An MTA track worker scared off a man who was raping a 36-year-old woman on the tracks at the Bowery J subway station at Delancey Street on Wednesday. Police say the suspect targeted the woman who got off a train around 1 a.m.: The [victim] was on an escalator when 29-year-old Michael Torres grabbed her around the neck, covered her mouth and told her not to scream. He then dragged her to the end of the platform, threw her on the tracks and sexually assaulted her." more ›

There may be no light in her latest single, but it sounds like there was a lot of it in The Bowery Hotel room that Florence + The Machine's Florence Welch recently stayed in. The British singer just admitted to starting a fire in the swank pad after a night partying with Kanye! more ›

Two weekends ago we went for brunch at the Veselka outpost on First Street, Veselka Bowery, and were struck by how dead the place seemed compared to its northern sibling (seriously, it was a ghost town). Apparently we weren't the only ones concerned. As EVGrieve notes, this weekend the venerable East Village institution started offering free pedicab rides from the mothership all the way down Second Avenue to the newcomer. more ›

Everyone's favorite Disneyland-on-acid-esque congee emporium, Congee Village (the one on Bowery, not Allen Street), has been shuttered by the Health Department after racking up 55 violation points on a recent visit, reports The Lo-Down. more ›

Good news for budget-conscious diners who don't care about crushing whatever soul was left in the East Village: the brand-new 7-Eleven on The Bowery is offering $1 pizza slices! EV Grieve posted a shot of the ad today, nothing that 7-Eleven is bravely entering the East Village $1 pizza war (more on that here), with little more than a double-chambered Slurpee machine as its strongest ally. more ›

The epic saga of East Village dive Mars Bar finally appears to have come to an end, after a visit from the Department of Health and an overriding sense of ambivalence from the owner. more ›

There is "bad" topless, like certain congressmen who feel the need to sext pics of their gym face to blackjack dealers and porn stars. And then there is elusive, magical, perfectly legal toplessness: this week, a woman, since nicknamed "Topless Bowery Woman," took a causal stroll in lower Manhattan sans shirt in the sweltering heat—here's a NSFW pic of her. And while most seemed amused by her exercising her right to do so, Bowery Boogie reports that the woman was stopped and issued a fine by cops...which is illegal. more ›

With the city's roll-down gates just acting as metal canvas for those with spray cans, they're being phased out... but not without a final farewell. The New Museum has teamed up with artists, as well as the Art Production Fund, to adorn some downtown gates with graffiti before they're taken away. This is all part of the Festival of Ideas, and this specific project is called “After Hours: Murals on the Bowery." more ›

The Bowery in its latest, absurdly hip, incarnation is no stranger to ugly architecture. Just look at the Cooper Square Hotel, the Sculpture for Living (technically not on the Bowery), or the finger coming out of the middle of Fourth Street. And yet each time a new piece of hideous design is introduced we're dismayed once again. Which is to say, remember how the old Salvation Army on Third Street is going to become a boutique hotel? Well, Curbed got its paws on the rendering you see above. more ›

It's been about three years since the colorful Hell, Yes! sign first appeared on the side of the New Museum. Since then, it's been overlooking the East Village like a less judgmental version of Dr. Eckleburg's eyes, urging the neighborhood to party on, or something. Well, hope you didn't get attached, because Ugo Rondinone’s sign may come down as early as November, according to reports. In its place will be a million dollar, 30-foot steel and lacquer Rose sculpture by Isa Genzken. [via Animal] more ›

The Grimaldi family was in house at a Community Board 2 meeting on Thursday night, laying down plans for a possible Manhattan gamechanger. The family and partner Matt Grogan pitched plans to open a 62-seat pizza joint at 352 Bowery (current home of NOHO Lighting & Electrical Supply). However, they might need to tweak a few things before we can enjoy the cheesy goodness on the island. more ›

An underground arts and events space at 169 Bowery called Collective Hardware has been shut down after the landlord of the building said the group owes $1MM in back rent. Their five-floor funhouse includes (or had hoped to house) artist studios, a cafe and bar, a wellness center, a lounge, a greenhouse, a production studio, and was expected to one day have a rooftop garden. Sure sounds like an expensive endeavor! And one that founder Rony Rivellini hoped would one day be able to "monetize the artists, so they can sustain themselves." more ›

