67-year-old Vietnam veteran Anthony Franzese was sitting on a standpipe outside of Wine Bar on Second Avenue when a sixth-floor air conditioning unit fell to the street yesterday morning. Franzese's head was lacerated in the freak accident, and Raymond Azzi, the owner of Wine Bar, says he thinks his establishment's awning saved Franzese's life—even though it was the awning, not the the A.C., that cut Franzese's head open. "We are lucky it was down," Azzi tells the Post. "It protected whoever was here and definitely saved the man's life." But it all depends where exactly Franzese was sitting! more ›

Of all the people a falling air conditioner could have hit in the uber-trendy East Village, why did it have to be an elderly Vietnam veteran who's being evicted from his apartment? Probably because it was 8:30 a.m., not 8:30 p.m. Not that we want anybody to get hit by falling air conditioners, but you'd think—statistically speaking—an A.C. unit falling onto Wine Bar on Second Avenue would be more likely to land on someone a bit more scummy yuppie than Anthony Franzese, 67. But the timing was just all wrong. more ›

Yesterday there was some drama at Upper West Side wine bar Wine and Roses. Co-owner Jennifer Klein and her husband Todd were forcibly ejected from the eatery by cops at the behest of four majority investors, who include Cindy Guyer, who's perhaps best known as the cover girl on hundreds of romance novels. "Both of us have been thrown out onto the street like trash," Klein, who for years was the model for those Jordache jeans TV commercials, tells the Post. "I'm going to fight this to my last breath." more ›

We know you were waiting anxiously to hear what's going on with that proposed wine bar on Central Park West. The good news is it was approved by the Community Board last night, and will most likely get its liquor license. The bad news is that means "drug dealers and paparazzi" would be heading to the area, according to residents of buildings which house the likes of A-Rod and Sting. Up next: lawyers attempt to argue that the space isn't zoned to be a bar. 25 CPW’s condo board president Paul Milman told West Side Independent, "It’s not over yet. There are other avenues we’re going to pursue." Take that, "sophisticated, mellow" wine bar! more ›

Residents of some elite buildings on Central Park West are coming together to stop the development of what they believe will turn into an all-hours nightclub akin to whatever kind of club they're picturing that has them so damn terrified. Though project head Gregory Hunt says the Central Park West Cafe, at 25 Central Park West, "will be sophisticated and mellow," the West Side Independent reports that locals have a petition 400 signatures strong to keep him from getting a liquor license. more ›

Residents of 15 Central Park West, which include Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, A-Rod and Sting, are furious at a proposal that would put a wine bar in the heart of their pristine neighborhood. Amsterdam Billiards founder Gregory Hunt wants to transform the space on the ground floor of 25 Central Park West into a jumping cafe and wine bar called the Century Cafe, and locals have reached out to lobbyist groups and lawmakers to block the project. 25 CPW resident Roberta Brandes-Gratz told the Post, "To have people and crowds coming in and out until 3 a.m. is more than a residential building should have to accommodate." Seriously, what kind of young, cultured city does Hunt think this is? more ›

Click on the images to see Kramer's dream of a DIY pizzeria come to life at Pizza A Casa, Chef Anita Lo's long overdue Annisa comeback, two floors of wine and food at Williamsburg's The Counting Room, and the Sunburnt Calf brings Australian cheer to the Upper West Side.
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The eagerly-awaited Brooklyn Bridge Park project will have something for everybody—even drinkers. The $350 million waterfront greenspace won't just include lawns, playgrounds, rope swings, water access, and climbing structures. It will also feature a wine bar. more ›

What's your favorite bar bathroom in town? The website Asylum.com recently performed a vital service by profiling some of their favorite men's rooms, with an emphasis on classic urinals, like the grand 140-year-old marble jobs at Foley's Irish pub, where restaurant staffers often give tours of the bathroom. But what really caught our eye is the high-tech new urinal at City Winery, which features a motion-activated water wall framing a 50-inch plasma screen at waist level. more ›

Click on the images above for all the details on Hells Kitchen's new wine bar, Ardesia, and the crazy Carnival above Bowlmor. more ›

The largely successful campaign to slow the proliferation of bars in downtown Manhattan has spread to gentrifying Williamsburg. Last week a small but insistent group of Brooklyn residents gathered at a Community Board 1 meeting to fight enemy #1: the owner of Custom American Wine Bar, who is seeking liquor license approval to open his establishment at Driggs and Metropolitan. Some locals have actually argued that the presence of a wine bar will increase gang activity. Also, those obstreperous oenophiles will keep them up at night with their cacophonous quaffing. more ›

