Go! Go! Curry: This Japanese fast food hot spot had lines down the block when they opened in the Garment District last spring; now they’re building on the buzz and branching out in the East Village. We’ve become addicted to their belt-busting Grand Slam (pictured), “a monster platter that comes with fried chicken, pork sausages and a hard-boiled egg, among other things. The thick, sweet sauce has a tiny kick of heat and is served......

The Real Deal (via Brownstoner) is reporting that, according to a recent court ruling, the city is taking two Williamsburg properties via eminent domain for Bushwick Inlet Park. The properties are located along the East River between North 9th and 10th streets. According to one real estate expert, the city will only pay about $100 per square foot, compared to the $200 per square foot it could garner on the open market, even though the......

Last week, the Senate passed the Transportation Appropriations Bill that includes some big bucks for NYC mass transit projects. There's $125 million for the Second Avenue Subway, plus another $200 million for the East Side Access Project (LIRR connection to Grand Central). Senator Chuck Schumer said, "The Second Ave. subway line will provide desperately needed relief to the severely stressed Lexington line," while Senator Hillary Clinton said, "Now that the ground has been broken......

Grab a few friends and head over to Momofuku Ssäm Bar for the Bo Ssäm ($180) a huge hunk of pork butt, cooked to falling-off-the-bone perfection, and served with a dozen oysters, kimchi, rice, a variety of sauces (including an addictive ginger-based sauce), and bibb lettuce for wrapping. You'll have to call in advance for reservations, and depending on the size of your group, you'll have room for other dishes as well. Our group......

It's been 33 years since the last Second Avenue Subway groundbreaking, so it's high time for new generations of straphangers to revel in the hope of a new subway line. We also expect the public -- especially the Upper East Side-residing public -- to become jaded with construction delays, traffic issues, and noise. Here's the press release from the MTA:Tomorrow morning's historic groundbreaking ceremony for the Second Avenue Subway can be seen by all......

Oooh - according to the NY Times, the MTA has been investigating the possibility of installing floor-to-ceiling glass walls and sliding doors at the Second Avenue subway. Apparently, having walls and doors might "allow substantial energy savings" and "reduce temperatures by about 10 degrees." Whoa, imagine that - no more super hot platforms on those summer days? The interesting back story is that former NYC Transit President Lawrence Reuter rejected the idea when it......

Inside Edition, better known for covering tabloid stories and entertainment, has found something that mixes the best of both worlds: Looking for rats in NYC restaurants. Perhaps the most famous restaurant goers these days are city rats, and Inside Edition was on them like paparazzi on Britney Spears:INSIDE EDITION took to the streets of Manhattan between 1:00 AM and 4:00 AM peering their cameras and flashlights into the windows of a wide variety of......

EVENT: An evening with David LaChapelle is sure to be a fabulous one. He'll be signing his new coffee table art book, Heaven to Hell, tonight. Wear your Sunday best. 6 to 8pm // Taschen [107 Greene St] // Free THEATER: Coinciding with Black History Month, The Dance – which is not a dance piece – delves into the history of American minstrelsy from the perspective of two African-American performers in blackface makeup. Performed as......

THEATER: It’s “go time” for The Butane’s Group’s Operation Ajax, which ingenuously sets the CIA’s 1953 overthrow of Iran’s first democratically-elected government in the context of a casino. “Constructed from no less than 25 text sources (memoirs, documentaries, plays, poetry, novels, films, reality tv shows), the densely-layered performance explores how the addiction to risk and gambling has become a potent metaphor for U.S. foreign policy.” (For an enhanced theater experience, explore the show’s thorough bibliography,......

A condo on the Upper East Side has slapped a $500,000 lawsuit against the owner of a Subway franchise. The condo board of The Waterford, located at 300 93rd St, complained that the Subway, which opened two weeks ago around corner at 1776 Second Ave., caused the building to be "inundated with strong and nauseating food odors," and affected the value of their property. Welcome to New York! The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court,......

+ The old Cabrini Stuyvesant Polyclinic on Second Ave., an 1883 landmark building, could be "dormed" if Landmarks approves. (Props to Villager reporter Bonnie Rosenstock for writing "the East Village is turning into the Village of the Dormed" and inspiring us with some Halloween ideas.) + Portraits of Meatpacking District kingpins will line the new Theory store on Gansevoort. Andre Balazs fatigue, anyone? + Time’s redesign will feature changes in “fonts, grids and templates.” Now......

THEATER: The Pearl Theatre Company, known for their deft handling of classic plays, has revived Molière's satire School for Wives. The play deliciously skewers the aristocrat Arnolphe, who so fears he’ll marry an unfaithful woman that he locks a little girl in a convent for 13 years, keeping her utterly isolated until she comes of age. The hi-jinks begin when he’s finally ready to fulfill his master marriage plan and finds himself outmaneuvered by a......

