When Mr. Skewer & Co. Brazilian Grill began building out its space a month ago, anticipation ran high among meatheads. Could it be true? Amid visions of short ribs and other meaty treats, some wondered, “Would there really be a rodizio opening on W. 14 St.?” As a recent visit to the new spot revealed, Mr. Skewer has about as much in common with a Brazilian churrascaria as its neighbor Quizno’s does. For one thing,......

A State Supreme Court judge has issued a “preliminary injunction” prohibiting the city from turning the 78-year-old Pavilion in Union Square park into a restaurant. Last week the court ruled that the $21 million overhaul to the north end of the park could proceed while a lawsuit brought by community groups moves forward, but temporary stalled work on the Pavilion. Opponents object to what they see as the privatization of park space and insist the......

UPDATE: NY1's first report yesterday on the Union Square Pavilion lawsuit has been corrected. It turns out that, contrary to the initial news, the injunction stopping work on the park’s 78-year-old Pavilion is still in effect. While parts of the planned renovation to the north end of the park can now proceed, including construction of the expanded playground, the judge has also temporarily stopped the city from cutting down any trees while a lawsuit brought......

A state judge has issued a temporary restraining order to stop the city’s $21 million overhaul of the north end of Union Square Park, which would install a new restaurant in the historic Pavilion, redesign two playgrounds and repave asphalt where the Greenmarket had been operating. A coalition of community groups and parks advocates who brought the lawsuit say the city needs to get approval from the state legislature before privatizing part of the park,......

Today the Times’s chief food critic Frank Bruni revisits WD-50 (pictured) and elevates the Lower East Side avant-garde restaurant to three stars (a 2003 Times review by another critic had awarded it two). Chef Wylie Dufresne has made WD-50 a destination with his experimental, transgressive menu, and Bruni concedes that in the past “too many of his creations were gratuitously perverse… many visitors understandably feel that what they’ve experienced isn’t so much a meal as......

The holy Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, adored for its succulent burgers, righteous shakes and hellish lines, will soon expand into multiple locations. Owner Danny Meyer has signed a lease for a branch at 366 Columbus Avenue (at 77th Street), the former home of New Orleans import Jacques-Imo's. The new location will be entirely indoors, enabling delicate Upper Wide Siders to do their time on line out of the elements. And two Shake Shack......

Pinch & S’MAC: Dejected fans of Pinch, the defunct Park Avenue South “pizza by the inch” joint, will not only be reunited with their favorite Pinch pizza, but they can even slather it with the incredible mac-n-cheese from East Village favorite S’MAC. The new cheese and carb cartel will bring the best of both menus together on the Upper West Side, forming a single, unified, belt-busting celebration of starch. If you’ve never tried S’MAC, you’re......

No one knows for sure what’s to become of the future Union Square pavilion, but a strong contender for the space – formerly occupied by the shabby Luna Park – is a new restaurant helmed by Danny Meyer, who opened the Union Square Café in ’85 and whose Shake Shack in Madison Square Park is an object of obsession. Construction begins on a new pavilion this winter, but some insiders are betting Meyer wins the......

Shake Shack – that object of obsession for so many burger lovers within a 10-mile radius of Madison Square Park – reopens today for their first winter season. Gothamist commenter MaiaW articulated the passion and excitement best when we first reported the year-round Shaction last month: “OMG, OMG. Now I have absolutely NO excuse not to eat there once a week (calories shmalories). Woo hooooo!!” With typically disheartening lines stretching almost out of the......

Nine months. That's about how long pregnancies take and that's about how long it took for various agencies to coordinate bringing Manhattan its first new public bathroom. Community Board 5 approved a new, sleek glass-and-silver bathroom from Cemusa to be placed in Madison Square Park back in March and Promediacorp witnessed it being installed this morning. Of course, back in March, the NY Times reported it would be up and running by the summer,......

There are people in this city who literally go into mourning each year when the Shake Shack closes for the winter. Seriously. But this year, things are different. The Shack is staying open through the winter, and has added some heat lamps to the seating area to keep you warm and cozy. And as an added bonus, starting today they'll be accepting phone orders for pick up only (at a separate pick-up window) through March......

It's time for the Shake Shack's annual Shacktoberfest celebration, which starts Friday and runs through October 14th. If you can stand the lines, you can enjoy "special Shacktoberfest offerings" as well as the regular menu:A selection of Usinger's brats and sausages – Andouille with red pepper relish, Stuttgarter Knackwurst with cranberry horseradish relish and Italian sausage with pumpkin mostarda. A rotating list of Concretes in flavors such as Black Forest, German Chocolate, Apple Strudel and......

We almost did a little jig on the street when we walked by Grey Dog's new location on University last night and saw the sign that said it would be opening on 7/19 at 7 a.m. Guess where we're having coffee before work on Thursday? Eater informants snapped a photo. Indian mangoes are no longer considered contraband in the U.S., much to the joy of everyone who has been craving them for the past twenty......

The Coupon Clipper scours the specials for the best deals in New York's big grocery stores. Memorial Day usually conjures up some kind of natural reactions. Beyond the real reason-for-the-season aspect of the holiday, what usually comes next is food. Though hot dogs, chicken wings, and many other things could and should be used, what hits the paper plates more often than not are hamburgers. Which is all well and good, except that Memorial Day......

This week Bruni visits Katz's Delicatessen, awards the LES institution one star. Calls its pastrami sandwich "one of the best in the land" and Katz’s itself "the king of New York delis." He doesn't like the potato knish, the latkes or the desserts, but overall loves the institution—don’t we all? —that is Katz’s. Also in the Times, Peter Meehan goes to Lucky Eight in Brooklyn's Chinatown for $25 and Under. He recommends the dinner menu......

