Hell's Kitchen

Three Underrated Patios Where You'll Actually Be Able to Find a Seat

That line you see in the photo above? That was the wait at 7 p.m. last Friday night for the Frying Pan, the bar located on a boat anchored in the Hudson. And while we dig the notion of sipping drinks while floating on the water, the pay-off for spending 45 minutes waiting to board our happy hour des ... More >>

$HORT AND SWEET

Bay area veteran Too $hort blows the whistle at Stage 48

Luna Sur Latin Bistro Opens in Hell's Kitchen; Calexico Comes to the Lower East Side

Luna Sur Latin Bistro opened last week in Hell's Kitchen. The menu features Latin flavors with a mix of Peruvian, Spanish, Mexican, and Cuban dishes like empanadas, tacos, croquettes, and arroz con pollo. The restaurant will host a DJ on the weekends during "Latin Brunch," and a back patio is open t ... More >>

The Crack Addicts Are Back In NYC!

They must be! They're stealing s**t again! Last night, I went to K Mart with a friend who wanted to buy a bike there. Way down in the basement of the 34th Street store, they have perfectly nice cruisers for as low as $110, all pumped up and ready to go! He also got a long and winding lock for $22, ... More >>

Danny Tenaglia

Traditional Korean Skewers and Stews in the Flatiron District

Fresh kills

What Percentage of the American Populace is LGBT?

There's one Republican poll that claims 3.3% of Americans are "that way," but before you buy that, please realize there are so many other factors. A) Some people don't identify themselves with a sexuality label, aren't sure which label they might fit into, and/or don't want to say. B) There's some ... More >>

Hell's Kitchen Is Gayer Than Ever! Here's My Bar Guide!

The hookup meets the walk-up as far out as Tenth Avenue

HK Is Gayer Than Ever! Here's My Bar Breakdown For You

Just when it seemed Hell's Kitchen couldn't get any gayer, they added another Thai noodle restaurant. And two more bars. And for this week's column, I've gone to each and every one of them to lay out where the action is, from cute twinks bravely not dancing as they drink, to cowboy-hatted country ... More >>

A Year Older? Celebrate With Restaurant Birthday Freebies All Over New York City

Living in New York isn't cheap, but at least celebrating a birthday here doesn't have to be pricey. From sweets to snacks and appetizers to alcoholic beverages, simply showing an ID with your date of birth can earn you some food freebies around town. Try out this bunch below.

New Year's Eve Guide: Dance

Huge Restaurant and Lounge to Open in Hell's Kitchen

There's going to be a massive restaurant and lounge in Hell's Kitchen come November. Stage 48 and Z Bar Restaurant and Sky-Lounge is a 30,000-square-foot space that will house a state-of-the-art live entertainment venue, a full-service restaurant, and glass-enclosed rooftop lounge between four floor ... More >>

Sampling Balkan Comfort Food at Balkanika

Cevapcici (left) are delicious flame-grilled skinless beef sausages, sided with a Turkic bread, red pepper paste, a yogurt dip, and salad. This week Counter Cultures slides in to Balkanika, a Hell's Kitchen spot with probably the fullest selection of wine-bar eats you've ever seen. While the chees ... More >>

How Many of These Bread Dips Can You Identify?

This delicious collection of 15 bread dips is Dish #29 in our countdown. Welcome to 100 Dishes to Eat Now, the tasty countdown leading up to our "Best of 2012" issue. Tune in every day (weekends, too!) for a new dish from the Fork in the Road team. [See More 100 Dishes: Pok Pok Brings the Funk to ... More >>

Get Drunk On Sugar At Schmackary's Cookie Happy Hour

[See More Events: Num Pang Launching the Cardoz Pang | Free Cocktails, Beer Dinner] Located in Hell's Kitchen, cookie shop Schmackary's is launching a back-to-school special. It's two cookies and a 12 ounce class of local Hudson Valley milk, or chocolate milk, for $6. Cookie happy hour will be avai ... More >>

Schmackary's Introduces Build Your Own Ice Cream Sandwiches

Schmackary's, a cookie eatery in Hell's Kitchen that just opened this past May, will soon be offering custom ice cream cookie sandwiches for $6.25. Flavors include pretty much everything you could want, including key lime, classic chocolate chip, coconut chip, maple bacon, cookies and cream, peanut ... More >>

Our Best Posts of the Week!

