After a turbulent couple of months at Gawker, the New York Times Style section is checking the media website’s pulse and wondering, with equal parts hope and desperation, if Gawker has finally jumped the “snark”. The Times’s uptick in Gawker stalking mirrors their aggressive game of catch-up with “teh internets” by increasingly emphasizing blogs on their website, and the article finds the Gray Lady digging a nice, cozy grave for Gawker owner and editor Nick......

Photo via Hamevugar's Flickr. The Brooklyn Museum housed a Ron Mueck exhibit that we pointed out last year and CubeMe just reported on. The exhibition, now closed, included "about 15 mixed media works on loan from the artist’s collection, major museums, and private collections..that explore the ambiguous relationship between reality and artifice, creating figures that express the contradictions between the real world and the imaginary. The figures seem to be alive: every detail -......

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Alex Ureña’s Pamploma, gives the restaurant two stars. “Pamplona is Ureña [the chef’s former restaurant] with an attitude adjustment,” he says. “His best dishes are more than memorable enough to redeem Pamplona’s shortcomings.” In the Post, Cuozzo goes to BLT Market, where he finds “Tourondel’s first fully-composed dishes since Cello.” Says the restaurant revives the corner of Sixth Ave and Central Park South, and “What BLT Market......

Bro, the Lower East Side has finally arrived! Know how we know? There’s totally a bangin’ new rodeo themed bar/restaurant with a mechanical bull!!! We’re going to be getting so much sweet action once the hotties see us taming that bad boy. Plus there’s like 16 killer beers on tap, chicken fried stake and pork chops! So untuck that striped shirt and ramble on down here, cowbro! Oh, and since the place still hasn’t settled......

We've already told you where to find your gefilte fish, so let's talk about some of the other Seder staples: - The gang at Wheelhouse Pickles (read all about our trip to their pickle plant) has created More Roar Horseradish just in time for your Passover Seder, Easter dinner, or even just in time for lunch. Made from fresh grated horseradish, tarragon-infused white wine vinegar, honey and salt, it is made in small batches then......

One probable cause of the creeping commercial and residential rents: The return of corporate executives and headquarters to NYC. Don't worry - there are still big offices outside of the city and there will always be coprorate parks with streets like "Corporate Drive." The NY Times many companies realize it's easier to meet with their various service providers (i-banks, advertising agencies, etc.) as well as be in a "global city" and take advantage of the......

Kate Wood, executive director, LANDMARK WEST!...

The Skyscraper Museum asked one hundred architects, brokers, builders, critics, developers, engineers, historians, lawyers, officials, owners, planners and scholars what their ten favorite NYC skyscrapers were from a list of buildings (which did not include the World Trade Center). The NY Times looks at the results, which are a great shorthand of the must-sees in the city. The top ten are Chrysler Building (with the most votes), Seagram, Flatiron, Woolworth, Empire State, Lever House, RCA,......

If you work in the Financial District, Gothamist suggests you check out the Downtown Alliance's Dine Around Downtown event, where you can try samples of food from restaurants like Capsuto Freres, Ciao Bella, Bouley and Danube, and Les Halles Downtown, for $3 to $5. The event will be held at Chase Manhattan Plaza (between Liberty & Pine and Nassau & William Streets), from 11AM-3PM. Here's a PDF of participants. [If it's raining, the event will......

Ever since reading about it in Manhattan User's Guide, Gothamist has come to love Manhattan Waiter, a blog devoted to the server's life. Paul Thacker tends to start each post with a pithy quote from a fellow waiter/waitress (we like, in particular, this one from a waiter at Craft: "The average sheep, restaurant patron doesn't know what goes on behind the scenes. I do, and that gives me the ability to see in different dimensions,......

The New York restaurant scene is flush with nominations from the James Beard Foundation, the top award in the food world. Mario Batali (Babbo, pictured left), Tom Colicchio (Gramercy Tavern), and Alfred Portale (Gotham Bar & Grill) were all nominated for Outstanding Chef (a national award); Nobu Matsuhisa (Matsuhisa, LA) and Judy Rodgers (Zuni Cafe, San Francisco) are the other two. Chanterelle, Felidia, and La Caravelle were nominated for Outstanding Restaurant (national). New York made......

The United Nations has chosen Pritzker Prize-winning Fumihiko Maki to design another building, which will be on First Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets. According to the Times, "glassy, white and sheer but elegant" design is projected to cost $330 million and to be finished by 2008. Since the older Secretariat building (picture, left) needs to be renovated, Maki's building will house the General Assembly, the Secretariat and their staffs until the Secretariat is......

You can tell a lot about a year by seeing which posts were popular, and from Gothamist's standpoint, it's been a banner year for our readers who are perverts or nerds (we're hoping the loyal readers are both). Here are a few of our most popular posts: Thoughts on the Matrix Reloaded; 100 Best Songs; when we pretended to know all about friendster messages; Paris Hilton sex tapes and her SNL appearance; Nicole Richie's racial......

With flusher economic times in most sectors, the power lunch booms once again. The Times' David Carr does his media thing, but now with a side of food, as he examines the restaurants where the powerful tend to eat. The hot restaurants are The Four Seasons, Michael's, DB Bistro Moderne (deemed downtown, even though it's only on 44th!), and newcomer Lever House, where the booths are tables du jour. Other restaurants include Eleven Madison......

New York's Hal Rubenstein visits Lever House and loves it. Gothamist loved this description of how Lever House owners fine tuned the restaurant after "prickly" early weeks: A growing bar crowd discouraged. Demographics shifted and fell into place. Those who love table-hopping at 66 and lounging for hours in a booth at Pastis went back where they belong. Now that everyone is seated, you can appreciate the room�s wonderful sight lines...After two months, Lever House......

While trying to prove a Men are from Mars and eat at the Four Seasons while Women from Venus eat at Lever House thing, New York magazine may have mixed up the photos in their analysis of the two posh midtown restaurants (NY pits them against each other in a power-lunch smackdown). Mind you, the pictures are tiny, but the top photo next to the Lever House description seems to have a pool (a hallmark......

The Daily News gives the Lever House Restaurant three stars. Pascale Le Draoulec loves the restaurant - entrees are a mixed bag, desserts are fabulcous, cocktails need "fine-tuning," great service, sexy ambience - but the review is heavy-handed with bee references - a nod to the honeycomb interior design elements. - Title: This hive's a honey of a spot - The all-American tartar sauce that comes with the lobster Tempura seems stuck in the era......

We hope you're out enjoying the beautiful weekend, but in case you're indoors and in front of the computer... - The Hulk, naked, but only in doll form - Hot movie sex scenes - Debate on dating dealbreakers - What's in a name? - Tour a $3 million Brooklyn Heights brownstone - Skateboards for pork lovers - Members only - A60 - Bathrooms we like finding ourselves in - Friendster message writing 101 -......

There's a new restaurant in what is arguably one of the sexiest buildings in the city, if you're into glass, steel and High Modernism with International Style. The Times reports that a 130-seat restaurant with a "honeycombed" interior will be opening at the back of the courtyard plaza of Lever House, Gordon Bunshaft's "corporate modernist" masterpiece. The restaurant will be run by proprietors of Mercbar, Canteen, Time Cafe, Fez and Joe's Pub. Hmm...that's sort of......

An excellent example of the international architectural style can be found around the corner from the Pret a Manger where Jen and I ate lunch today: Lever House - Gordon Bunshaft/ SOM - Great Buildings Online......