Are patrons of Bay Ridge's Third Avenue bar scene mature enough to handle a plan to create an eight-block pedestrian mall featuring string quartets and "doo-wop singers" this summer? The Brooklyn Paper profiles the debate at a Community Board 10 meeting over whether or not to block off eight blocks of Third Avenue for four weeks this summer for a proposed "Summer Stroll." “Every Friday and Saturday we have to clean up broken glass and vomit,” neighbor Lenny Variano said. “It’s disgusting." It can't be as disgusting as that other famed Bay Ridge event, Naked Old Lady Day. more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] Cantankerous NY Post columnist Steve "He Who Yells At Cloud" Cuozzo is OBSESSED with the Times Square pedestrian plaza, which he says "gutted" Times Square's "unique energy," and turned it into "a campground for mostly low-spending tourists." Since the plaza debuted in 2009, "Yells At Cloud" has ranted about it with a virulent single-mindedness that makes Ahab look like Silent Bob. It is Cuozzo's white whale: He piles on the plaza's capacious hump "the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it." And you didn't think we'd close out 2011 without one more harpoon for the road? more ›

Normally when we spill ink on one of Steve Cuozzo's adorable columns in the NY Post, it's to point out that he is the Mayor of Wrongville, a loner afraid of change who sits in the corner of his hovel surrounded by jars of urine, rocking back and forth on his heels whilst murmuring things about "pedestrian plazas." Maybe not! Today, Cuozzo is the champion of service employees everywhere in advocating for a mandatory, built-in 20 percent tip in New York establishments. "A mandatory service charge democratizes the restaurant experience for both customers and staff," Cuozzo writes. more ›

The Wall Street Journal may have announced earlier this summer that the bikes have won but don't tell that to the paper's scruffy sibling the Post. That tabloid, like some Upper East Side community boards, thinks the battle is still on and today anti-bicycle zealot Steve Cuozzo has posted another report from the front line: Broadway between Columbus Circle and Times Square, where the bike lanes are supposedly murdering businesses. more ›

Poor, lonely Steve Cuozzo. The cantankerous Post columnist who hates pedestrian plazas, Wikipedia, and Brooklyn restaurants in equal measure now has a new enemy in the dining scene: downtown. more ›

As you may have read, Robin Williams was on The View yesterday, where he again rolled out his anecdote about getting pulled over by the NYPD for biking on the sidewalk. "I wasn't dressed, like, in bike clothing," Williams explained. "I had a single-speed track bike, and I had on a bal aclava, which basically makes me look like a terrorist or a crack dealer. No one was on the sidewalk, and all of a sudden woop-woop!" The View co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck wasn't amused, telling Wiliams, "I got hit by a bike on a sidewalk!" Williams replied, "Well, it's the law because of her." And because of every other inconsiderate jerk who bikes on the sidewalk—these people should be ticketed, to be sure. more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] The NY Post hates bike lanes, pedestrian plazas, and orgasms, so it's no surprise to see another anti-bike lane diatribe in today's edition. The author is our old favorite: cantankerous columnist Steve Cuozzo (who also goes by his Native American name "He Who Yells at Cloud"). For today's rant, he declares that "the city Department of Transportation is lying through its teeth about an alleged biker boom," and enlists the help of the Real Estate Board of New York [REBNY], which represents owners of most of Manhattan's 400 million-odd square feet of office space. more ›

When the Times Square Alliance announced plans to bring food and beverage concessions to the slightly controversial pedestrian plaza, the world held its breath. What ever would NY Post columnist Steve "He Who Yells At Cloud" Cuozzo think? Cuozzo loves nothing more than going on a cantankerous rant about the pedestrian plazas, which he originally derided as "block after block of prison-yard asphalt devoid of meaningful landscaping, furniture or other amenities, crowded mainly with Big Mac-chomping tourists." But now that there's furniture and plans for amenities and landscaping, would Cuozzo change his tune? Ha: more ›

