Thanks to the The Little Italy Merchant Association, Mulberry Street will soon have a new mural painted by street artist and toymaker Tristan Eaton. Bowery Boogie reports that the association's goal is to lure a "younger demographic" to Little Italy. But youngs are different, and aren't to be trusted. "That’s not going up in my courtyard," 87-year-old Father Fabian Grifone, told the Post. "It has nothing to do with the Catholic religion or Italians. It looks like pagan art. I don't want it." Yeah, how about something tasteful, like James Gandolfini? more ›

A pedestrian was struck on Canal Street by a truck, and a witness at the scene said, "His face was all bloody. His knee was all bloody. His pants were ripped up." The witness did not see the victim being hit by the truck, described as a large oil tanker, but he did see the truck speeding east. more ›

Kanye West and Jay-Z are in full on promo mode for their new album Watch The Throne, and they've opened a pop-up store on Mulberry Street for the weekend in celebration. It will be housed in OpenHouse Gallery, which MTV says is now "regally wrapped in gold." more ›

Mulberry Street bar, open since 1908 and "Home of The Sopranos," has reportedly been closed by the Health Department because a "temporary license it was operating under since Dec has expired." NewYorkist posted this picture of the bar on Twitter. However, according to one employee, it's just temporary! more ›

If you've ever wanted to decide on a bottle of red or a bottle of white at the restaurant that played the role of muse in Billy Joel's "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant," you better make your reservations soon. more ›

This weekend marks the start of many pre-Lunar New Year Festivities in the city. The New Year begins on February 7 (more information here), and there will be the firecracker ceremony and cultural festival in Chatham Square on that day, plus the Lunar New Year Parade and Festival in Chinatown on February 10. There is also a Lunar New Year Parade in Flushing on February 9. more ›

Rainbow cookies are quite possibly our favorite cookies. Ever. Whenever someone brings a cookie assortment from an Italian bakery we always eat all the rainbow cookies first and usually discard the rest. more ›

There's been a lot of ink, virtual and otherwise, already spilled on Governors Island. But today, NY Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff proclaimed that the new site "could well become the most inspired public park built here in generations." He also said the plan is "humble in scale but big on ambition." more ›

Forget the new JJ Abrams film about a fictional monster attacking New York...the Mulberry Street monster is a real-life city menace: the rat! Many rats actually, like more rats than they have at Peter Luger and Da Silvano's...combined! The movie, which came out last year, is summarized as follows: "a deadly infection breaks out in Manhattan, causing humans to devolve into blood-thirsty rat creatures. Six recently evicted tenants must survive the night and protect their... more ›

Many of you are probably familiar with the horchata you can buy at Burritoville, a pale, dairy imitation of the real thing made with fat-free milk, rice powder, cinnamon, and sugar. It's potable, but doesn't even begin to compare with horchata made with actual rice and almonds, cinnamon and vanilla, with no milk in sight. more ›

Separately, yesterday witnessed the 5th Annual Tuttorosso Pasta Eating Contest on Little Italy's Mulberry Street. The event was woefully undercovered by the mainstream press, so what information we have is from the flickr photos of dietrich, who got frighteningly close to the gaping maws of the contestants. Experience won out, as the winner was a veteran of the four prior competitions, but the second place contestant made a breakthrough as the highest-placed contestant who shoveled pasta into his mouth with his hands. more ›

SoHo, Lower East Side, Nolita, and other residents and workers, you'll want to make sure you have your library card, because today at 3PM, the New York Public Library opens its 87th branch in SoHo. The Mulberry Street library, located at Mulberry and Jersey Streets just south of Houston Street, is 12,000 square feet of books, DVDs, computers, WiFi access and more. more ›

Yesterday, a building at the southeast corner of East Houston and Mulberry Street collapsed, causing street closures while the Fire Department and Department of Buildings inspected. The NY Times describes it as a partial collapse and, luckily, no one was injured. Workers have been preparing the building for demolition, but a stop work order had been issued two weeks ago (the DOB required "bracing and shoring" of the building). more ›

Space Invaders, by Absolutewade on Flickr. Tag yours "Gothamist" if you want us to use them! more ›

