Yesterday, Kim Ledger visited his son's apartment on Broome Street. After Heath Ledger had been found dead in a Soho loft last week, mourners have left letters, flowers and other tributes to the 28-year-old actor. The building staff had collected the items and kept them in the basement; the building super told the Post Kim Ledger said the mementos were "beautiful." Kim Ledger, who spent an hour in the apartment, was accompanied by NYPD detectives......

Photograph of the memorial outside 421 Broome Street taken on Friday by vinnie 716 on Flickr Last night, the G'Day USA Australia Ball was held at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, concluding Australia Week festivities. But the week held sadness, after Australian actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his Soho apartment on Tuesday. At the ball, Australian Counsel-General John Olsen read an unexpected letter from Ledger's father Kim:"Heath is, and always will be, an......

Photographs outside Broome Street The NYC Medical Examiner's office says Heath Ledger's autopsy is inconclusive, citing the need to more tests. Spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said, "The autopsy is inconclusive and we have to do further testing which includes toxicology and tissue testing. We expect to have results in about 10 days to two weeks." Initial reports suggested pills were found scattered around the actor's body, prompting speculation that Ledger could have committed suicide. Ledger's......

Yesterday afternoon the world learned of Heath Ledger's untimely death. Both old and new media gossiped, rumor-mongered, and pitched their circus tents outside of his building on Broome Street the moment word spread. Sadly, most of his close friends and relatives, including his parents, heard about the tragedy through the newswire. The young actor was embraced as a fairly new resident of New York (first in Brooklyn, then in Manhattan). The NY Times recalls that......

The shocking news of Heath Ledger's death in an SoHo apartment is front page news. The Post uses a lovely photograph of Ledger and ex-fiancee Michelle Williams while the Daily News uses a still from Brokeback Mountain. Both focus on drug-related cause of death, though the News emphasizes it more. Newsday gives more attention to the economy while placing news of Ledger's death in a sidebar (Newsday's readership is more Long Island-based). amNew York uses......

A tour trying to turn left onto Broome Street from Bowery struck a 76-year-old woman yesterday morning. The bus, operated by Skyliner, was on its way to Atlantic City. The woman had been walking south on Bowery with her son when the bus hit her. Witnesses said the woman was hit hard by the bus, flying 15 feet. One witness told the Daily News, "I guess she wasn't paying attention." Maybe - but buses (one......

Cosmopolitan candy men and women packed the hotly-anticipated opening of Papabubble on Broome Street Saturday night. The high-end confectioner has been a big hit in Barcelona, Tokyo and Amsterdam, so it was only a matter of time before the New York market opened wide for some gourmet candy “sculpture”. Their new location continues the Papabubble tradition of preparing the sweets in-store, which has proven to be an entertaining and well-nigh irresistible marketing strategy. You......

Will Manhattan's clubs be moving to the 10013? With the group that opened Cain on 27th Street having opened Gold Bar at 389 Broome Street in February; and uber-promoter Danny A having opened the VIP-only Upstairs on Spring Street and Broadway, The Observer is reporting on a move of "clubland" to Chinatown. Following the flock is former model Emma Cleary who purchased Double Happiness at 173 Mott Street. The lounge will open as a "hip......

Aurora Soho -- This Williamsburg joint has made it across the bridge. Executive Chef Riccardo Buitoni of Piedmont, Italy, brings his Slow Food passion to Manhattanites with an Italian menu and wine list. You'll find some of the Williamsburg favorites on the menu, like 10-hour slow roasted pork belly, and burrata with shaved grey mullet bottarga and agrumato oil, but there are a few newcomers for the new location -- castelmagno cheese raviolini and baby......

EVENT: Upstairs at the Square, the bookstores series featuring musicians and authors in conversation & performing their work, is happening tonight. This one will be featuring musician Badly Drawn Boy and author Dana Spiotta, with host Katherine Lanpher. 7pm // Barnes & Noble [33 East 17th St] // Free THEATER: The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by New Yorker scribe Lawrence Wright, was one of The New York Times Book Review's "Top......

April 8: Broadway Panhandler Knife Sharpening Benefit Bring your knives to Broadway Panhandler to get sharpened and benefit City Harvest at the same time. We did this last year and can't tell you what a difference a sharp knife can make, especially when it's combined with doing something good for the world. Between 11:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m., bring in up to three knives and get 'em professionally sharpened for a mere $10. You can sharpen......

Are you a fantasy baseball nut who finds your loyalties divided between your fantasy team and your real team? Are you a Mets fan who “owns” Chipper Jones, a Yankee fan with Curt Schilling on the roster? Maybe you are one of the millions who hate Duke Basketball. Tonight offers a chance to learn more about both subjects as Dan Shanoff of ESPN.com's Daily Quickie launches a new reading series “Varsity Letters” devoted specifically to......

