When Liza Queen opened up The Queen's Hideaway in a quiet corner of Greenpoint in 2005, she was one of the first to popularize the seasonal, local, vaguely southern dishes that have all but taken over Brooklyn menus today. She closed up shop in 2008 after a rent dispute with her landlord, and promptly decamped to Vietnam. Now, she's back and ready for action. more ›

While visiting the NYC Transit Sign shop in Brooklyn recently, Off the Rails blog caught a glimpse of the secret names of subway colors. Since the current design for the subway map was adopted in 1979, each shade for each line was given its own moniker; only a "handful of transit workers who oversee the system’s maps and signs" had seen it before. But now the colorful cat's out of the bag! more ›

This boat is reeeeaaaaaal. In a city where privacy is all but extinct, New Yorkers relish being in on a secret, even if hundreds of other people are in on it too. The Bushwick Boat parties offer the same degree of clandestine exclusivity as PDT or Milk and Honey, which is to say not very much. more ›

"Superstar rapper 50 Cent is secretly planning to stage a free concert in a schoolyard near the Queens projects where he grew up," reports the NY Post, as they simultaneously destroy any secretive nature of said concert. The performance will be at P.S. 40 in Jamaica (August 30th, 5:30 p.m.), and will be open to anyone—one NYPD officer warning the paper it would be difficult for them to control the area. A worried local added, "Someone's gonna try to make a name for themselves. They're gonna take a shot at him, and they're either gonna hit him or they're gonna miss him and hit some poor, innocent kid or grandmother." But let's be real, grandmas probably won't be front row and center, right? more ›

KFC, which guards its secret recipe so closely that it's kept in a safe at corporate headquarters, can't be too happy about this: A Long Island man says he's all but figured out the secret to KFC's distinctive taste. Two years ago Ron Douglas quit his job as finance manager at JP Morgan to fully devote himself to his website, which publishes recipes that aim to recreate menu items at chain restaurants like Applebee's and Denny's. But the Colonel's secret is the holy grail of recipes, and Douglas has spent years trying to figure it out, even going so far as to try to bribe a cook at the chain. (The cook declined.) His new cookbook features his sixth attempt at replicating the top-secret recipe, and he tells the Post, "Nobody knows what those 11 herbs and spices are. But if you taste my chicken, you would find the flavor very similar to KFC." But 'very similar' sounds like an understatement (or an attempt to avoid a trademark lawsuit); after a taste test the tabloid deemed his chicken "an exact match" with KFC. Okay, but is it worth rioting over? more ›

Hey, did you guys hear about that super secret underground rock climbing spot in Brooklyn? The NY Times blog The Local wrote about it yesterday, but oops, the first rule of super secret clubs is that you don't talk about them! So today they took the story down, after many other sites already picked it up. They explain, "the author of the piece identified himself to several climbers but not to the people who run the space. We had concluded, based on the author’s initial pitch, that he planned to be upfront with everyone, and we neglected—our bad—to confirm this after the piece was filed." And now what they dubbed the "best kept secret in Brooklyn" is getting even more attention. And who doesn't want to be a part of the "drinking, socializing and crawling across the walls" scene, especially whilst "the scent of pot smoke, fermented beer and body odor mingled in the damp air." It's nice to know this kind of poetry will live on in Google cache. more ›

Five of New York's secret supper clubs joined forces over the weekend for the epic Undergrounds Unite dinner party at a capacious, bi-level loft in the shadow of the Empire State Building. On Saturday night the place was packed with 165 gourmands who had found their way there in the rain by following a series of cryptic instructions—enter a bar on 35th Street, look for the man learning how to cook everything, ask him for a map. more ›

You're probably familiar by now with "culinary speakeasys" like The Whisk and Ladle that are held semi-regularly in private lofts and apartments around town. Well, next weekend that talented crew will be joining forces with four other hip supper clubs (including the Southern-style Homeslice) for a massive, 150-seat communal dinner in an undisclosed midtown loft. Thrillist likened the affair to that supergroup The Traveling Wilburys; to us this sounds more like Voltron, but take your pick. The two night "Undergrounds Unite" shindig will feature a 12-course meal, with each team handling three courses each; Saturday night's feast will be followed by live music and cocktails. This is going to be a monthly affair at different private locations, but if you want to get in on it before it becomes a Times trend piece (oh, too late), email them through the website for a password and reservation. more ›

Milk and Honey, the dimly lit railroad bar on Eldridge Street with the fastidiously-prepared cocktails, "reservation only" policy, and unlisted number, blazed the trail for the city's current wildfire cocktail craze and speakeasy-style bars. In recent years, as owner Sasha Petraske has expanded his footprint with Little Branch, The East Side Company, new absinthe-centric White Star and that Community Board pariah Mercury Dime, Milk and Honey has also only gotten more popular, with the secret phone number posted on message boards and blogs as fast as Petraske can change it. more ›

Yesterday Gawker posted about a little-known LES space that, if you know the secret handshake, will open its doors to you. Once inside you'll find a reception room, a capacious old theater space... even fishtanks. The night Gawker stumbled in they found a band playing, and in booze-induced wonderment, took a short video clip. The clip was included in the post yesterday but now both have disappeared, becoming as mysterious as this secret club itself! more ›