Gang violence is an ongoing problem on the South Side of Williamsburg, so it's understandable that some local residents are up in arms about plans to open a fancy new wine bar in the neighborhood. Wait, what? On Tuesday a Community Board committee voted against approving a liquor license for Custom American Wine Bar at Driggs and Metropolitan Avenue. It seems Tempranillo and Trinitarios don't mix, as one neighbor explained at the meeting: "We are trying to prevent gang activity in the neighborhood. Opening this restaurant with beer and liquor, with teenagers already going crazy here, it’s going to be an even bigger issue." Another beef is that the owners want to serve wine until 2 a.m.! Do people even stay up that late? It looks like Brooklyn's Community Board 1 is now taking a cue from the stridently anti-night life Community Boards in downtown Manhattan. But it was bound to happen eventually, once enough hipsters transformed into yupsters with sleeping babies. As local Dennis Thompkins told the committee, "The neighborhood is nearly saturated with bars. The area is becoming unlivable. What we need are businesses that serve our community." Because there's no reason anyone should have to schlep to Manhattan just to buy a new bugaboo. [Brooklyn Paper via Eater] more ›

Here's Bar Luna, the casual Upper West Side wine bar that opened recently in the space formerly occupied by the Neptune Room on Amsterdam Avenue. There was a bit of a delay last month when owner Turgut Balikci, who cut his teeth twenty years ago with Bella Luna on Columbus Avenue, sent out an email canceling the opening because of a liquor license issue. But a source tells the Village Voice that the opening was actually pushed back because the chef, Sean Chudoba (who ran the kitchen at Balikci's restaurant AYZA) quit at the last minute. Bar Luna is now up and running with chef Jacque Belanger (West Branch), whom Balicki says is "better suited for the style of restaurant, and more experienced in the neighborhood." more ›

Vero Midtown: The little amber-hued nook seen here is nestled inside this warm and inviting wine bar on East 53rd Street that boasts a 2,200-bottle wine cellar. This is the second Vero location, and while the uptown original emphasizes panini, this iteration has a full kitchen serving dishes such as short rib tacos, gnocchi with foie gras and truffle sauce, and pan-roasted quail. The romantic scene is set by raw wood tables, Edison bulbs encased in pewter and antique glass pendants, mid-century inspired monochromatic art-work featuring '60s and '70s film stars, and lots of natural wood-framed mirrors. Vero also has its own in-house sommelier, Storme Woode, who has attained the elite "second level" of certified sommelier status. Also, per the publicist, "She is cute! And Storme can choose a wine for you by just looking at you." 1004 2nd Avenue at 53rd Street, (212) 935-3530. more ›

The 8th Street Winecellar is a cozy subterranean spot in Greenwich Village that opened up just over a year ago. But don't let the name fool you -- owners and longtime restaurant industry vets Michael Lagnese (left) and Jonny Cohen (right) want this to be your all-around neighborhood bar, even if you don't live in the 'hood. more ›

The rabble-rousers protesting against the proliferation of "yuppie wine bars" in the East Village may now need to expand their opposition to include crappy pizza wine bars. A lone worker inside the St. Mark's Place Pizzanini on Saturday said the joint's "Wine Bar" awning has been up for a couple weeks. But when we requested a couple glasses of Montepulciano to wash down our lasagna slices, he informed us that there was no wine. Or beer. An outrage! Yet, as the above photo indicates, their target market is already totally flocking to the place in anticipation. more ›

Julia Moskin has replaced Peter Meehan on the Times’s $25-and-under beat and starts with a baptism by fire at Greenwich Village Thai restaurant Rhong-Tiam. Or is “rhong-tiam” just Thai for sadomasochism? Moskin says their "Pork on Fire" is “not so much a dish as a session: an hour spent suspended exquisitely between pleasure and pain, craving and fear.” 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 ›

Frank Bruni, the Times’s top restaurant critic, awards the new 2nd Avenue Deli one star today, which isn’t bad considering it is, despite all the history, still a deli. We popped in there for food and photos just before it reopened at its East 33rd Street location and found the sandwiches (pictured) as monumental as ever; a second visit turned up no sign of the free bowl of gribenes (chicken skin fried in chicken fat) that the owner Jeremy Lebewohl had promised free at every table. more ›

Pinch & S’MAC: Dejected fans of Pinch, the defunct Park Avenue South “pizza by the inch” joint, will not only be reunited with their favorite Pinch pizza, but they can even slather it with the incredible mac-n-cheese from East Village favorite S’MAC. The new cheese and carb cartel will bring the best of both menus together on the Upper West Side, forming a single, unified, belt-busting celebration of starch. If you’ve never tried S’MAC, you’re best off staying away; those who’ve tasted their mac-n-cheese speak of it with glazed-over eyes befitting a Shake Shack devotee. Opening “soft” on Monday, Pinch & S’MAC promises a casual environment with take out, delivery, catering and a separate room for private parties. 474 Columbus Ave., between 82nd and 83rd, (646) 438-9494. more ›

