What with Pacific Standard’s North Slope location, their blog, their robot blog, and their faux-formal alternative title (Jon & John's House of Starchy Living and Temperance Den), the Fourth Avenue watering hole seems determined to become the McSweeney’s of bars. Now they’ve taken their clever eccentricity one step further with a Frequent Drinker Card Program, which gives patrons something in return for their consumption beyond inflated self-worth and unwanted pregnancies. Each patron who joins pays......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a scaffolding collapse on 127th St. and Morningside Ave. in Manhattan, a stabbing at East 96th St. and Rutland Ave. in Brooklyn, and a shooting on Guy R. Blvd. in Queens. That huge fire visible across the Hudson last night was a blaze that consumed a sailboat docked in Weehawken, NJ. A cyclist was hit by several different cars while on the Manhattan Bridge this week. Rev. Al Sharpton......

This week ">Bruni goes to Max Brenner, the fictional chocolatier (chain is owned by two businessmen, Max Fichtman and Odel Brenner). Awards no stars, calls it "a mass market endeavor as gimmicky as Planet Hollywood. It’s Planet Valrhona, a vaux artisanal juggernaut." He tries the non-dessert offerings; finds them weak. Then it’s on to the desserts, which "lack the richness or sharpness that great chocolate has." Also in the Times, Peter Meehan visits Fette Sau......

Fette Sau (German for Fat Pig) rests back from the street off Metropolitan Ave, in an old garage outfitted with what is one of Brooklyn's newest barbecue joints. It is rightly getting loads of press for its food, but what many of them forget to mention is that it's also loaded with one of the most impressive collections of bourbons in the city. We counted 55 different ones the last time we were there, which......

The newest addition to the Two Boots Pizza empire is set to open on Sunday on the Lower East Side. [Grub Street] Top Chef season one contestant LeAnn Wong was spotted dining at Momofuku Ssam Bar and dishes that she's going to be a producer on the show next season. [FoodCandy] Want a career in the culinary arts but can't afford it? The James Beard Foundation is now accepting applications for its 2007 scholarship program.......