Image of current and future Brooklyn House of Detention: New York City Department of Design & Construction The notorious Brooklyn House of Detention – immortalized by everyone from the Beastie Boys to Jonathan Lethem – has been closed since 2003, but plans to reopen the jail at twice its previous size are still moving forward. Last year many newcomers to the steadily gentrifying neighborhood decried plans to bring back the detention center, located at......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a double stabbing at 14-19 31 Drive in Queens, a double shooting at 138th St. and 59th Ave. in Queens, and a commercial robbery on East 12th St. between 3rd and 4th Aves. in Manhattan. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is committing millions of dollars to residents of the South Bronx, pleasing some, rankling others, and infuriating the Mayor of Caracas, which is Venezuela's desperately poor capital. Marilyn Kaytor, who......

The NY Times is hinting that Brooklyn may be so over, a theory that seems to be based around Heath Ledger leaving the borough.What if Brooklyn’s recent cachet as the locus for what’s next is little more than a thin and fragile crust of chic, hiding the insecurity of people who constantly measure the social currency of their ZIP code by Manhattan standards? The number of trendy boutiques, bistros and music clubs in Brooklyn may......

Last week Racked reported that there's word of an Apple store opening in Brooklyn. The question is, which neighborhood will iNvite them in. Dumbo NYC reports that Two Trees has reached out to Apple in the past, but they "weren’t ready". If they're ready now, their options in Dumbo would include the 6600 sq.ft space at 70 Washington Street and the 6700 sq.ft space across the street at Washington and Front Street. Racked had a......

The NY Times takes a look at Smith Street and the corporate companies creeping into the area and setting up shop. The most recent big announcement is that Trader Joe's is taking over the old bank on Atlantic Avenue and Court Street. How long until more big fish come to feed? Urban Outfitters originally wanted the new Trader Joe's property, so we suppose they'll be hawking "Ski Cobble Hill" T-Shirts soon enough. Just last week......

Yesterday we mentioned London designer Anya Hindmarch's I'm Not A Plastic Bag was finally arriving at Whole Foods today. The canvas tote was made popular by a combination of things including celebrity and unavailability. Hindmarch told the NY Times “To create awareness you have to create scarcity by producing a limited edition. I hate the idea of making the environment trendy, but you need to make it cool and then it becomes a habit.” We're......

After many false starts, Trader Joe's announced this week that the grocery store chain would be finally arriving in Brooklyn. The news was heralded by Brooklyn Beep Marty Markowitz, who was decked out in one of the store's highly visible Hawaiian print shirts and leading a steel drum band at Court St. and Atlantic Ave. The Brooklyn Paper reports that while the grocer will soon move into the landmark Independence Savings Bank building at Court......

After a lot of speculation that the Brooklyn Trader Joe's may never happen, Racked reports that it...IS! The good news (for Brooklynites) was posted just moments ago: Trader Joe's Brooklyn is actually, officially happening! We hear via a very, very reliable tipster that a press conference will be held tomorrow at 10:40am at the Trader Joe's Brooklyn site on Atlantic Avenue and Court Street. The conference, led by Marty Markowitz, is to officially announce that......

Earlier this year, The Sun reported that AvalonBay Communities would "begin construction this summer on a 42-story, residential market-rate tower with approximately 600 units. The property will have ground floor retail, which could house the borough's first Trader Joe's market." And even earlier this year it was suspected that TJ's would move into One Brooklyn Bridge Park. Today, The Brooklyn Eagle is reporting that Trader Joe's will soon be stocking the fridges of many Brooklynites......

In a city that has everything, there are always a few things that we can use more of. For starters, maybe one or two more cheese shops, an extra beer garden wouldn’t hurt and who wouldn’t like another Trader Joe’s? Just saying. The same rule applies to wine bars. Sure we have a bunch, but after a while, the circuit gets old. Luckily, we have a new stop to add to our list. Wined......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a man was killed by a 6 Train at Manhattan's Bleecker St. station, a serious multi-vehicle accident on Grand Concourse and East 168th St. in the Bronx, and an evidence search followed a shooting on Beach Channel Dr. in Queens. The $250 nine course tasting menu at Per Se is the caloric equivalent of 4 and a half Big Macs, although we imagine infinitely more delicious. A prost-prandial stroll......

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't officially start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... Over at Sampaist, spring has more than sprung: it's sweltering! But, as everyone knows, museums are an ideal......

Yesterday, Crain's reported that city pharmacy behemoth Duane Reade will take over leases of eight Gristede's locations in Manhattan. Each of the locations will converted into pharmacies, which would bring the total of Manhattan Duane Reade locations to 143. The locations of the soon-to-be-gone Gristede's weren't revealed, but Crain's did describe the grocer thusly:Gristedes operates 38 grocery stores in Manhattan, including seven locations with full pharmacy service. The New York grocer has been hurt in......

While others are writing year end lists about their favorite restaurant openings (yeah, we know, A Voce, Little Owl, Boqueria), we thought we'd do something a bit different and highlight some of your favorite posts of the year. These are the food posts that either got you so riled up that you felt the need to put in your two cents in the comments or that, for whatever reason, you wanted to recommend to others.......

Back in 2003, when Mayor Bloomberg sold the Board of Education's old headquarters at 110 Livingston Street in Brooklyn, people were fixated on the horrors of bureaucracy. Nicknamed "The Kremlin," 110 Livingston represented everything that was wrong with the city, and one person even told the NY Times, "If there is an opposite of nostalgia, you'd have to apply it to 110 Livingston Street." Well, what a difference a few years and high-end finishes make.......

