The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is in charge of construction on the new 1 World Trade Center – AKA the Freedom Tower – is now seeking developers to design, build and operate a 34,000-square-foot restaurant on the 100th and 101st floors; whoever wins the bid may also win rights to operate the observation deck planned for the 102nd floor. The Authority is gazing into its crystal construction ball and seeing......

The last sentence uttered before all hell breaks loose is, “Forget about the rest of the world and hold onto the ones you care about.” Though probably unintentional, those words of brotherly advice – spoken to a lovesick young yuppie named Rob – perfectly sum up the prevalent attitude in fin de siècle New York: the world’s spinning into a cataclysm of total war and catastrophic climate change, but fuck it; let’s party and......

Photograph of an injured worker being unloaded from the construction bucket from reader Nick Sonderup There are reports that a crane lost its load of concrete beams at Spring and 6th Avenue. The beams hit the building and sidewalk scaffolding and people are trapped. One fatality is being reported. Photograph of workers on the sidewalk pointing by from stconrad on Flickr The reports indicate the accident occurred at a building under contraction at 246......

Earlier this week, the NY Times had an article about how Apple's retail stores were uncommonly successful. The Apple Stores contribute to 20% of revenue, unlike other big brands whose brick-and-mortar offerings tend to be more about brand presence than actual ringing of cash registers (example: the Samsung Experience store at the Time Warner Center doesn't actually sell Samsung products). Experts credit Apple with creating stores that seem like a community gathering places, where......

October 11: Restaurant Reviewing in New York City In light of Michelin's release this week, this panel discussion at Borders in the Time Warner Center, which happens to be the home of three-star Per Se, two-star Masa and one-star Cafe Gray, focuses on the reviewing scene in one of the best food cities in the world. Panelists include Jean-Luc Naret, director of the Michelin Guide; Jay Cheshes, former restaurant critic at Gourmet; and food-blogger/restaurant critic......

The Michelin Guide announced selections today for its third New York Edition, which officially goes on sale Wednesday. The new edition features 565 restaurants (and 54 Manhattan hotels.) Of the eateries, 42 were awarded stars ranging from one to three; a mere 3 restaurants merited the highest 3-star rating (Jean Georges, Le Bernardin and Per Se), while 6 others made the 2-star cut. But star-gazing aside, the guide comes in handy for diners on a......

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......

Earlier this afternoon, we watched Scholastic transform Mercer Street between Prince and Spring Streets in "Harry Potter Place" in anticipation of the 12:01AM release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - early reviews be damned! Not only was the Whomping Willow ready, there were owls (stuffed), messages on the Muggle Message Board, and a copy of the book signed by JK Rowling. There were also already people on line to buy the book.......

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to the new Landmarc in the Time Warner Center, awards the restaurant one star. “It’s three times the size of the original Landmarc in Tribeca,” he says, “whose menu and competent cooking it replicates but whose warmth it largely lacks.” He compares the food to what you’d find at a Midwestern Marriot, but says that perhaps it’s just what the overly self-conscious Time Warner Center needs. Peter......

This week in the Times, ">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.” In......

This week ">Bruni two-stars Belgian Resto. Loves the beers, the fries and mussels, and the hint of Asian seasonings in some dishes: "Resto's version of Belgium is neither clichéd nor isolationist," he says. It’s not great for your arteries, either, he points out, but sometimes it's worth the health risk. In ">Dining Briefs, Bruni stops by Perilla (the new restaurant opened by Top Chef winner Harold Dieterle). Says "Like a bistro with elegant tailoring, it......

Landmarc is the latest restaurant to open at the Time Warner Center, thankfully providing an affordable option to TWC visitors who want to sit down for a casual meal without waiting in line at the basement Whole Foods or the neighboring Bouchon Bakery. Both breakfast and lunch are served from 7 AM to 4 PM every day of the week. Want to start off your morning with a hamburger? Do it. Our friend Tina......

READINGS: Russell Simmons has written a self-help book and will be at Border's today promoting it (okay, now all of this recent noise he's making makes more sense)! It's called "Do You! 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success." None of the laws include any of these three words. 1pm // Border’s [100 Broadway] // Free As we mentioned a few weeks ago, Tim Gunn will be reading from......

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. In $25 and Under, Peter Meehan checks out the cafes at the......

Yesterday at the Time Warner Center, Chef Marc Murphy somewhat stealthily opened the doors to the uptown outpost of Landmarc, his 3 year-old, well-regarded Tribeca restaurant. Murphy began to look northward last year when he opened Ditch Plains in the West Village. With Landmarc firmly established as a neighborhood bright spot with serious food (like the $12 roasted marrow bones with onion marmalade and grilled bread, pictured), and with Ditch Plains going strong with its......

Today the NY Times introduces us to the man behind some of the city’s most boring buildings. Costas Kondylis, aka the Developer’s Architect, is a skyscraper-embracing traditionalist whose clients have included Donald Trump, Larry Silverstein, Related Companies (developer of the Time Warner Center), Forest City Ratner Companies (developer of The New York Times building and, of course, the Atlantic Yards project) and Vornado Realty Trust (the Penn Plaza towers), among others. Kondylis, who's worked on......

