Until 9 p.m. on Monday it was business as usual at Jean Georges, the four star restaurant on Central Park West. Sam Sifton reports that "diners were tucking into yellowfin tuna ribbons or gently smoked squab, talking cheerfully as staff members padded silently through the elegant, carpeted room... Then a cockroach appeared on the ironed white cloth of a table of five diners. A woman at the table screamed and the whole restaurant went quiet." The roach escaped, but the woman was plied with free champagne, and the table was given another course for free, plus complimentary dessert. And that's why we always carry a cockroach in a small vial when dining at New York's finest restaurants. more ›

NYC Transit buses are crawling with roaches! It says so in amNY! Bus operators, mechanics and union leaders have told the city's easy-reading tabloid that the infestation has gotten out of control, because NYC Transit has cut back on cleaning. One Bronx NYC Transit driver says his bus was "chronically infected with hundreds of roaches during overnight runs, when they would crawl up the dashboard." more ›

From a reader: "This past Friday when riding the subway (G train), the woman next to me jumped up and started screaming.Turned out it was a roach that was on her leg that caused her to do so. This morning on her way to work, my girlfriend was on a jam packed L train only to have everyone start screaming between 1st & 3rd avenues. A rat was on this train and caused quite a panic! Has anyone else been seen an influx in pests on trains as of late or is this just a strange coincidence that this is the first time I'm experiencing this? Thanks!" We've only seen rats on the tracks or in the platforms, and we'd like to keep it that way. Related: This Metropolitan Diary about a rat's unwelcome subway car appearance. more ›

Members of the press pool reportedly swooned for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly yesterday when he saved them from vermin with a swift flick of his foot. According to the Daily Politics, Kelly’s press conference to announce an 11 percent drop in major felony crime at city schools was interrupted by “gasps and squeals” as “various female reporters” noticed a giant cockroach crawling “dangerously close to a bag belonging to WNBC-TV's Melissa Russo.” more ›

A couple renting an apartment at the legendary Ansonia building on the Upper West Side filed a lawsuit claiming their apartment is "completely uninhabitable" due to cockroach infestation. The lawsuit from lawyers Alan Arkin (no relation to the actor) and Suzanne Bagert details these nightmare-inducing incidents:

They crawl across the floor, on the walls, on the ceilings, on the curtains and even in the bed...Perhaps most disgustingly, cockroaches have crawled in their food and coffee maker. Killing them does very little. Recently after the cockroaches were crushed, killed and vacuumed away during the day, (they) counted 16 cockroaches in the hallway outside the apartment....The hallway outside their apartment is constantly covered with cockroaches; on any given day, there can be 20 to 30 cockroaches crawling on the walls and the doors of the apartments.

French megachef Daniel Boulud has agreed to settle a federal lawsuit that alleges he discriminated against nonwhite employees at his restaurant Daniel, according to an article in today's Times. more ›

It's pretty funny when a story about over a dozen rats scurrying around a West Village Taco Bell-KFC location is the leading story on the local news (okay, there was a mention of an off-duty police officer shooting a neighbor, too). The footage (see here at WNBC), while totally repelling, is also amazing. And that rat dangling from the chair? No wonder everyone is swarming to 6th Avenue and West 4th Street to catch a glimpse of those huge suckers! more ›

Last year, after suffering through a painful prix fixe at a shall-remain-nameless eatery on the Upper West Side, Gothamist was felled by a distinctly unromantic case of Valentine’s Day food poisoning. The year before, after preparing a feast fit for Saint Valentine himself, we suffered the indignity of being dumped while the bourguignon over which we had so tragically labored scalded our Le Creuset. But this year, things will be different. We’ve got a flashy little number, a pre-dinner bottle of Gaja, and a fellow who claims…claims…to have everything under control. more ›