With 0.12 inches of rain falling early this morning Central Park has already had more rain in April (0.84 inches) than all of March (0.80). Because of the rain, and much to Gothamist's delight, Morningside Park was green this morning. As the rain disappears the operative word for the rest of the day is brisk. Brisk as in highs in the mid-to-upper-40s and wind gusts up to 30 mph this afternoon. Spring lovers do not......

First Grilled Cheese left Ludlow Street, and now BroomeDoggs is leaving Broome Street. The little block between Ludlow and Orchard has recently had a storefront facelift...with little shops opening in places where nothing was before. We thought for sure the overpriced Bakery next to this place would close first, looks like we were wrong. Back to Grilled Cheese for a second, has anyone heard a thing about their new location? Their website has turned cyrptic......

Over two weeks after Chonley Butler was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment, police have called his death a homicide. Butler had been celebrating his birthday at Happy Ending on Broome Street when he got into argument with some other people, one of whom punched Butler in the face. The Daily News says that Butler was hit on his way out of the bar, and the Post says that Butler still got into a cab......

Last summer we were in Tokyo, and we got addicted to Japanese desserts. Most of it is made from sweet red bean paste wrapped in various kinds of dough. When we got back, we were majorly fiending for it-- total case of the dessert DTs. Luckily, we noticed that the Sunrise Market on Broome Street stocks plenty of simple wagashi-- and fairly reasonably priced at $1-$3/piece, depending on the size. If you are looking......

Over the weekend we stopped by a protest organized by Friends of the Tunnel Garage. Apparently developers are trying to tear down the garage, which was built in 1922 and sits at the corner of Thompson and Spring Broome Street at the edge of SoHo. While the garage looks a little run-down these days, in years past it was quite beautiful (for a garage!)-- featuring details like "terra-cotta polychromy" (?) and signage (there is......

Rejoice, lactarded brethren: today we bring a great message of hope. For years you have suffered, watching as your friends put away pound after pound of Magnolia Cupcakes, while you subsist entirely on sorbets and soy-flavored cookies that taste like ashes in your mouth. No longer! We were at a party recently when a friend announced a fascinating discovery: cupcakes from Babycakes NYC that are made without "wheat, gluten, dairy, casein, eggs, soy, nuts and......

You guys were great at explaining the Bertrand Russell graffiti mystery over the weekend, so now we've found another puzzler for you to unravel. We've seen a bunch of these sheep all over town these last few weeks-- but this one carries the puzzling message "stop the sheep-- fukc the shepard." Who are the sheep, and why do they need to be stopped? And who is this shepard? And why does he need to......

Just what everyone needs: Some pot-bust-and-police-bribe humor! The NY Post reports that two police officers busted 20 year old Marco Germosen for smoking pot outside of Happy Ending on Broome Street around 6AM. Then at the station house, Germosen "tried to bribe the cops, offering them $600 to cut him loose." At the station house! Not only is bribing a police officer illegal, but to do it at the station house? Gothamist supposes that his......

[Ed. note: We forgot our digi-cam the night we visited Happy Ending, and we tried to take a picture of Juan Carlos with our snazzy new cameraphone, but we're still trying to get the hang of it. That night, we apparently didn't. But for future reference, he's the super-handsome, very friendly fellow with long dreadlocks.] Beer, wine or cocktails? (very definitively) Beer. What could I order that will get me laughed right out of the......

2 weeks ago the Andy Warhol "Summer Shadows"�show opened at the Woodward Gallery. It runs through July 31st. Gothamist loves Warhol, yet has never seen this type of work from him...so we'll be heading over to the exhibit asap! Needing a quick tutorial ourselves, here is what we learned about the Summer Shadows series. While starting out his career trying to stray from abstract art, Warhol actually ended his career submerging himself in it. In......

Yes, it's June 16, which means it's time for James Joyce enthusiasts to celebrate Ulysses, one of the most heralded books of the English language very few actually manage to read. Bloomsday on Broadway at Symphony Space started at noon today, but the readings of Joyce's work and reaction to it go on until midnight (Stephen Colbert, Jefferson Mays, the McCourt brothers - and Malachy will be in drag- and Fionnula Flanagan are a few......

An art opening for Brooklyn-based artist Jes Cannon will take place tonight at Lolita in the Lower East Side. Cannon, a lifelong New Yorker, works with images of the New York to create a new energy from the city we all love. The exhibit is called, Looking at New York, and Cannon says, "The city is a place where images exist in constant harmony, flux and competition; where the streets themselves are a part of......