It's been a tough few years for cantankerous NY Post columnist Steve "He Who Yells At Cloud" Cuozzo. So many changes in this town! Particularly near his office, where the DOT turned several blocks of Broadway into pedestrian plazas that Cuozzo did NOT sign off on. Infernal bike lanes have popped up everywhere, cigarette smoking is criminalized, and now the DOT is still threatening big changes to 34th Street. In a new rant entitled "Debacle on 34th St.; DOT's plans to ruin grand blvd," Cuozzo draws a line in the sand: more ›

The Donald does not have a contract for the Tavern on the Green, but that doesn't mean he isn't loving the attention his out-of-the-blue proposal for the space has gotten him. In his latest bit of PR he's gone and chatted up the Post's food and real estate man Steve Cuozzo on his plan for the space, including dreams of a "good looking" replacement for the now gone Crystal Room. more ›

The Post's rantin' Steve Cuozzo is in rare form today with his takedown of the new plaza planned for the Barclays Center/Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. Cuozzo calls the design "singularly malevolent in its ugliness," and "more conducive to hosting a Crips-Bloods scrimmage than the intended upscaling of the neighborhood." The best part? When "He Who Yells At Cloud" lays the blame for this "travesty" at the feet of the project's biggest opponent. more ›

Nothing beats a great pair of NY Post diatribes on the subject of cycling, and that goes double when one of the ranters is columnist Steve "He Who Yells At Cloud" Cuozzo. As you may know, bike lanes and pedestrian plazas have been a boil on Cuozzo's neck for too long, and his latest screed, prompted by complaints about reckless delivery men on the Upper West Side, is bursting with good stuff: more ›

In the past week, the DOT has revealed details about two bold new plans to create pedestrian plazas in high-traffic parts of Manhattan. As part of a proposed 34th Street Transitway, a pedestrian plaza would be created on the block between Fifth Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas. Further downtown, the DOT wants to turn a block of Broadway north of Union Square into another pedestrian plaza, which would extend along East 17th Street to the eastern corner of the park, at Park Avenue South. But the two proposed changes have come at a price: the fragile inner serenity of NY Post columnist Steve Cuozzo. more ›

It's not just unhinged Andrea Peyser at the NY Post who hates the Broadway pedestrian plazas; Steve Cuozzo at the NY Post hates 'em, too! As the Bloomberg administration gets ready to decide whether or not to keep these blocks of Broadway car-free, the tabloid is going all out to turn the masses against the plazas. Thus Sprach Cuozzo: more ›

Following a string of mediocre reviews, particularly a one-two punch from Adam Platt, fancy uptown restaurants Fishtail and The Oak Room have both lost their top toques. At the Oak Room, acclaimed Atlanta-based Joël Antunes has left; today rumor has it that executive chef Eric Hara will leave David Burke’s “sustainable-friendly” seafood restaurant Fishtail. Now it seems Hara will replace Antunes. The recession has created a tighter-than-normal feedback loop between poor reviews and business as usual at high profile restaurants, in part because business as usual no longer exists (read: no more expense accounts). Meanwhile, Post critic Steve Cuozzo yesterday called out a “whining” Anita Lo, blaming absentee chefs for bad reviews and recent closings. “Stop treating customers like we're idiots,” he wrote. Bad food is bad food, sure, but perhaps Cuozzo would also encourage Lo to stop cooking at charity events around town that do things like feed homeless people, which seems more important than ever. more ›

The Post's Steve Cuozzo devotes a column to Wikipedia's many mistakes about NYC. Though he admits he uses it "on such essential matters as which actress plays which bimbo in 'Gossip Girl'," he doesn't understand why its non-pop culture entries--like that of New York City--are so wrong. Besides issues with street information, out-of-date crime data, real estate/architecture details, and the NYPD's community policing initiative, Cuozzo clears up the entry about the NY Post, explaining the 1983 "Headless Body in a Topless Bar" headline was not written by "onetime employee named Paul Beeman. In fact, it's a matter of historical record that the headline was written by then- managing editor VA Musetto (who is today The Post's film editor and Cine File columnist)." [Via Gawker, which thinks Cuozzo's "going to be up 'til at least midnight trying to correct all these things."] more ›