This week, Heartland Brewery introduced another speciality beer to their New York locations. Like their well known apricot, pumpkin and holiday ales, this one fits the season--it is light, fruity (we tasted pomegranate, pear and ginger on top of the red raspberry puree the beer is made with, not unlike Lambic), and very, very easy to drink a bit of the bubbly implied by it's name. The beer is served in a glass more well suited to champers than pilsner, too, with art by Daily Candy illustrator Suien Rim. Kelly Taylor, the (male) brewmaster who has been perfecting the ales in the company's Fort Greene brewery for eight years hopes that the ale appeals to women who drinks cocktails, not beer. And that's where we soured on the ale (we were, notably, going to forgive the enormous cockroach that landed onto our Moleskine notebook at the Union Square location). See, we don't think we can speak for all women or even all women who are lushes but as one female who drinks, this writer is a little offended that the underlying meaning here is that women don't know enough--or worse, are scared-- to try beer for themselves and need fruity tastes and an picture of fishnetted and stilettoed legs to know it's for them. We'd drink the Berry Champagne Ale if our friends wanted to have lunch at Heartland Brewery, it tastes like breakfast in summer, especially if we're too hungover to remember that we can think for ourselves. more ›

- If you have Tempo® , Tres Pasitos, Cockroach Chalk or any other pesticide that is improperly labeled, seal it in a plastic bag and discard it in a container away from children and pets.Just another reason to get some home repair 101 lessons! Do you have any good pest control tips? Gothamist noticed some bizarre non-cockroach bugs in the kitchen and bath areas, so we got some roach motels and that pretty much ended the problem - and we also try to vaccuum or DustBust whenever we can, because those suckers love hair (it's all protein). A friend mentioned that he returned from a trip and found a mouse that essentially spontaneously combusted on his kitchen floor. more ›

Oh if only we could go back to the days when "don't let the bedbugs bite" was just something you said. But, as the Times really tries to hammer home today, that just doesn't seem to be possible anymore. more ›

As a matter of fact, Gothamist goes by the "don't ask, don't tell" policy of restaurant cleanliness: We're only freak out if we see a cockroach on the table, dirt on plates and flatware, or hair in the food (or else we'd never eat at half the places in the city). But upon reading this Page Six item about our favorite Italian restaurateur Mario Batali and how four employees werefired because they had an orgy of sorts at Bistro du Vent, we now wonder if we should wear a Hazmat suit the next time we go out for dinner. The details from Page Six:

The randy sex romp between an openly bisexual waitress, a male chef, a female manager and a waiter was captured on the West 42nd Street restaurant's surveillance cameras, which feed to a monitor right next to the host's stand... more ›

This morning as I was getting ready for work I found myself looking into the beady eyes of a humungous cockroach. After some squealing and donning of rubber yellow gloves I managed to kill the roach with a hammer. There must be a better and cleaner way to exterminate roaches. What options do I have? Also, what is an acceptable level of cohabitation with these buggers? Is it realistic to believe that if the right steps were taken my apartment could be 100% roach free? This is the first cockroach I have ever seen during my 8 months in this apartment. more ›

-Courtney more ›

CSM more ›

For some reason, turkeys are in New York at full force. And by full force, we mean "There are turkeys in New York, period." The Post and NY Times both devote stories to turkeys in the area, especially given this tryptophan loaded week: The Post reports that the Urban Park Rangers are trying to reintroduce (introduce?) turkeys to different city parks; of course, the Post makes its reporter dress as a Pilgrim and chase the Battery Park turkey, Zelda, around. The Times takes a look at the Riverside Park turkey, nicknamed "Giuliani," who has been arousing Thanksgiving dreams in the young and old. Gothamist hasn't seen any turkeys roaming the New York streets yet, probably because we assume any creature outside larger than cat is a cockroach or a rat.
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Dirty bathrooms, a few crumbs here and there, spacey staff, these are things Gothamist can forgive if the food is good. But stories about cockroaches and unapologetic staff - those are turnoffs. Our friend Tamara reports on her visit to East Village Thai restaurant, Elephant: more ›

Newsday reports that 71 establishments (of a possible 20,000) had been cited for violated the smoking ban - and most for having ashtrays out and not having dinstinct signs saying "No Smoking Allowed" - and some restaurant owners claim the smoking ban has affected business by 20%. Gothamist started to wonder if the smoking ban violations were recorded yet, and we stumbled onto the Department of Health's searchable database of restaurant inspections, which is where we'll be going after checking the Zagat or Chowhound. more ›