Is Harlem angling to be the next Times Square? Chain wise, maybe! Not only did the area just get the nation's first IHOP with a 24-hour takeout window but now the storied strip that is 125th Street is set to get Manhattan's first Red Lobster outside of the tourist trap on the Deuce. Soon, you'll be able to enjoy an Admiral's Feast before stopping by the Apollo. Yay? more ›

The popular pedestrian plazas in Times Square—scourge of the New York Post—have not been good for the nearby Restaurant Row, restaurateurs on the storied strip say. So now they'd like some bright lights, please! more ›

Clearly this is what you get for rejecting Shaq. As we guessed at the start of the year, the Times Square tourist trap Mars 2112 appears to have left our orbit. With the loss of the Rainbow Room, the Tavern on the Green, Elaine's and now this we're left to wonder...why can't New York have nice things? And what themer is next for the chopping block; Ninja? more ›

Leave the machine gun at home! Along with the 9/11 Memorial you know another great place to not bring your loaded weapon? The subway. Especially if your weapon is a loaded Intratec Luger Tec-9 machine gun with extra ammunition—unless, it seems you've decided to try and skip the fare at Times Square. In that case just do make sure you get caught, okay? 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 ›

Cheaper than a night at the Met, and less smelly (and intoxicated) than the Elmos of Times Square, buskers in the subway break the banality of our subterranean commute. They also can make a decent amount of cash. "Come holiday time, I can make up to $400 a day," subway drummer Jakeh Thomas tells the Post. "It's the season for giving." Thomas, who is 18, used to work at a carpet store. "They were paying me $10 an hour. But I'm making $10 every fifteen minutes out here." Maybe the president should consider supporting one of the MTA's many "shovel-ready" projects? more ›

Times Squares' costumed entrepreneurs are officially free to ply their trade without fear of retribution. According to the Daily News, the NYPD has stopped the policy of ticketing the Elmos, Hello Kitties, Buzz Lightyears and Spidermen who take pictures with kiddies for tips. The entertainers are allowed to receive tips, but not charge for pictures taken with them in costume. According Girish Dani, who dresses up as Spiderman, Elmo still gets a bad rap: "A few Elmos chase people for tips…I heard one or two Elmos drink whiskey, and this could be an issue." Ah, but Sesame Street is the type of place that drives a monster to drink. more ›

Lucky Cheng's, the self-proclaimed "Drag Capital of the World," apparently does not include the East Village in their world anymore, with the news that the bachelorette favorite is leaving their longtime home on First Avenue in coming months to chase the tourists down in Times Square. more ›

Last night, "Rock Center with Brian Williams" dipped its toe into the topic of New York City transportation: specifically, DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. Overall the piece is a fair one, and gives Sadik-Khan plenty of room to answer her critics and lay out her vision for a safer, cleaner, more efficient city. But Brian Williams, who is supposed to be the network's "young," affable anchor, turns into NBC's Steve Cuozzo. Williams tells reporter Harry Smith that he's "drunk the Kool-Aid" when Smith lauds the DOT's efforts, and calls Sadik-Khan "a very powerful woman with an exotic name." Haha, it's mass suicide to support bike lanes! And isn't "Ronald Reagan" exotic compared to "Brian Williams?" more ›

Since the eviction, Zuccotti Park may be compartively desolate at night, but by day it is an increasingly popular music venue, and the arts support of the Occupy movement doesn't stop there! Tomorrow from 6 p.m. until 6 p.m. Saturday over 70 acts—including monologuist Mike Daisey—will be Occupying Broadway to better help New Yorkers and tourists "Get off the sidelines and break through the fourth wall." more ›

Shaquille O'Neal was denied entrance at Mars 2112, the space-themed Times Square tourist trap that we didn't even know was still open, because he wasn't dressed well enough. more ›

Remember way back in August, when the city announced that Times Square would finally be getting some halfway decent lunch options in those little kiosks in the pedestrian zone? Some of those options are now upon us with the opening of Nuchas, promising "hand-held foods for the future," which look suspiciously like...empanadas. more ›

Is it a show of respect to shake the hand of the man who sucker punched you? Based on the video below, we're going to have to remember that next time we get into a gentleman's disagreement on the subway. The video uploader described the scene leading up to the fisticuffs at Times Square: "Man exits turnstile, pushed kid out the way, kid said 'What the hell,' man returns, states "I'm waiting,' the kid gives him a beat down. If you want to push and talk crap, you should back it up." more ›

If you've been paying attention to the Internet today, you may have seen some things indicating that it's Food Day. Yes: Food Day. Unlike every other day, in which people subsist only on cigarettes and self-hatred. So, what exactly is Food Day? more ›

Okay, so it's not technically affiliated with Occupy Wall Street, but righteous candy lovers will be invading the Times Square Hershey's Store tomorrow afternoon to protest the company's use of child labor. That's exactly the sort of thing you don't want to find out about right before Halloween. more ›

The other day we were thinking: Times Square really doesn't get crazy enough, especially on New Year's Eve. It's like a ghost town over there! The Crossroads of the World should really be jam packed with screaming people, especially when a new year is upon us. Well, it seems the suits over at the Times Square Party Down Council had the same thought. Their solution: they've invited both Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber to perform in usually desolate area, this December 31st during something called Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, hosted by Ryan Seacrest. This might just be crazy enough to work! more ›

After the NYPD clashed with demonstrators at the Occupy Wall Street protests in Times Square Saturday night, an Iraq war vet named Sgt. Shamar Thomas gave the cops a piece of his mind. It seems Thomas, who served with 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion USMC in Iraq, didn't exactly dig the way the NYPD dealt with the crowd: more ›

If you managed to survive the great Lulav Shortage of 2011 and are ready to shake those etrogs for the Jewish holiday Sukkot, which began this week, here's where to do it: more ›

[Update below] Things are just falling all over New York this morning. First a building collapses onto a city bus and then an elevator in Times Square goes and unexpectedly drops three floors! About ten minutes after the Harlem building toppled, at about 9:37 a.m., an elevator in the Paramount Building in Times Square tumbled down three stories out of the blue. more ›