It’s now trendy for tourists visiting Rio de Janeiro to eschew the nice hotels in favor of a full immersion in the city’s sprawling shantytowns, or “favelas”. But for those who can’t make the trip to Brazil, a new restaurant will soon bring a taste of that scene to Williamsburg. Called Favela, the establishment is described as a "Brazilian Botequim", a simple place for the neighborhood to gather for drinks, food and watching soccer.......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a ceiling collapse at Franklin Ave. and Union St. in Brooklyn, a pedestrian was fatally struck on Queens Blvd. in Woodhaven, Queens, and an unusual rescue on the south bound tower of the Throgs Neck Bridge in Queens. An undercover cop forgot to turn off the wire he was wearing while discussing 11 bags of cocaine he seized in a Brooklyn bust that were never turned in. He was......

This year's Zagat NYC guide is out on the streets today. The familiar burgundy book is still a staple to many searching for the top food in the city, although many argue that the voting process leads to inconsistent results. That said, here are the numbers, the highlights, and the rest:This year's edition covers 2069 restaurants and compiles results from over 34,000 surveys. Gordon Ramsay knocks one over the fence with the top newcomer, earning......

For some reason we've had a thing about Antarctic expeditions and libations lately. It all started with an evening of Antarctic cuisine at the Explorer's Club last week sponsored by Redwood Creek Wines. The five-item dinner called Culinary Revivals was held to honor Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-1916). Clockwise from top left the, er, delicacies featured were Tantalizing Turtle Bisque, Argentinean Ostrich, South American Prairie Hare and Pheasant Breast Pâté. In the center......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a professor at Brooklyn Law was killed by a garbage truck this morning in Brooklyn Heights and an "all hands" fire broke out on Ludlow and Delancey Street in Manhattan. A Westchester teen got busted by the SPCA after collecting more than 150 animals, and forcing them to live in squalid conditions. The animals included "bearded dragon lizards, rabbits, guinea pigs, turtles, ferrets, chameleons, South American squirrels, cats, hamsters,......

For the first time since Tegla Laroupe in 1994 and 1995, the New York City Marathon has a repeat winner. Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia repeated her victory last year with a time of 2:25:05. Prokopcuka was so far ahead of 2nd place women's finisher Tatiana Hladyr that she was blowing kisses to the throngs of spectators as she approached the finish line in Central Park. Prokopcuka finished a full minute ahead of Hladyr. Deena......

Jelena Prokopcuka won her second ING NYC Marathon in a row, finishing at 2:25:05, while Marilson Gomes Dos Santos of Brazil won the men's race with a time of 2:09:58. Latvian Prokopcuka broke away from the other elite women's runners from the start of the race in Staten Island, closely following the women's pace-setter, and never gave up the lead. Tatiana Hladyr of the Ukraine finished second and Catherine "Catherine the Great" Ndereba finished......

You know it's the fall movie season because it's all about actors and their performances. In the noir-lite period film, Hollywoodland, Oscar-winner Adrien Brody plays a LA two-bit gumshoe hired to investigate the mysterious death of actor George Reeves. What makes this movie worth a viewing is the strong acting by the whole cast. Ben Affleck as Reeves, a TV actor who always wanted to be more than his Superman persona, gives a performance that......

SFist commeters pose for before and aftershocks when the mayor commemorates a 1906 earthquake...at 4:30 in the morning. A hot tip on the Chronicle vending machines comes in and the SFist war correspondent risks life and limb to post this dispatch from the frontlines. Houstonist announces their new Cops spinoff "World's Funniest Tazer Videos" and the possible cancellation of their pervs' "World's Grossest Bathroom Videos" and PBS trains cams on cows at, uhg, Mootube. Also,......

An interesting lawsuit in our multicultural city: A judge is deciding whether or not some Sephora employees were discriminated against for speaking Spanish on the job. While Federal Court Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald ruled that the cosmetics retailer could restrict its employees to speaking only English while on the job, she will examine whether or not the women "faced retaliation" from management, as one woman was fired. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission tells the Daily......

Andres du Bouchet’s regular gig is that of Boliviguayan Entertainer of the Year Francisco Guglioni, MC of Giant Tuesday Night of Amazing Inventions and Also There is a Game!!! at Rififi. But beneath that vague mask of South American host con el most there is a real person. A man. With stories to tell. In the form of a one-man show. Tonight is the last night to see his show of assorted monologues entitled Naked......

Gothamist has a long list of things that fascinate us and one of the odder things on said list is the peek into the human psyche provided by security checkpoints (specifically the items they turn up). Luckily we're not the only ones. Sometimes it seems a week doesn't go by without a look at things turning up in airports or train stations showing up in one paper or another. But normally those stories focus......

When the British authorities released photographs of the suspected bombers from Thursday's incident, one could make out that one of the men was wearing a New York t-shirt. Oh boy. Police later found the shirt "discarded in a street in Brixton." The AP report pointed out that NY was a former terror target, but Gothamist suspects that the t-shirt was simply coincidental, as New York may be the world's second home (even if not in......

First it was Australia, then it was New Zealand . . . now the next New World wine region to capture the hearts and taste buds of New Yorkers is South America. What makes this region so spectacular for easy to drink, plush, fruity wines is the perfect climate. Grapes get to bask in the warm Latin sun – enjoying a particularly long ripening season. Kind of like the holiday we wish we could take.......

Okay, so you couldn't shell out the cash for the Grand Tasting, but you still want to taste and learn about wines. We're right there with you, so we've found a few wine events that are more reasonably priced: Michael's Restaurant holds "Five at Five Fridays." Every Friday at 5 pm, sommeliers Richard Bill and L.A. Estilow will choose five wines and offer an unlimited five glass flight for one hour for $30. No reservations......