For almost two decades, the 35 year-old chef Alex Ureña has been quietly working behind the scenes at some of New York’s most well regarded restaurants: His very first kitchen job was at The River Café during Charlie Palmer’s tenure. A few gigs later, Ureña was translating the contents of Ferran Adrià’s first cookbook for David Bouley, a chef he spent 7 years with and considers a mentor. Alex Ureña later served as executive chef......

Tonight marks the beginning of the Film Society at Lincoln Center's 45th annual New York Film Festival and oh what a jam-packed fest it is. A panel of film critics chose 30 of the best new international movies to show to New York's discerning audiences and they picked hometown director Wes Anderson's newest, The Darjeeling Limited (which also comes out in theaters this weekend) to open the festival. Gothamist was pleasantly surprised at how much......

River to River Booked! One of our favorite things to do in the city once the weather gets nice is to head down to the South Street Seaport after work on Friday to watch one of our favorite bands play for free as the sun goes down. Its an infinitely enjoyable experience. The River to River Festival is responsible for this and a whole bunch of other free concerts around Lower Manhattan every summer, and......

THEATER: If you want to avoid the first, hottest days of Fringe fever, a quieter alternative would be Mary Gage's Evensong, which she wrote after interviewing 6 senior citizens in Michigan. Using a sort of jazz composition style, with solos and chorus, Gage weaves their very different tales and bits of life wisdom together into one coherent thread that affirms how much their generation struggled on behalf of this country, motivated by a belief in......

Jon Bulette, Organizer, NYC Beard and Moustache Championships...

An American Place, by Larry Forgione (Morrow, 1996) Larry Forgione, who, as the chef at The River Cafe, coined the phrase "free-range chickens", is often hailed as the godfather of New American cuisine. In An American Place, Forgione provides recipes for American comfort foods like Cod Cakes with Tartar Sauce and Chocolate Walnut Fudge Cake, as well as exciting experiments with fresh ingredients, like Grilled Mahi-Mahi with Pineapple Barbecue Sauce and Seared Trout with Pumpkin......

My family is going to be in NYC for Christmas, and I'd like to take them to a nice Christmas dinner on the 25th. Do you know of any restaurants that have special Christmas menus on the big day? Anna Citysearch has a roundup of some of the classier joints that will keep their doors open on Christmas with special prix fixe. The list includes such landmark restaurants as 21 and The River Cafe,......

This in-between time, where it might be too cold to sit outside but it's too beautiful not to appreciate the weather, is paid its dues by Newsday, which puts together a list of ten New York City restaurants with great views. Mentioned are The Water's Edge in Queens (pictured, left) for a spectacular Manhattan skyline, Asiate at the Time-Warner Center for views in the middle of the city and of Central Park, New Leaf Cafe......