MUSIC: Of course we're going to recommend you come hang out with us tonight at our 5 year anniversary show. Come on by and check out Pattern is Movement and The Forms, along with a special guest band at midnight. On top of all that, you'll get Craig Wedren deejaying between sets. What more could you ask for? Buy tickets here. Friday // 9pm // Union Hall [702 Union St, Park Slope] // $10......

Arthur Emil, the man behind the late Windows on the World and The Rainbow Room, has won the coveted contract to operate the famous Oak Room and Oak Bar (pictured) in the Plaza Hotel, which is near the end of a three-year, $400 million makeover. The 18 story landmark building opened in 1907 and operated as a hotel until 2005, after being sold for $675 million. After delays blamed on “red tape”, the Plaza......

The Plaza, you know that place where the kids in Gossip Girl hang out, is turning 100 years old today. The date is marked by the first guest to ever check in to the famed establishment. Who was it? The fancy-named Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, and of course a PR-driven hotel manager was behind that. The NY Times reports that "His arrival was orchestrated by the Plaza’s first manager, who wanted the new hotel to open......

The New York Times has a tragic tale of a storied property that was meant to be a source of familial togetherness, but has instead rended the fabric of the Handler family to ribbons. The Point, as the estate on the Long Island Sound is known, is believed by many to be the inspiration for the home of F. Scott Fitzgerald's character Jay Gatsby. The 21-acre estate's mansion is only one of nine buildings on......

The Coupon Clipper scours the specials for the best deals in New York's big grocery stores. Two weeks ago, searching for limes among the piles of produce in Fairway seemed like cruel game. Because they were out of the “regular” ones, we had to wade through the organic bins, tossing over strange foliage to find the citrus at over a dollar a piece. So imagine our shock when we walked in this week and faced......

The Department of Buildings says that 86 Bedford Street, aka the building that houses the pub and former speakeasy during the Prohibition era, is secure as contractors have "contractors shored up the building". A construction crew was doing interior work at Chumley's - without a permit - and a chimney collapsed, imperiling the wall and causing residents in the building and nearby to be evacuated. The broker representing the building owners tells the NY......

If you picked up a hard copy of the NY Times this morning, you would have noticed an insert: An excerpt of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It's all apart of the NY Times's Great Summer Read, which is serializing four books starting today. Times readers will get excerpts from the book each day until Sunday, and other books coming up include Breakfast at Tiffany's, Like Water For Chocolate, and The Color of......

Kurt Wenzel, Novelist...