Despite the warm winter weather, coat drives have not lost momentum this season in comparison to coat sales. This week, there are several more creative ways to give. On Tuesday, January 9, New York Cares wraps up its 18th year of coat collecting with the Weatherproof® Garment Company’s Coat-The-Rink-Skate-A-Thon. The day begins early when a few lucky volunteers (which could include you) will take to the ice with Olympic figure skater Sasha Cohen at 6:30am.......

Excellent - the New Yorker has updated its 2003 story on Bill Jones, the Whole Foods employee who became an institution at the Chelsea location for directing shoppers to available registers, providing comfort with his reassuring, "Number 5 is yours!" and a wonderful smile. When the Time Warner Center Whole Foods opened up at Columbus Circle, we suggested that they should clone him. But wouldn't you know, Bill Jones himself was working at the Columbus......

- The father of Christopher Rose, the 15 year old boy fatally stabbed for his iPod last year, testified in court, and told reporters, "Day by day, I hurt, I cry. I can't get over it. I still can't believe it." - NYC school kids may be telling the City Council why they need their cellphones in school, but they can be dangerous - a NJ teen died when trying to retrieve hers (she......

They say that history repeats itself, but this is re-dunk-u-lous. Moynihan Station, the long-planned Penn Station expansion into the Farley Post Office that is intended to make up for the destruction of the late, great, original Penn Station (above) hasn't even been built yet but developers are already vying to build a new Madison Square Garden on top of and around it. And yes, this would be MSG number 5 for those of you......

Although we didn't have much more than an iced coffee on our visit this time around, we wanted to share some pictures of the beautiful Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner Center. The pastries looked gorgeous, and we were quite tempted both by the macaroons (we were sent home with some after our visit to per se) and by something they were calling a nutter butter that appeared to be two large peanut butter......

- Be careful outside - there are 50-60 MPH winds out there! (And bundle up - it's getting colder.) - Uh oh: A four year old dies after choking on a "large" herbal pill that his mother told him to take - It turns out off-duty police officer Eric Hernandez died from gunshot wounds (from another cop who didn't know Hernandez was also a cop), not the beating from a group of men at a......

- No more district superintendents for 200 public school - Police issue tickets because of quotas - big surprise! - Five Queens students were hurt by the same men in separate attacks - As is the property, parking spaces at the Time Warner Center are $$$ - Don't take the Holland Tunnel Sunday morning - there will be sign installation (though it might be good for pictures) - And the AP interviews the blogging......

Well, one vacant restaurant at the Time Warner Center filled, one to go! Today's Times brings the announcement that one of the more famously vacant restaurant spaces in the city has been filled. After the failure of Jean Georges Vongerichten's V Steakhouse, not to mention the no-show of the originally called for Charlie Trotter restaurant, there has been a fair amount of interest in who would come next. And now we know that the answer......

Ooh - the owners of an East 18th Street Manhattan brownstone are under fire for their wacky Christmas display. The Post puts the Krupnik-Castellanos display - "a skinny, bloody-bearded Santa holds a knife in his left hand and the severed head of a doll - blood gushing from its eye sockets in the other" - on its cover. The owners, Joel Krupnik and Mildred Castellanos, explain its their protest against Christmas's commercialization. Well, it's not......

Hmm, this is quite a follow-up to a summer story about men cruising certain subway stations for sex: An undercover cop broke up what the Post delightedly calls a "group grope orgy" at the Jay Street-Borough Hall station in Brooklyn. The Post also enjoys mentioning that the "six men outside the men's room coming and going in two- to three-minute intervals" were doing this "right below NYC Transit headquarters." Words escape us. At least two......

Kate Wood, executive director, LANDMARK WEST!...

Charlie Suisman over at Manhattan User's Guide broke the French omerta on the New York City restaurants Michelin guide and listed the restaurants receiving 1, 2 or 3 stars. Only thirty-nine restaurants were reviewed. Here's a quick analysis: - Parlez francais: Frenchmen/French-themed restaurants take three of the four 3-star slots (Alain Ducasse, Jean-Georges, Le Bernadin); the fourth is American-born Per Se (lucky for punch bowl owners) - Time Warner Center sweep: Per Se, Masa (2......

So this had already been kinda mentioned, but in case you were worried what Bloomberg and Dan Doctoroff were going to focus on next now that the West Side Stadium and the Olympics are dead (and assuming Blooms wins the election) the Daily News has the answer for you: Governors Island. Doctoroff has told the News that development proposals for the 172 acre Island, separated from Brooklyn by the buttermilk channel (you learn something new......

Maybe Rupert Murdoch should think about selling his place to one of NYC's celebrity chefs. According to Forbes Magazine, some of them are making some long green. On their list of the top 10 most influential chefs in America, we counted six who are doing business in NYC, and most of them (except poor Wylie!) are making a least a few million. Mario Batali $4m/year (Babbo, Lupa, and a many others) Lidia Bastianich $1.3m/year......