THEATER: Beastie Boy Adrock (who turns 40 next month!) was but a wee homey when his father, Israel Horovitz, penned his hit play “Line” 32 years ago. That dark comedy is the longest-running play in off-off-Broadway history. It’s about five people stuck on line and their shameless machinations to get to the front. The theater’s website boasts that the play has been performed in 25 countries and split the sides of 100,000 theatergoers. Who will......

Celebrate Ben Franklin's 300th birthday with the Bikini Bandits and Phillyist! (NSFW). Speaking of Mr. Franklin, send in a picture of Ben (or Ed Rendell) with a red tongue and win a free t-shirt. And they might have the next YearlyKos in Philly. You know who's going to be upset about those Bikini Bandits? The Houston school system. Houstonist also reports on some redevelopment shenanigans over a landmark theater. LAist's sex advice column on......

The new city grocery chains are certainly vying for each and every single impressionable shopper with their glossy new stores and pretty, pretty produce. But Whole Foods is taking the fight into a new arena: They will be touting low prices in an upcoming ad campaign. It's practically like Every Day Low Prices - does that mean will we see BYOGOF (Buy One Get One Free), too? It seems Whole Foods is trying to extend......

What lucky little New Yorkers we are. First the grand opening of the new and improved Astor Wines and Spirits and now, we get Trader Joe’s Wine Shop. It’s a wine cornucopia all packed neatly in one square mile. With such great options, so close (or conveniently located next to subways), we realized there was only one thing to do – hold a wine-off. May the best wine purveyor win. Trader Joe’s Wine Shop: Overview:......

We were fortunate this week to score an invite to a dinner, hosted by a currently unkitchened chef, where a sampling of 5 varieties of heritage-style pigs was set to take place. More on the pork served next week in a post about the evening. The invite came with a request for side dishes and wine. Wine was the easy part; standard rule for us is to grab the oldest bottle that is appropriate......

As we were out enjoying the sunshine this weekend we spotted a sign at the new Union Square Trader Joe's announcing a date for the impending opening of the wine shop -- April 10th. Fans of the famous (or is it infamous) "two buck Chuck" will be rejoicing in the streets and joining their bretheren in lines down 14th Street, although rumor has it that the wine will probably cost more around three dollars (it......

Remember way back like twenty minutes ago when Trader Joe's opened it's "first store in the City" and Manhattan collectively ">dropped a Fidel? Though the Wine Store isn't even open yet? Yeah you do, there is still a line on 14th street to get in! And we're so not bitter... Back those many days ago we ran this photo of JCN's: And lo and behold, as a tipper points out, the photo is a fark......

- Bruni gives Iron Chef Morimoto one star. D'oh! - Two new greenmarkets are being considered for the Upper East Side (remember greenmarkets? They were what we had before Whole Foods and Trader Joe's) - Neighborhood fave Zum Schneider is circulating a petition to prevent it from being evicted -- go sign it so we can keep drinking gi-normous glasses of weisse beer and eating wurst and schnitzel! - Astor Wines' new location has opened......

Reader David writes to us: It looks like the entire inventory is on the sidewalk outside in front of the store. Man, what kind of damage was done this weekend? The boxes have nearly taken over the entire sidewalk, with a very narrow path for people to walk by. Does anyone have photos of this carnage? Is Trader Joe's restocking after a bang-up weekend or are they making sure there are boxes outside to house......

If you can't get New Yorkers to buy your expensive cigarettes, then why not sue a competitor? The supermarket chain Gristede's is suing Indian tribes for selling discounted cigarettes illegally. Gristede's seems to feel that the Indian nations, Unkechaug Poospatuck Tribe of Mastic and the Shinnecock Indian Nation in Southampton, are able to undercut other retailers because they are able to sell cigarettes without the $3 tax to Indian customers - and may sell at......

Brian Van headed over to Trader Joe's at Union Square this morning, and says it was "crowded as hell." He has a set of photographs on Flickr, and we asked him if people were getting green leis, due to St. Patrick's Day. Brian said no, but:All of the staff were wearing these quirky-patterned shirts (I'd say hawaiian but I'm no authority on shirt patterns) and were happily greeting people. Balloons were everywhere, mostly green......

Looks like the long anticipated opening of the Trader Joe's Wine Shop is coming nigh! Joe captured the enreddening of the awning letters, which means 2-buck-chuck is just a couple of weeks away from the shakey grasp of Union Square bums. Okay, we admit it-- Charles Shaw wine is somewhat tasty, and surprisingly, it does appear to be made from grapes. [Related: on January 18th, the NYTimes reported that the wine shop and the......

- As early subscribers to their email dispatches, we really enjoy the work done by our -ist based cousins at Thrillist. After today’s article in the NY Daily News about their “48 legit destinations, each serving 'til at least 3am on weekends”, we are inclined to love’em more. - In other welcome food news, AM New York is reporting on a St. Patrick’s Day opening for Trader Joe’s in Union Square. - Finally, in tangential......

- Jury selection starts for Moussaoui's terrorism trial and he yells "I am Al Qaeda!" - Betty Friedan's funeral was held today at Riverside Chapel; she is now buried in Sag Harbor - There is a suspect in the Dunkin' Donuts shooting - Trader Joe's looks underwhelming at this point - Oh, snap - reference Office Space and get called Miss Piggy - NY magazine looks at Charles Grodin's one-act play about a Fifth......

vs. The New York Times reports that Fresh Direct is creating a new advertising campaign featuring some rather prominent New Yorkers, Mayor Koch, Bobby Flay, and Paulina Porizkova (did you know she lived here?), to contend with the newest challenger to the New York food world, Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's advertising strategy to get back at Fresh Direct? Nothing. Well, almost nothing -- they plan on using their general advertising strategy, designed to keep......