-watering rave for Southern Italian restaurant Convivo (pictured), chef Michael White's revision of the stuffy L'Impero in Tudor City. He declares that Convivio has emerged from the transition "as a pasta lover’s dreamland...soulful and unpretentious...Mr. White can do it all...and is doing even better work with pasta at Convivio than he has done at Alto." Skip the seafood, though: "Roll-ups of fried swordfish with a yogurt sauce tasted too much like some tarted-up refugee from Long John Silver’s." more ›

Il Porto: Across the river and down the market there’s a new brick oven pizza place that’s not to be confused with the tourist trap of the same name at the South Street Seaport. This one’s in Wallabout, a plucky little neighborhood north of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, near the Navy Yard. Brownstoner discovered the place and provides a helpful map, along with lots of photos and mention of “the full bar and lots o' tables.” 37 Washington Avenue, Wallabout, Brooklyn, (718) 624-0954. more ›