We're not giving up on summer, you guys! It's still August, it's still intermittently stinking hot, and there's still time left to do all those summery activities you ambitiously planned way back in May. These include killing a shark with your bare hands at Sandy Hook, eating lobster rolls until Maine's crustacean stocks are completely depleted, and mixing your own refreshing cocktails just like our BFF Rachel Maddow does. more ›

The Dutch Kills Advocacy League is speaking out against Developer Steven Bahar, who wants to build a nine-story hotel between two two-family homes on 27th Street. The Daily News reported from a Board of Standards hearing yesterday, where the League cited Bahar's missing a key zoning deadline, but Bahar says stop-work permits kept him from pouring the foundation on time. Bahar, who has already spent about $2 million on the project, said "They're using anything and everything they can to stop these midrise buildings." Neighbors have complained the construction has already damaged their homes, one saying "The damage he will do if he's allowed to continue will be astronomical." more ›

Home bartenders have been busy riding out the recession with crafty survival tactics like tapping the full flavor potential of plastic jug vodka with essence of Skittles, for example, and it seems fitting that a new wave of cocktail books is now being unleashed on the public. The good news is that Food & Wine has just published Cocktails ’09, a soft-cover easy read that combines bar listings (NY is represented by spots like Apothéke, Employees Only, and newcomer Dutch Kills) with lots of make-at-home recipes including some compiled by the talented Jim Meehan of PDT. The bad news, as noted by the Wall Street Journal, is that there aren’t a lot of vodka-based drinks in the volume (down 50 some recipes from the ’05 edition). more ›

Long Island City will at last get its own atavistic cocktail lounge when Dutch Kills opens sometime in the next few weeks. Proprietors Richard Boccato and Sasha Petraske (both of Milk & Honey fame) promise an 1890's style saloon serving classic cocktails ($8-$10) using hand-cut ice, along with a selection of spirits, liqueurs, cordials, wine, and beer on tap (as well as by the bottle). There will also be live jazz and ragtime on select nights, and a small pub menu provided by Sage General Store, a local organic kitchen. Boccato's description of the place also comes with a little history refresher:

The name of the bar is the same as the ancestral name of the neighborhood where it is located (Dutch Kills), which was one of several small enclaves that unified in 1870 to become Long Island City. The word "kills" means "creek" in Dutch, whose settlers arrived in the area in 1643. Originally named "Canapaukah" (loosely translated as "bear's watering hole") by the Canarsee indians who were the first occupants of the land in and around what is now Long Island City, the "creek" in question is the Newtown Creek, which runs behind the bar dividing Long Island City from Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Dutch Kills was an important road hub during the Revolutionary War, and the site of a British Army garrison from 1776 to 1783.

After-hours Sunday night at the Jacques Torres chocolate factory on Hudson Street was the release party for Jean Georges pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini’s first cookbook, the provocatively titled Dessert Fourplay. The book is literally named for Iuzzini’s preferred format of serving desserts composed of four separate parts or components, and not your chance of getting some when getting your brulee on; actual results may vary. Some examples of Iuzzini’s recipes can be found here, here, and here. more ›