Would you believe that another cocktail bar has opened in Alphabet City? True story! At the recently opened The Wayland fancy cocktails share the room with live music (on a small stage) and basic classy bar bites like oysters, roasted bone marrow and steak tartare. Also something called "Braised Beast on Toast." more ›

In the interest of research in the days leading up to the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, we've been reading up on competitive eating events across the city. That's how we came across an interesting little piece about high-stakes eating contests amongst type-A finance guys. It's hard to say how much of this "trend" is real and how much is media-manufactured, but the nauseating competitions these twisted minds come up with are worth a read, imaginary or not: more ›

With the NJDEP's ruling that water-purifying oysters are at too much of a risk from poachers, environmental group NY/NJ Baykeeper was forced to pull up the oysters it had cultivated along Raritan Bay. Scientists say the oysters could restore the waters to health, but the FDA is worried the oysters, which absorb toxins in the water, could find their way into the edible seafood supply. Christine M. Lynn of NY/NJ Baykeeper told us, "Everyone we work with in New York is as surprised and confused by the NJDEP decision as we are." more ›

Even though anything growing in the Hudson immediately set off gag reflexes, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection doesn't trust Jersey citizens with their better judgment. Saying they can't adequately protect against poachers, the DEP has ordered a halt on oyster bed restoration projects in waters classified as polluted, even though the beds were built in the polluted water to help clean it up. The oysters are not meant for consumption, but the DEP fears people may get sick if poachers attempt to sell the oysters commercially, and that their sale could damage the legal oyster harvesting industry. The ruling just affects Jersey waters, so these kids are safe...for now. more ›

Manhattan's shores were once the largest source of oysters worldwide, but overharvesting and development long ago depleted that population—and most likely contributed to the current state of the local rivers. Now, NY/NJ Baykeeper is trying to bring oysters back to keep the water clean. Each bivalve can filter algae, plankton and pollution out of 50 gallons of water a day, and volunteer "farmers" have been setting up oyster beds everywhere from the Long Island Sound to the Gowanus Canal. Perhaps they could send a batch to the Gulf? more ›

When Daniel Boulud and Jim Leiken started putting the new restaurant DBGB together, they decided one hamburger would be topped with pulled pork. Rather than to start recipe testing, the chefs decided to use Daisy May's pork and serve the whole thing on a cornbread-cheddar bun. It's like the restaurant world's version of a co-operative: Chefs and restaurants are outsourcing a lot of ingredients from other restaurants these days. Take Kyle Bailey's Lower East Sliders on the bar menu at Allen & Delancey, for example: the pickle is Guss's, the salami is Katz's, and the Grafton Cheddar is from nearby Saxelby Cheesemongers. more ›

Robert LaValva, a former city planner-turned-founder of New Amsterdam Market, has been working four years to establish a food destination that will reconnect modern, regional agriculture to the civic tradition of the city’s bygone markets. One of the group’s underlying ideas is that an integrated market can be fundamentally different than a greenmarket; that is, a market fosters closer connections between farmers and bakers, or butchers and cheesemongers, for example, and drives down prices, creating a public space and a revitalized food community in the process. more ›

Solar One, the non-profit Community Environmental Center here in New York, is raising some funds for the new year. Their latest $100 donation plan is dubbed Environmental Health on a Half Shell. It's simple...if you donate 100 bucks, they'll plant 100 oysters in the East River for you. They explain: "The lowly oyster provides a natural filtering system - they eat algae, and well, raw sewage. They purify our waters. When the Dutch arrived, the lower Hudson River Estuary contained 350 square miles of oyster beds. These many millions of bi-valve beauties cleaned the lower Estuary in a single day. They contributed mightily to the wealth of New York as well - pickled oysters became important trade with the British West Indies. Oysters were produced in all 5 boroughs...sold on every corner. Sadly, sewage and pollution exhausted the last beds in 1927." Last year they planted 3,000 oysters, and this year they have a goal of 10,000 (you can help). Just imagine a swimmable East River! And quick, someone dump some oysters in the Gowanus. more ›

In his new book, Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honeybee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis, author Rowan Jacobsen describes the effects of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) on beekeeping throughout the world. While the exact cause of CCD remains unknown, it clearly has the makings of a major agricultural crisis: Pollination is required in the life cycles for most every facet of our food supply. Among the nastier discoveries Jacobsen makes while telling the CCD story is that some industrial honeybees are forced to slurp down their share of high fructose corn syrup. Fall is also a DIY book; its appendices lay out resources for tyro beekeepers, including a breakdown of beneficial, bee-friendly “pollinator plants.” more ›

Montreal-based food writer Taras Grescoe thinks something fishy is up with the global seafood economy. From pollutants to piracy, preservatives to Patagonian toothfish, Grescoe surveys the state of our collective waterways in his new book Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood, which combines some literal seabed muckraking with a fascinating travelogue. Each chapter follows a specific fish down the food chain from net to dinner plate; the book is a sort of aquatic The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Grescoe emerges with a clear breakdown of the issues, and a guide for sourcing seafood with an emphasis on sustainability. more ›

Today the Times’s Keith Dixon, a self-described “clumsy, overambitious cook,” offers tips for cooking dinner in a crowded city apartment made even more cramped by a newborn baby. Dixon has adapted his cooking technique to accommodate a light-sleeping baby who, awakened by a clattering spatula, derails dinner plans as he and his wife “labor to get her back to sleep.” So he’s evolved into a “Silent Chef” with “ninja stealth” and suggests, among other things, avoiding meats that tend to smoke the place up, trading metal utensils for plastic, and using the stove’s exhaust fan as “a makeshift white-noise machine.” more ›

In Mark Kurlansky's 2005 book about New York City and oysters, The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell, the author suggested that given the improved environmental conditions of New York Bay, perhaps the time is ripe to start replanting the oyster fields that used to carpet the underwater surface. The City and environmentalists are now undertaking a project to replant oyster beds in the bay, not for harvesting, but as natural, or soft, anti-pollution filters. more ›