Today the Times’s Frank Bruni marvels at Manhattan’s new wave of high tone restaurant openings during a recession, and pins the trend not on entrepreneurial bravado but on the fact that it takes years to get a fancy eatery open, and most of these new places were envisioned in flusher economic times. It is true that in 2005, the top fifth of earners in Manhattan made 52 times what the lowest fifth make – $365,826 compared with $7,047 – comparable to the income disparity in Namibia. Yet thanks to tax cuts and stagflation, the income gap has only widened in the past three years. Dinner at Per Se is as unattainable as ever for New York’s lower orders, but even with Wall Street turbulence it’s unlikely the ranks of the well-heeled will thin to the point where a fashionable restaurant can’t manage. Of course, chefs like Ken Friedman (The Spotted Pig) are artists and don’t chain their muse to the vagaries of the economy: “I’m certainly not the kind who would look at the Dow. Does a writer write or not write a book based on the economic climate? Does a songwriter write songs that way?” more ›

This week in the Times, Bruni one-stars Lebanese Ilili, saying “Ilili is probably the atmospherically grandest excursion into Middle Eastern cooking that New York has ever seen.” While much of the menu is inconsistent, he loves the kebabs and kaftas. Says the service is “occasionally confused.” And get the essmalieh for dessert. more ›

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Grayz, gives the restaurant one star. He says of the restaurant that refuses to call itself a restaurant (it’s a ‘cocktail lounge that serves small dishes’): “These dishes demand fuller attention than the setting allows, and the prices—$39 for the short ribs—only make total sense if eating is the point of a visit.” In Dining Briefs, Bruni goes to Belcourt, which he says is much better than... more ›

In time for next week’s Columbus Day festivities, the Post’s Steve Cuozzo lets his Ital flag fly with two gushing columns on Italian cuisine. He points out that Italian restaurants outnumber all other kinds of restaurants in New York by a big margin (and that’s not because of the ever-metastasizing Olive Gardens.) He cites seven “marvelous” eateries – Del Posto, A Voce, Abbocatto, Insieme, Fiamma, L'Impero and Alto – that “establish Italian as the cuisine to beat.” Nobu can sleep with the fishes. more ›

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Insieme, awards the restaurant two stars. Says, “When Isieme is good, it’s outstanding, and any serious food lover should head here fast…” He hates the atmosphere, though, and the salmon. Insieme is the second restaurant in midtown this year where he’s been “frustrated by the way some dazzling cooking is undercut not only by unevenness across the menu or inconsistency in the kitchen but also by atmospherics that don’t pull their weight and live up to the rest of the production.” more ›

">Bruni goes to Gramercy Tavern, awards the restaurant--now helmed by chef Michael Anthony--three stars. It was last reviewed by William Grimes, when Tom Colicchio was cooking and when it also received three stars. Bruni says the restaurant delivers what diners want: “a kind of unstrained graciousness and unlabored sophistication.” Nearly everything he tasted was “exquisitely cooked,” and while the desserts aren’t the best ever, “there are some fine choices.” more ›

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. more ›

">Bruni goes to Max Brenner, the fictional chocolatier (chain is owned by two businessmen, Max Fichtman and Odel Brenner). Awards no stars, calls it "a mass market endeavor as gimmicky as Planet Hollywood. It’s Planet Valrhona, a vaux artisanal juggernaut." He tries the non-dessert offerings; finds them weak. Then it’s on to the desserts, which "lack the richness or sharpness that great chocolate has." more ›

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Esca, calls chef Dave Pasternack a "fish whisperer" (um, OK Frank) and awards the restaurant three stars. "In an era when too many restaurants try to be everything to everyone," he says, "Esca has a specific agenda: show what the sea can yield." The restaurant was previously awarded two stars by William Grimes in 2000. more ›

Bruni goes to Varietal, calls it "an epicurean Advanced Placement exam" and awards the restaurant one star. He says, "Varietal can become so entraced with the unusual ingredients it's deploying, the unconventional ideas it's hatching and the uncommon pose it's striking that it seems not to ponder the off-kilter or underwhelming results." He does love the wine selection, and, when combined with the best dishes, says eating there can be an exciting experience. Just order carefully, and skip dessert. more ›