The Year In Food: Doughnut Tickets, Hand-Pulled Noodles, Beer And More - Photo Gallery

Everything's A Sequel: Since the recession began restaurateurs have been holding down the fort and expanding their existing brands rather than creating new ones. That trend continued in force this year! Shake Shack opened a Brooklyn outpost, Momofuku Milk Bar and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf added UWS locations, Fatty Cue and Forcella brought their goods to Manhattan, Schnipper's Quality Kitchen expanded to the Flatiron District, The Meatball Shop added balls in Brooklyn and Manhattan, The Smith added a spot in Midtown and East Village Ukrainian standby Veselka added a second spot a few blocks down Second Avenue. Not to mention the suddenly everywhere Luke's Lobster, which even added a truck, or IHOP which not only moved into the East Village—it also announced plans to open a location inside the old Limelight.

<strong>The Year In Pizza:</strong> 2011 was a big year for pizza. There were some notable openings, and more notable closings. Nouveau Neapolitan joint Motorino was <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/08/01/leaning_tower_of_motorino_shuttered.php">forced to close</a> in Williamsburg because of a building issue, essentially forfeiting North Brooklyn pizza supremacy to <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/07/26/hipster_pizza_wars_new_wave_pizza_w.php">newcomer Forcella</a>, who later <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/10/27/photos_brooklyn_pizza_hotspot_force.php#photo-1">expanded to the Bowery</a>. The real, original, genuine Ray's Pizza <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/10/24/the_real_original_rays_pizza_is_rea.php">closed for good</a>, while <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/12/15/grimaldis_has_left_the_building.php">Grimaldi's was kicked out</a> of their DUMBO storefront, only to reopen around the corner. And Midwood pizza legend <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/11/21/di_fara_pizza_shuttered_by_doh_afte.php">Di Fara waged a very public battle</a> with the Health Department, ultimately prevailing over the agency and successfully slinging pies for the foreseeable future.

Noodles Are Everywhere: The ramen craze finally hit Brooklyn with the introduction of Chuko in Prospect Heights, which turns out a solid (if not Ippudo-level) bowl. We also loved the amazing knife-cut and hand-pulled to order noodles at Uncle Zhou in Elmhurst, which opened this spring in an inconspicuous strip mall but has been the darling of Chowhounders ever since. We also learned how to make hand-pulled noodles with this video, and then tracked down the five best noodle soups in Manhattan. And finally, although it didn't open this year, we'd like to throw another mention out to Yunnan Flavor Snack in Sunset Park, which still makes some of the best, most unique noodle dishes we've ever had.

Jewish Food Has A Moment: Against all odds, Jewish food got kind of hip this year, with the opening of the new Upper East Side 2nd Avenue Deli (complete with LATKE MARTINI, people) and Kutsher's, which brought the taste of summer camp in the Catskills to Tribeca. Kutsher's is trying to make gefilte fish sexy and Manischewitz is appealing to goys, but thank Moses that Shelsky's Smoked Fish is bringing good-old fashioned appetizing (read: quality lox) to Brooklyn.

Filipino Food Returns To The East Village: Sixth Street in the East Village used to be "Little Manila" before Indian restaurants came in and pushed the Filipino eats to Woodside. Now, the undersung cuisine makes its triumphant return to Manhattan, with the openings of Maharlika, Sa Aming Nayon and Bar Kada within blocks of each other. Now all we need is a Jollibee.

The Year In Beer And Booze: Did you know that that if you consume more than two alcoholic beverages a night, the Health Department says you are a "heavy drinker"? Health professionals, what do they know? We drank a lot this year, and aside from our inability to remember some things that would probably just haunt us anyway, we've never felt so alive. And let's face it, who needs memories when we've got Google? For example, the Google machine tells us we devoted an entire month at Gothamist to the topic beer, something we've never done before (that we can remember) and would love to do again (if someone will kindly remind us). As part of our wall-to-wall beer coverage, some exciting things came to light. Brooklyn Brewery Brewmaster Garrett Oliver revealed what the worst beer in the world is, beer expert Joshua Bernstein told us what the five best beers in NYC are, we told you where to find the best refreshing beer cocktails, and gave you tips for making your own beer in your apartment... or just how to make the jump to getting a keg in your apartment. To be sure, beer is not the only alcoholic beverage we, uh, report on for Gothamist. Whisky expert Heather Greene told us why women should drink more Scotch, Kombucha Cocktails became a thing, The Vault at Pfaff's opened and became one of our favorite Manhattan cocktail dens, a Four Loko ban went into effect, Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau went Brooklyn, and PDT's Jim Meehan told us how he's finally come to terms with that "speakeasy" label. But our favorite drinking story of the year? Our highly scientific ranking of the five best barkeeps in NYC, with profiles on Sunny Balzano at Sunny's Bar, Donald O'Finn at Freddy's in South Slope, Lucy Mickevicis at Lucy's on Avenue A, Mark Penza at Billy Mark's in Chelsea, and Dave Pollack at The Diamond in Greenpoint. We'll pick another 5 for 2012—let us know your favorites in the comments.

<p>2011 in food wasn't all tasty noodles and piping hot pizza pies. We also had lots of culinary crimes on our plate, and not just the increasingly run-of-the-mill <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/12/23/babbo_waiter_lawsuit_rife_with_butt.php">disgruntled waiter lawsuits</a>. Oh, no. We had a bloody pizziolo <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/04/15/a_stabbing_on_smith_street.php">stabbing outside</a> Lucali (in which <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/06/22/lucali_knife_fight_ends_well_all_ch.php">all charges were dropped</a> because nobody would snitch), an insane <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/03/18/video_subway_spaghetti_spat_sparks.php">spaghetti-related fight</a> on the subway (which <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/03/22/should_eating_on_the_subway_be_outl.php">brought up the age old question</a>, 'should we ban food on the subway?'), a <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/10/16/customer-bashing_mcdonalds_cashier.php">graphic beatdown</a> in a West Village McDonald's (<a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/12/11/customer-bashing_mcdonalds_cashier_3.php">charges were dropped</a>) and <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/05/23/teenage_riot_at_west_village_dunkin.php">a teenage riot</a> in a nearby Dunkin' Donuts. Not to mention the two women who were <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/06/06/ticketed_for_eating_a_doughnut_in_a.php">ticketed for eating doughnuts</a> while in a park unaccompanied by a minor, the random sight of a sanitation cop <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/06/14/sanitation_department_cop_busted_fo.php">using a Papa John's car</a> or the amusing image of different cops blocking a bike lane to <a href="http://gothamist.com/2011/05/06/cops_park_in_bike_lane_for_emergenc.php#photo-1">eat at the pizza chain</a>. </p>