- New York magazine's Adam Platt pans Craftsteak, says it's essentially a one-star steakhouse, but that the quality of the Craft franchise knocks it up to two. Faint praise. Calls the desserts "reruns" of pastry chef Karen DeMascos' creations at Craft. - Also in NY Mag, did Cipriani pull out of the $300 million project slated for Pier 57--in which the city was to be a partner--because of questions about past business practices? Specifically, an......

EVENT: NYC Photobloggers will take over the Apple Store again tonight, for the 7th of their events there. The A-list...um, list, of past photographers is a long one. Six more will join the ranks tonight, as they are the centerpieces for this event. They are: Jay Parkinson of darkshapesprowl.com Kevin Walsh of forgotten-ny.com Kara Canal & Amit Gupta of photojojo.com Ed Leveckis of leveckis.net Matt Weber of urbanphotos.com Justin Ouellette of chromogenic.net Gothamist is sponsoring......

The 2006 Bicycle Film Festival is here, kicking off in New York today, and then traveling to nine additional cities across the globe. The BFF began in 2000, started by Brendt Barbur after he was struck by a bus and decided something positive needed to come from this experience. Brendt is also one of the founders of Critical Mass. The BFF brings people together to celebrate two-wheeled transportation, and we love festivals that provide valet......

In a heroic double play, a nanny and her choking charge were both saved by one of NYC's finest, Officer, and ex-Marine, Edgar Louisjuste, yesterday morning. After the child began choking on an orange, his nanny grabbed him and ran for the hospital. She was hit by a truck on Second Ave. Though she was badly injured, again, "hit by a TRUCK", she managed to hold on to the choking child. Louisjuste, who happened to......

The holidays are fast approaching and if you're a book lover in the city, you're more likely to be at a store buying a book as a gift than attending a reading this week, but nonetheless, there are some stellar choices for auditory literary entertainment, we humbly digest them for you: Tomorrow night, at the always awesome Used Book Cafe, Julian Rubenstein and Tom Reiss read from their books, Ballad of the Whisky Robbers and......

It's our favorite weekend of the year, Halloween weekend! Ghosts are always roaming our streets and sitting on our ancient pub stools in this city, and this is the best weekend to go out and see them face to invisible face in some good 'ol fashioned walking tours. Yeah, we ain't afraid of no ghosts! Seventh Annual Midnight Madness with Dr. Phil (not the Dr. Phil of you're thinking of). Greet Halloween at Midnight! See......

September 25-29: Latin Beer Tasting Dos Equis, Sol, Corona and Negra Modelo, are paired up with tasty (and Kosher!) Latin dishes in a prix-fixe menu from September 25-29; cost is $49 per person. For details, visit their website. Park East Grill, 1562 Second Ave., 212-717-8400. September 27: Eat Out '05 Time Out New York continues to celebrate its tenth birthday with Eat Out ’05, a tasting event benefitting the Food Bank For New York City.......

Tonight TV: VH1 Classic presents Matzo and Metal: A Very Classic Passover, starring Jewish hard rock artists Dee Snider and JJ French of Twisted Sister, Scott Ian of Anthrax and Leslie West, who will lead you through a traditional metal seder as well as kvetch about their music industry experiences. And the special’s sponsor? Only the most rock n roll of alcoholic beverages – Maneschewitz. 7pm, VH1 Classic. Film: Comedian David Cross curates a film......

Tonight, as a part of their continuing series on film and media, the Reel Roundtable presents a screening of After Life (2000) directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda and then a symposium with film blogger, Greg Allen of greg.org. After Life is one of those genuinely lovely movies, where both your heart is warmed and your brain exercised from seeing it. Set in a purgatory-like place, the newly deceased are given the opportunity to choose one memory......

After a brief scare, it looks like B&H Dairy is back in business. CityRag's recent picture of the B&H lockdown was enough to send us into a fit of mourning. Rumor has it that there had been some trouble with the landlord, but that they are once again open to the public. Whew -- that was a close one. B&H Dairy, 127 Second Ave, between 7th & 8th, East Village, (212) 505-8065.......

Representative Vito Fossella (left), a Republican from Staten Island, said that he'll "derail" plans for the Second Avenue Subway unless Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D, below right) helps push through plans to build a new South Ferry subway station, a plan Silver opposes since it would affect a temporary September 11 memorial and disrupt parts of Battery Park. Fossella says, "I will withdraw my objection to funding the Second Ave. subway line only when those......

The Straphangers and Tri-State Transportation Campaign have been collecting collected suggestions for how to celebrate the subway system's 100th anniversary next October. The Daily News has the top ten suggestions: - Have a special edition Subway M&M's. The A train would be honored, for example, with blue candies with the letter A on their shells. - Publish a coffee table book of subway maps and how they have changed since 1904. - Issue a commemorative......