Open wide for some dining guides! Today marks the debut of the new editions of the Zagat guide and the prestigious NYC Michelin restaurant guide (more on that later). We turn first to the more proletarian Zagat, which covers 2,115 restaurants, slightly more than last year, rated online by 40,569 respondents. Here's what's new and noteworthy: more ›

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. more ›

• 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 marched in DC this week to call for widespread racial justice.
• Muddy paths and trails through the woods may not be NYC's strong suit, but NYU has a nationally ranked cross-country track team.
• The B Train only scored a "C-" in the MTA's most recent survey of riders.
• First Lady Laura Bush visited the city to honor an elementary school teacher.
• Almost 15,000 families stand to lose their homes in the ongoing credit-crunch sub-prime mortgage meltdown.

">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." more ›

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 sounds more like a dare than a list. It isn't all about the different variations of Jim Beam, either. They have New York's only bourbon, Hudson Baby Bourbon, and Four Roses, which just recently came on the New York market. Six bucks can score you a cheaper, rougher style (Rebel Yell!) that will probably suit those ribs better. If you've got extra cash burning a whole in your wallet, go for the $18 Pappy Van Winkle. They are all served in nifty snifers and can come however you like to suck it back. more ›