Besides killing Mom ‘n’ Pop stores and displacing low-income residents, the rapid gentrification seen in some New York neighborhoods may be flushing the city’s famous working class dialect down the terlet. A group of linguists interviewed by amNY say while predicting the future is impossible, there has been a dilution of that classic working class accent familiar to the world through movies and TV shows (here’s a good example of Archie Bunker’s New York speech......

It’s not Tracy Letts’s fault that his play, August: Osage County, has been breathlessly overhyped by the critics, from the Times’s Charles Isherwood on down. It’s also not his fault that compared to many other Broadway spectacles the play stands out as a polestar of humor and intelligence. Still, it’s difficult to disassociate the play from the deafening buzz; August: Osage County is being heralded as an Important Theatrical Event, when it’s really just a......

A Brookings Institution study reveals that New York is a great place for walking, with 21 out of 21 walkable urban places. But Washington D.C. is the most walkable on a per capita basis while New York is ranked 10th, because New York is measured as the NYC metro area, including NJ, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. The study's author, Christopher B. Leinberger, admits there are issues with the methodology, namely that walkable places are weighted the......

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Grayz, gives the restaurant one star. He says of the restaurant that refuses to call itself a restaurant (it’s a ‘cocktail lounge that serves small dishes’): “These dishes demand fuller attention than the setting allows, and the prices—$39 for the short ribs—only make total sense if eating is the point of a visit.” In Dining Briefs, Bruni goes to Belcourt, which he says is much better than......

Yesterday at the Time Warner Center, Chef Marc Murphy somewhat stealthily opened the doors to the uptown outpost of Landmarc, his 3 year-old, well-regarded Tribeca restaurant. Murphy began to look northward last year when he opened Ditch Plains in the West Village. With Landmarc firmly established as a neighborhood bright spot with serious food (like the $12 roasted marrow bones with onion marmalade and grilled bread, pictured), and with Ditch Plains going strong with its......

Wallace Shawn has long enjoyed a fruitful career as a character actor in mainstream movies (Clueless, Princess Bride, Chicken Little). He also happens to be one of the world’s most significant dissident writers. His plays The Designated Mourner, Aunt Dan and Lemon and The Fever – to name just a few – have garnered much praise (and controversy) for their unflinching examinations of brutality. Shawn’s plays are political but not polemical; through his writing he......

May 7 - 8: James Beard Foundation Awards Next week, the James Beard Foundation will present its annual awards -- Sunday for journalism and Monday for excellence in the culinary industry. It'll be tough to get in, but we'll share the winners with you next week. More information on their website. May 9: Tabla at ICE Tabla's executive chef Floyd Cardoz will lead a cooking demonstration and tasting of favorite homestyle Indian and Indian-inflected New......

Octopus has been popping up as a appetizer on menus at all kinds of restaurants, from Italian to New American. But if you want to taste it at its best, go to the Greeks, specifically Periyali, Chelsea's refined Greek restaurant. Here the octopus, marinated in red wine and grilled over charcoal, is meaty yet tender. The flesh is firmer and gutsier than that of any fish. The plate is adorned with nothing but a......

January 12: Restaurants from the Inside Out Hear about what makes a restaurant a hit or a flop from three experts who know, some from personal experience, like Rocco DiSpirito. He joins author Calvin Trillin and egullet.com founder Steven Shaw at this panel, moderated by WNYC's Leonard Lopate. For more information call 212-415-5500. $25 tickets available online. 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave at 92nd St., 8pm. January 12: Whym Opens The folks behind Eatery......

Gothamist can recall a time before Smith Street's hip eateries - a time when Carroll Gardens was home to a myriad of "red gravy" dining establishments, with nary a stylish Thai restaurant in sight. Happily, some of the nabe's old world Italian mainstays remain, but changes are still afoot. Case in point: the corner of Union and Henry Streets, home to the decidedly traditional Nino's Pizzeria and the classic Italian-American Mazzola Bakery. Not long ago,......

It's All American Food: The Best Recipes for More Than 400 New American Classics by David Rosengarten (Little, Brown, 2003) OK, we admit it: Gothamist grew up on Bisquick pancakes. (And we liked 'em.) But childhood tastes (hopefully) change when one grows up, and for us, our taste in pancakes now leans heavily towards homemade in general, buttermilk in particular. And while you'll find buttermilk pancakes on many a New York restaurant brunch menu, they're......

Laurence Kardish, MoMA, Dept. of Film & Media...

An American Place, by Larry Forgione (Morrow, 1996) Larry Forgione, who, as the chef at The River Cafe, coined the phrase "free-range chickens", is often hailed as the godfather of New American cuisine. In An American Place, Forgione provides recipes for American comfort foods like Cod Cakes with Tartar Sauce and Chocolate Walnut Fudge Cake, as well as exciting experiments with fresh ingredients, like Grilled Mahi-Mahi with Pineapple Barbecue Sauce and Seared Trout with Pumpkin......