In a city that has everything, there are always a few things that we can use more of. For starters, maybe one or two more cheese shops, an extra beer garden wouldn’t hurt and who wouldn’t like another Trader Joe’s? Just saying. The same rule applies to wine bars. Sure we have a bunch, but after a while, the circuit gets old. Luckily, we have a new stop to add to our list. Wined......

We got ourselves a note in the inbox from the folks who run the Big Apple BBQ to let us know that Bubba FastPasses are currently on sale from now till May 25 for the June 9 & 10 event. Gothamist was all over this event last year; look for more great coverage and photos coming up soon. This year should provide a bit of a pre-show glimpse of what local pitmaster Robbie Richter has......

Ken Friedman, owner of the Spotted Pig, has been approved for a liquor license in a space between Craftsteak and Del Posto over on 10th Avenue, reports the NY Post. Not sure what it will be yet, but apparently it will be named after a different animal. Down by the Hipster reports that Danny Meyers' plan for a second Shake Shack in Central Park is a no go: "The sticking point was the lease term,......

- Passover is here, so naturally it is time for matzo brei, there was even a brei off at Makor over the weekend. While we are at it, here is a take on matzo ball soup for the excellent Cooking for Engineers. - Speaking of the Passover holiday, apparently the recipe for Coke switches in order to conform to kosher rules, here is a look at what it means to you and how to find......

Some love it to the point of being freakishly cultish. Others don't see what the big deal is. But everyone can agree on one thing: you can do plenty of productive things with the time you spend waiting on line to get a burger at Shake Shack. We checked in hamburger expert Adam Kuban of A Hamburger Today, who wrote last week, "Ai yah. It hasn't even opened yet, I'm already getting sick of......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: large protest at a school in Brooklyn, person in water in the Bronx, and two funerals for the slain Auxiliary Police Officers-- one in Brooklyn, and one in the Manhattan. Good news for St. Brigid's-- demolition stayed for now. Are Park Slope parents angry about school overcrowding, or scared of an Arabic-language middle school? Shake Shack opens on Wednesday-- let this year's backlash begin! Bronx Boulevard of Death: six......

March 19 - March 30: Dine in Brooklyn Sample nearly 200 of the borough’s best at $21.12, honoring Brooklyn’s zip code, ‘112’, for three courses. Read more about it here. March 20: Waldemar and Nadia at Vin Noir Cheesemongers Waldemar and Nadia are pairing up with Vin Noir owner Todd Flatham for a night of cheese and wine pairings, with a beer thrown in for good measure. Offerings include a unique Austrian red, La Meule,......

There’s no home in the Hamptons for poor, old Gothamist. No bungalow on Fire Island, not even a shack on the Jersey Shore. No, Gothamist prefers (and by “prefers” we mean “has no other option than”) to summer in Coney, in Brighton or Rockaway or waiting on line at Shake Shack. And though we spend the balance of most summers huddled around our puttering air conditioner, we’re feeling a touch nostalgic for those balmy......

While others are writing year end lists about their favorite restaurant openings (yeah, we know, A Voce, Little Owl, Boqueria), we thought we'd do something a bit different and highlight some of your favorite posts of the year. These are the food posts that either got you so riled up that you felt the need to put in your two cents in the comments or that, for whatever reason, you wanted to recommend to others.......

Ooh, it was cold this morning. Ooh, it is still cold now. How cold was it? It was so cold Gothamist gave up our spot in line at the Shake Shack. Oh, we know the Shack is closed for the winter. We're staking out our spot for when they open next spring. It was so cold that 1010 WINS is running a story called "Wind Chill Causes New Jerseyans to Bundle Up". When it......

Last night we took our final trip to Shake Shack for the season and as luck would have it, they actually ran out of burgers for the night. The manager told us that it was the first time that it's ever happened to them since they've been open. Why the burger shortage? Thursday's nice weather combined with a bad forecast today. They did have plenty of everything else though and since we already waited......

With the unseasonably mild weather we've been having, it's a great week to check out the sculptures nestled in Madison Square Park's outdoor gallery before they are taken down after the holidays. The four large scultpures, created by internationally renown Ursula von Rydingsvard, are abstract works primarily expanding upon her established vessel theme. Or, in less erudite terms, the odd-shaped wood and plastic-looking forms make for a really good excuse to take an extended......

Lots of news out of the Shake Shack today. First, the "Z" in the "Frozen" sign collapsed, nearly killing a man, and then they announced that the Shack will be closing its doors for winter on December 1. These pictures from the Ron Mueck show at the Brooklyn Museum are freaky! Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a Hazmat condition with victims on Warren Street in Brooklyn, an aircraft emergency at JFK, and a fire......

The NY Sun looks at the strange but-more-common-than-you'd-think phenomenon of New Yorkers waiting for things. Well, in addition to Magnolia cupcakes and Shake Shack (yeah, you knew it) burgers and shakes, the Sun listed some waits:HALAL GYRO AND CHICKEN Sixth Avenue at 53rd Street Waiting for: A hefty platter of meat, rice, salad and secret sauce combination. Peak time: 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., and midnight to 3 a.m., Fridays and Saturdays Average wait time:......

- Head to the Shake Shack now through October 15th for Shacktoberfest, featuring special wursts, beers, and concretes. [via Megnut] - Michael Ruhlman, food writer and author of “The Reach Of A Chef,” pictured, was so inspired after guest-blogging on Megnut that he went and started his own food blog. [via Off the Broiler] - Midtown Lunch shares the secret of the "hidden crepe lady," who serves up sweet and savory crepes in a cybercafe,......