Whole Foods announced today that it will stop selling seafood that isn't designated "sustainable" by the Blue Ocean Institute, an advocacy group, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. The popular chain says it will drop unsustainable seafood for good on Earth Day, April 22nd, which the company says is a year earlier than its target goal. Starting next month, octopus, gray sole, skate, Atlantic halibut and Atlantic cod caught by trawls will no longer be sold at Whole Foods. Instead, the AP reports that Whole Foods will stock sustainable replacements like cod caught on lines and halibut from the Pacific. more ›

Fork in the Road's Robert Sietsema is excited to report that whelks—aka sea snails—are for sale at the Abingdon Square Greenmarket from P.E. and D.D. Seafood today. more ›

Welcome back to another installment of Ethnic Eating Adventures, in which we travel far and wide to discover the hidden culinary delights of New York City. Today, we're heading to Brighton Beach for some over-the-top Russian seafood at Gambrinus. more ›

A man who has been in state prison twice for at least three counts of robbery really wants to work at Red Lobster. So much so that he's suing the seafood chain to hire him, alleging that the manager at the Times Square branch rejected his application because of his criminal history which is discrimination. And the Post's experts "say he has a case." more ›

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to wreak havoc upon wildlife, but news comes today that NYers won't have to worry about one comfort creature disappearing from their menus: shrimp. Despite concerns that the oil spill may hurt America's shrimp industry, it turns out that the vast majority of shrimp in NYC is imported from overseas. more ›

Last month the Brooklyn Heights Key Food got some bad press after the supermarket sold some D’Artagnan chicken that was old and spoiled—the customer who bought it on May 12th said, "The ‘sell by’ date on the label said May 16... But the dopes left the original ‘sell by’ sticker underneath it: May 5. Eleven days earlier." Now the very same Key Food is back in the spotlight over bad labeling once again. And this time it's personal seafood. more ›

Last week, after Rep. Edward J. Markey’s (D-Mass.) request, BP finally agreed to provide live footage of the oil spill operations in the Gulf of Mexico. (Here's the Spill Cam.) But that view just shows one leak out of many, and Markey is now demanding that BP make public all 12 possible video feeds, showing the full range of oil leaks and activities. Congressman: give them an inch, they take a mile. Below, for the first time, Markey has shared what BP engineers are looking at on your average, catastrophic day: more ›

After freaking out street vendors and the bloggers who love them yesterday, the Health Department has emailed us to say it was all a big misunderstanding. A provision in the Health Department's new code [pdf] raised eyebrows by declaring that "no fish, shellfish, or any food consisting of or made with an aquatic animal...shall be prepared, stored, held for service or sold from a mobile food vending unit." That's what it says, but it's not what they meant! more ›

On January 1st a little-noticed Health Department rule will take effect, prohibiting street vendors from selling any seafood products. This is going to put a dent in the business of such vendors as the Schnitzel Truck, the Endless Summer Mexican truck, and the NYC Cravings Truck, to name a few. The Health Department's new code [pdf] declares that "no fish, shellfish, or any food consisting of or made with an aquatic animal...shall be prepared, stored, held for service or sold from a mobile food vending unit." Blogger Midtown Lunch, which spotted the change today, is not taking this well: more ›

After less than nine months in business, the ambitiously-designed sustainable seafood restaurant Harbour has gone down to Davy Jones. The publicist writes, "Yes, Harbour has closed. After much success but struggles due to their location, they have decided to close their doors." The location he's referring to is the forbidding far west end of Houston Street, which many critics predicted would ultimately scuttle Harbour, despite its sometimes excellent seafood and amusing nautical design. The place reportedly cost $3 million to open! more ›

This week Sam Sifton at the Times re-reviews the new location of Oceana for the paper; it previously received an impressive three stars from Frank Bruni, but the seafood restaurant recently moved from a cozy townhouse space to a big new home on the ground floor of the McGraw Hill building, in the theater district. New York's Adam Platt deems the reboot "a cavernous expense-account joint," and Sifton also downgrades the new Oceana to two stars. more ›

The city's recurring "restaurant weeks" are all about getting your money's worth by visiting an establishment that would ordinarily be beyond your reach; there's no sense paying $25 for a prix-fixe at a place that ordinarily charges about that about much or less, which is why the Water's Edge is an ideal choice for Queens Restaurant Week. Situated literally on the edge of the East River in Long Island City, next to Deitch Studios, the three decade-old restaurant could easily be misidentified as a private catering hall—which it is. But it is also an Asian-inflected seafood restaurant with three star ambition, and it re-opened a few weeks ago after an extensive face-lift. more ›

