Chef Jonathan Waxman is known for many things, but the benchmark of his cooking over the years has arguably always been his roast chicken. The cover of his new cookbook A Great American Cook depicts Waxman slyly drawing a Lavazza espresso cup to his mouth, wood-burning oven full flame in the background and a sliced open cheese pumpkin in front. The book also features the chef’s roast chicken recipe. “My culinary anthem,” Waxman waxes in......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a carjacking at Tompkins and School Rds. on Staten Island, a person was killed by a 5 train at Bowling Green station in Manhattan, and an armed robbery at 51st Ave. and Northern Blvd. in Queens. Bidding closed at $2,600 for the new owner of the Seinfeld ASSMAN license plate prop on eBay. Another Mister Softee driver was busted for selling drugs out of his ice cream truck, this......

They say New York is home to a million stories, and so far this year, we've published 7021 of them here on Gothamist. So in case you missed any of those, let's take a little stroll back in time, and review the most significant stories the past 12 months, shall we? Here's part one of a semi-chronological look at 2006; part two will go up tomorrow: Nixzmary Brown and the Problem with the Administration for......

This morning we woke up not at all surprised to see Jared Paul Stern still flagellating himself over at Gawker. But to be honest, we were getting kind of bored with the whole thing. The best part of JPS's first post was his last line and the first comment: "And, just in case you were wondering, yes I can tell who's really posting the Comments. I am, after all, the Editor." Followed by Nick Denton......

On Sundays, Gothamist puts its own opinions aside, and asks friends and strangers to write Op-Ed pieces for us. If you want to submit one, email Jake. Here's a review of Ian Frazier's new book, by Ben Cosgrove-- sounds like a winner to us: Has anyone ever written a single, great, quintessentially New York novel? Or a single, great, quintessential history of the city? If anything, the books that feel most "New York" are those......

A woman is suing a Brooklyn dermatologist over an "unorthodox tattoo-removal procedure" that went, as the Post puts it, "horribly awry." Brooklyn derm doctor Morris Westfried allegedly talked Veanka McKenzie into using chemicals from China (uh oh!) to remove the tat, but what's left now is a black scar after her skin collapsed. McKenzie's tattoo was a "palm-sized, heart-shaped tattoo" and while the doctor might be at fault for a terrible tattoo removal job, Gothamist......

If you want to win over the hearts of jaded sports journalists, disaffected Mets fans, and your average cynical New Yorker, take a note from playbook of the new Mets shortstop Kazuo Matsui, who met NY yesterday in a press conference. The Japanese baseball superstar instantly became a son of New York by uttering in English, "Hello everyone. My name is Kazuo Matsui. I love New York." It also helps that he's ridiculously good–looking, seems......

Daily News speaks with Peyton Reed, director of the upcoming Down With Love, a throwback to the "sex" comedies of the late 50s and early 60s, like Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back, and That Touch of Mink. Ewan MacGregor can be charming in his sleep and we certainly rather see more of him than less, but he's not so much the manly man Gothamist imagines from those comedies...Hugh Jackman, the best thing about the anemic......