"Pulino’s is not really a pizzeria, nor a bar," declares Sam Sifton in his one star review of Keith McNally's latest venture. "The chef is Nate Appleman, a young transplant from San Francisco. His cooking is simple and brash, as American as it is inflected with Italian flavors, rustic in the sense that it comes out of smoky, wood-assisted ovens, and urban for the very same reason... You can sit at the bar there, drink Campari and read the newspaper, as you can at any of Mr. McNally’s establishments, feeling grand under a ceiling that soars above a checkerboard floor, surrounded by distressed mirrors, chicken-wire glass, towering walls covered with liquor bottles... Restaurant dressed as theater dressed as nostalgia, is how the novelist Richard Price put it, in Lush Life. That’s Pulino’s exactly." more ›

Between 2004 and 2008, there were more than 150 accidents resulting in injuries on one stretch of Bowery between East Broadway and Canal Street, and one pedestrian was killed. As part of a Chinatown Traffic Calming Plan, the DOT is currently building three big medians to give pedestrians refuge in the middle of the busy boulevard; the work is expected to be completed before summer. more ›

Keith McNally, the unassuming media darling behind such influential restaurants as Odeon, Balthazar, and the impenetrable new Minetta Tavern, this week opened his latest venture, Pulino's Bar and Pizzeria. Located at the corner of Bowery and Houston, the spacious, sun-drenched restaurant is helmed by Chef Nate Appleman, one of the few American pizzaiolos certified by the Verace Pizza Napoletana Association. For those mortals who can't get into Minetta, or would prefer not to spend a bundle at Balthazar or Pastis, Pulino's looks to be a slightly more approachable addition to the ever-charming McNally portfolio. Don't be discouraged by the crime scene theme—"Don’t Cross the Line" is emblazoned on servers' T-shirts, and some tables are made from wooden police barricades—reservations are accepted here. more ›

Fashion Week is upon us, which obviously means Axl Rose is in town. What? It's true, last night we were invited to one of these fancy parties which was taking place at the John Varvatos store on Bowery, but the invite didn't really mention free drinks or anything that was going to make us trudge through the slushy streets... so we didn't go. And then this morning we received an email stating there was "an exclusive surprise performance by rock legend Axl Rose, and Guns N’ Roses" at the party! Yeah, that burned a little. Sure, it was a new backing band, but Axl was there... and so was Kevin Bacon—because that is what happens during Fashion Week! more ›

Did you know that author William S. Burroughs lived in a partially converted YMCA at 222 Bowery? He called the apartment "The Bunker," and it's still around today. Brooklynite Peter Ross recently took a series of photographs documenting his items in the space, which in 1997 (when Burroughs died) was taken over by their mutual friend John Giorno. more ›

This week the new chief dining critic at the NY Times, Sam Sifton, debuts with a rave for DBGB, Daniel Boulud's casual sausage/beer/etc. joint on the Bowery. The first review from the former NY Press reporter boasts references to The Ramones, Talking Heads, and a declaration that "[Boulud's] food game, as they say in rap precincts, is tight... one bite of the crispy lamb ribs that were served in the bar area when the place first opened — sweetly glazed, grassy meat, with a dab of creamy mint-flecked yogurt sauce — ended all snark: Boulud has opened a very good restaurant. The lamb was sublime, earthy and spicy and rich, evidence of superb technique, the sort of snack that separates his empire from others in the celebrity firmament." more ›

Abe & Arthur's: This big, beautiful new restaurant exorcises the old Lotus space, with "contemporary American cuisine...that evokes the nostalgic feeling of 1930s and 1940s New York City dining." This means leather, low lighting, and a varnished zinc bar. So zinc was 1930s? The menu is contemporary American with seasonal leanings, masterminded by Franklin Becker (Brasserie, Trinity). Starters average around $15, with tuna tartare tacos looking particularly enticing. Fresh market seafood changes daily, but pan-roasted sea scallop & foie gras with chantrelles is seasonal mainstay. Steaks and chops range from $18-$72 with your choice of six sauces. 409 West 14th Street; 646-289-3930 more ›

It hasn't been open very long, but neighbors residing uncomfortably close to the new $100 million Cooper Square Hotel on the Bowery are already fed up with the noise reverberating from the hotel's various outdoor areas—which was only to be expected considering how many have bedroom windows facing the place. (Some just inches away from the outdoor bar!) To chronicle the escalating complaining, Vanishing New York has started a feature called "Notes from the Backside," and the first winning entry concerns one neighbor's pitched battle with the patio lounge: "About 2 a.m.a drunk woman came out to the patio and wondered at its beauty. I pulled out the megaphone and said in a store announcer kind of voice 'Attention Cooper Square Hotel douchebags: shut the hell up and get off the patio.' Didn't work. She said 'That makes my new york experience complete' and continued to yammer away. The hotel made a half-hearted effort to get her out of there." With warm weather finally here, we give it a week before neighbors go full Delicatessen on the noisemakers and unleash the bodily fluids. more ›