Motorino: This top-notch thin-crust pizzeria was an instant hit in East Williamsburg, but will it compete in downtown Manhattan, which is now flooded with "artisan" pizza options? Anyone who's eaten at the original knows the answer's hell yes, and chef Mathieu Palombino is confident his authentic Neapolitan pizza will make its mark. He has the added advantage of inheriting a space already known for pizza excellence; it was previously the home of Una Pizza Napoletana, which left behind its Acunto wood-burning oven, handcrafted in Naples. Palombino's filled the 36-seat space with marble-topped tables and kept the vibe comfortably casual, with shiny subway tiling and wooden bistro chairs. Motorino's Manhattan menu is slightly smaller than the original, and includes seven classic pies, plus a variety of seasonal pizzas. 349 East 12th Street; (212) 777-2644 more ›

The Village Voice's Robert Sietsema discovers South Indian restaurant Southern Spice in Flushing, and files a rave review that begins, "Sometimes a restaurant makes such an impression that it changes your way of thinking about an entire cuisine...Dish after dish was astonishing in the power and immediacy of its flavors." His colleague Sarah DiGregorio checks out two East Village cured-meat "specialists," Cure and Ballaro. The former "looks like a boudoir—a boudoir stocked with meat and cheese...Stick with the meat for best results. Even the most successful salad is made mostly of meat—a mess of a half-dozen kinds of chopped charcuterie, rendered even less healthy by the addition of sliced fresh mozzarella, all on top of a portion of mixed greens. The quiches, unfortunately, are heated to sogginess in a microwave." And over at Ballaro, "the proprietors are more serious about their food." more ›

The word "marea"— which happens to be the name of the new restaurant just opened by business partners Chris Cannon and chef Michael White, in the fabled, former San Domenico space—means tide. But White and Cannon’s spot has become the object of such intense speculation in the months leading up to its opening to the point that Crucible might have been a more fitting name. How come? Because of its prime Central Park South location, for starters: the restaurant’s rent is somewhere in the $750,000 per year ballpark. On top of that there was the massive renovation undertaken by Cannon and White. "How do you define 'brazen' in the dining world?" the Wall Street Journal asked earlier this month. “By opening an opulent, multimillion-dollar Italian eatery on Central Park South as many other restaurants struggle to fill seats.” more ›

This week Frank Bruni at the Times bestows one star upon David Burke's Fishtail on the Upper East Side. He finds it both "exasperating" and "amusing...While several lines of type on the restaurant’s elaborately segmented, deeply fatiguing menu trumpet its commitment to sustainable seafood, there’s at least as high a premium on silliness, and exuberance is everything. With Mr. Burke, the trailblazing inventor of the cheesecake lollipop, that’s often the case... He’s as much showman as chef, though he’s a particular kind of showman, happy to act the clown, eager to play the prankster. You get the sense that if, at some pivotal juncture in his past, he had been handed a microphone instead of a spatula, he’d be doing stand-up now." more ›

This week Frank Bruni at the Times bestows two stars on chef April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman (The Spotted Pig) for their new high-end seafood pub The John Dory (pictured), in the Meatpacking District: "In what is clearly a labor of not just love but also vivid (sometimes too vivid) imagination and real guts, [they] have fashioned a place that doesn’t look like any other and that doesn’t taste like any other, either...But experienced in aggregate, too many dishes are too blunt. The overall flavor spectrum is too narrow, a wallow in buttery, creamy and salty effects. I sometimes left feeling overwhelmed — maybe I should say capsized — in a way I seldom do." Still, Bloomfield's menu is full of "nervy surprises." more ›

Fans of SpongeBob SquarePants and anyone who attended Phish shows circa 1993 are in for some serious flashbacks upon entering The John Dory, the new seafood-centric restaurant that's wildly decorated with an aquatic theme and murkily lit in submarine hues of dark turquoise and sea green. An illuminated fish-in-water inlay in the floor runs the entire length of the space, echoing a similar inlay in the bar, where a massive fish tank bubbles. more ›

Prespa: This new bi-level restaurant and lounge is named after two freshwater lakes in southeast Europe shared by Greece, Albania, and the Republic of Macedonia. It's a redesign of what was formerly Prespa Mediterranean Brasserie, and Strong Buzz says Murray Hill gourmands are fervently hoping it'll become a local dining oasis in their mediocre neighborhood. The menu from Executive Chef Richard Farnabe (Jean-Georges, Montrachet) emphasizes Mediterranean tapas, but there are also full size entrees such as Braised Short Ribs with pine nuts, apricot and carrot fritters ($12/$27); Paupiette of John Dory with foie gras, chanterelle and yellow wine sauce ($17); and Broiled Black Cod with jicama and avocado salad ($11/$28). (Officially opening Monday for lunch and dinner.) 184 Lexington Avenue, between 31st and 32nd Street; (212) 810-4335 more ›

This week the Times’s Frank Bruni reminds everyone about Oceana (pictured), that fancy three star “seafood restaurant in Midtown that looks like an ocean liner.” After more than fifteen years in business, he says it’s still “very much worth boarding.” And save room for dessert, which is “splendid.” The frozen banana mousse, “presented with both sticky rice and puffed, caramelized rice, [is] the transmogrification of a bowl of Rice Krispies with bananas into dessert, and it’s killer.” more ›