While we're always on the hunt for both the new and the unfamiliar in New York's kitchens, we also have standby favorite restaurants. One place we find ourselves returning to over and over again is Bedford Street's 'Ino, the sliver of a cafe and wine bar specializing in panini, tramezzini, bruschetta and a laundry list of wines (mostly Italian), with a handful available by the glass or half-bottle. Intimacy comes to mind in a space almost entirely lit by candles and because the room is so small, patrons must get up in domino effect when new customers arrive. The menu is made for mixing and matching -- salads and soups, bruschetta topped with various cheeses, meats, vinegars, and vegetables, and of course the panini (hot pressed sandwiches) and tramezzini (crustless sandwiches on white bread). more ›

Bar Boulud: Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni recently lost his patience waiting on hold for 15 minutes to make a reservation, which should give you some sense of how feverish the excitement is for Daniel Boulud’s latest foray. The tony uptown wine bar, across the street from Lincoln Center, enjoyed the raging buzz of a sneak-preview opening on New Year’s Eve and now the 100 seat restaurant is open for real. Judging from the photos, the modern yet warm interior does look inviting; a long vaulted ceiling is intended to “invoke a classic wine cellar”, a backlit gravel wall echoes an old world vineyard, and three private “wine themed” dining rooms are available for the swells. more ›

Mention the word Kuta to a surfer or a globetrotter and the first thing that comes to mind is the Balinese fishing village turned beach resort. The folks behind Kuta Satay House & Wine Bar are looking to get the same name recognition from diners with their new spot on the Lower East Side. more ›

Kuta Satay House & Wine Bar: Taking its name from the tourist beach town in Bali, Kuta Satay House (pictured) is bringing its modern Southeast Asia menu to the Lower East Side. The main attraction here are the skewers, such as short ribs with asian pears and sesame barbeque sauce. Entrees emphasize seafood and steak, but there’s also a spicy duck curry and side dishes like garlic fries. 65 Rivington St, (212) 777-5882. more ›

If you’re thinking about buying into the future Soho Mews condo but still unsure whether the “doorman, concierge and a curator” will be enough for you, the news in today’s Post might just be your tipping point. The under-construction condo, which is comprised of two buildings joined by a shared courtyard garden, has announced a partnership with Centovini, the Italian restaurant on West Houston, four blocks north from the condo on West Broadway, across from... more ›

Zagat's updated Best of Brooklyn 2008 guide was released yesterday, filled to the brim with all that the city's largest borough has to offer, including 216 restaurants, 141 nightspots, 355 shops, 25 tourist attractions and more. Like all Zagat guides, this one is a complilation of surveys from the public and each entry is rated on a scale of 1-30. The guide is broken up into five sections: Dining, Nightlife, Shopping, Gourmet Shopping & Entertaining,... more ›

Since an army of sloppy amateurs are expected to mob New York’s bars tonight to toast the anniversary of Prohibition’s end, it might be a good night to pick up a bottle of something or other and bring the celebration home. Imbibers looking for something special in Brooklyn need look no further than the Williamsburg Bridge; the paisans behind the rustic Williamsburg restaurant PT and the romantic North 8th Street D.O.C. Wine Bar have... more ›

This week in the Times, Bruni three stars Fiamma and rates it a top pick. Says that the restaurant is not, by any means, classically Italian, but “when a restaurant turns out this many dishes that make you stop mid-chew, nudge a companion and nod your head vigorously—because you’re excited; because you need to start working off the calories any way you can—it needn’t worry about fitting into a tidy box.” Also in the Times,... more ›

The Smith: Believe it or not, the The Smith is housed in the spot that used to be a Pizzeria Uno. Virtually anything would be an upgrade. The owners of Jane and the Neptune Room, Glenn Harris and Jeffrey Lefcourt, brought the executive chef from Jane, Brian Ellis to create a hearty, seasonal, American bistro-style menu, with offerings like lamb schnitzel with parmesan crust, hot potato chips with gorgonzola fondue, and steak served in various... more ›

Bacaro: Frank DeCarlo of Peasant and his wife Dulcinea Benson transport you to Venice in their 80-seat wine bar/restaurant on the Lower East Side. Northern Italian menu offerings include cicchetti, (think Venetian bar snacks) like crostini, sardines, artichokes, and more, cheeses selected by Lou DiPalo, and pastas, quail, and duck for those seeking heartier fare. 136 Division Street, between Orchard and Ludlow Streets, 212-941-5060. more ›