- Restaurant Girl visits relative newcomer Rewind, an "Asian-influenced Italian" spot on the Lower East Side and isn't wowed by the "sensory overload of flavors, seasonings and ingredients," giving it a 3 out of 10. Ouch. more ›

We spied somone (from the TatsCru, we think) spraying an image of the Mona Lisa on Mulberry Street earlier, and we thought, oh, cool, maybe there will be a series of old paintings. But we were too naive, because when we approached the ladder, the graffiti artist was examining the picture he was supposed to copy...and there's a mention of The Da Vinci Code movie! Augh! Gothamist read The Da Vinci Code, and you know what, it's just like Dan Brown's earlier book, Angels and Demons, except it involves the Louvre and Jesus, so we never quite understood the Da Vinci Code fever. But today has been a day of Da Vinci Code media onslaught, from Tom Hanks' ode to his make-up guy in the Times (he doesn't discuss his hair, though) and how the judge in the Da Vinci Code (book) case encoded some message in his ruling. This confluence of synergy must mean we will have to see the movie, or else we'll have secretly bad hair when we're in NoHo. more ›

the way it is in the movies! Here's testimony from Michael DiLeonardo, Gambino loan sharker and star government witness, via the NY Times:

He went to an apartment on Mulberry Street in Little Italy, a few blocks from the Ravenite Social Club, home base of the Gambino family. There he waited in a room with four other men, including John A. Gotti, the son of the family boss, to be inducted as "made men" into the family. more ›

So maybe you've had pheasant or squab, but what about antelope? Or llama? Taste them all during a five course meal, complete with wine pairings, at WildFlower. What does one pair with llama, we wonder? 8pm, $70 per person plus tax & gratuity, call 212-475-2355 for reservations. WildFlower, 192 Bleecker Street more ›

There's a great article about the wonderful retail space, Emerge NYC, at 65 Bleecker Street, in the NY Times. While Gothamist has taken into wandering into Emerge NYC during our lunch hour, ooh-ing and aah-ing over hot messenger bags, delicate earrings and cool clothes from young designers. Started by Nicholas Petrou, who created The Market NYC, which is at 268 Mulberry Street and most people call "The Young Designers' Market," it allows new talent to have a retail presence, but without paying the crazy retail rents for space they may not need. The designers pay a $1500-2500 per month for open boutique spaces (26 spaces total, 50-150 square feet), with counter space going for $450-650 a month. There are three dressing rooms with mirrors inside, and the designers are really helpful (although Gothamist felt bad after we tried on three things and didn't buy any of them). more ›

The George Eastman House archive has a wonderful series of 130 photos by Andreas Feininger, taken mainly during the 1930s and 1940s. For instance, Broadway, the Brooklyn Bridge, LES, Williamsburg Bridge, more LES, downtown, skyscrapers, Mulberry Street, and elevated trains. Feininger was an interesting guy; a European immigrant, he didn't come to New York until he was 33. Before turning to photography, he worked as an assistant to Le Corbusier. After he came to the States, he became one of Life Magazine's most famous photographers. more ›

Gothamist Eats at Eight Mile Creek
Gothamist assumes that all Australians are convicts and drunkards, so we thought we'd fit right in at Eight Mile Creek. more ›

Gigante Says He Was Crazy...Like a Fox if only because that's something Gothamist would write. [Jake]: for fans of Gigante, you can walk by his old headquarters at 208 Sullivan Street- the "Triangle Civic Improvement Association", between Bleecker and West Third. Gigante actually lived right across the street, at 208 Sullivan, and would often take walks through the neighborhood. This being Manhattan, there is a lively debate about which mob family had the best clubhouse location. While I love Sullivan Street, I still give that award to the Gambinos and their Ravenite Social Club, at 247 Mulberry Street between Spring and Prince. That's a great location by anyone's standards- right now I think someone is using the space to sell overpriced women's shoes. Does anyone know the location of other famous NYC mob hangouts? more ›

Much to our pleasure, Daily Candy reports the opening of Rice to Riches, the Mulberry Street rice pudding joint. There are flavors like Strawberry Floozy, Stubborn Banana with hint of Coconut, Chocolate Carnivore with a trace of Dark Raisins, and Obscene Orange with a tinge of Carrot. I'm a rice pudding purist myself, but I'd be up for Stubborn Banana with a hint of Coconut. more ›