In case you missed it, our week in review: Gray's Papaya expanded its list of condiments, adding three new ones to the original four: molten cheese-like substance, emphatically canned chili con carne, and green pickle relish. We celebrate National Rum Day (and poke fun at it) with a Dark and Storm ... More >>

Can't Decide Between Pizza and a Burger? Now You Don't Have To!

This slice is a gut bomb, par excellence. On the uncertain fault line between German-American and Italian-American cooking lies the bacon-cheeseburger slice. Formatted like a pizza pie, it showcases the essential elements of a dolled-up burger.

10 Best NY Burgers, 2012

This way-downtown burger is a paragon of juiciness. [See More 10 Bests: Eats in Carroll Gardens | Hell's Kitchen Restaurants | Doughnuts] If America had a signature dish, what would it be? I think it must be the hamburger. And who doesn't adore a juicy ground patty of beef, lamb, turkey, seafood, ... More >>

Say Goodbye To Paninoteca, Funini

It's a dog-eat-dog world out there. Know of any restaurants or bars opening or closing? Drop us a line. Paninoteca, a sandwich shop on Columbus between 72nd and 73rd, closed a few days ago after only being open for a few months. [West Side Rag] Sandwich and juice spot Funini on Ludlow has closed. ... More >>

Tomorrow: 10 Best Hell's Kitchen Restaurants

This gentlepig, who stands outside Rudy's Bar and Grill, is the unofficial mayor of Hell's Kitchen. Extending from 34th Street to 56th Street and including everything from Eighth Avenue to the Hudson River, Hell's Kitchen is one of the most difficult assignments for restaurant rankers. The sheer n ... More >>

Lavender, What Is It Good For?

There's an entire Greenmarket stall devoted to it--and you can smell it from a block away. Lavender is the most unloved of herbs. Apart from use in a minor role in a Provencale bouquet garni, it rarely sees action as anything but pillow stuffing. But does it have its uses? You bet, and they may be ... More >>

Scat Queens! Get Thee To The Central Park Zoo!

I was having a perfectly innocent time at the Central Park Zoo the other day, marveling at all the sunbathing turtles, shy red pandas, unselfconscious scarlet ibises, and precious little cotton top tamarins. And I came upon a snow leopard--imperious, regal, and willingly posing for tourists' photos ... More >>

NYPD Begins Crackdown on Delivery Bicyclists in Hell's Kitchen

The NYPD has just started a new effort to crack down on delivery workers who violate bicycle laws while on duty carting food to starving New Yorkers, and They're starting in Hell's Kitchen, where a restaurant boom has resulted in an influx of delivery workers on bicycles, in turn incensing the com ... More >>

Oat Meals Slated To Open in the Village

Almost here today. . . . Gone tomorrow? The walk-up western storefront at 120 West 3rd is one of the city's most hapless restaurant spaces. You could make a game of how many recent occupants can be unearthed on Google. The place is accessed, not by a door directly into the premises, but by an entr ... More >>

Where Am I Eating? Here's A Clue

Good tries so far, but I was not at Puddin', Rice to Riches, or Sugar Sweet Sunshine.

123BurgerShotBeer.Com -- The Bar That Wants You To Feel Cheated

The $2 shot turns out to be a very small mixed drink at 123BurgerShotBeer.Com. This one has the charming name of Panty Dropper. The siren song of the storefront is irresistible: It seems to suggest you'll be able to buy a burger for $1, a shot of hard liquor for $2, and a beer for $3. Why is the b ... More >>

Hell's Kitchen Gourmet Food Bazaar: Not That Impressive

Fork in the Road headed over to the Hell's Kitchen Gourmet Food Bazaar on Sunday. It was essentially a gathering of no more than a dozen food trucks at the end of the Hell's Kitchen flea market. At around 1 pm, there wasn't that much foot traffic in the food section and truck employees could be seen ... More >>

Mother's Day Weekend Food Specials

Mother's Day is coming up on Sunday and here at Fork in the Road, we've rounded up some restaurant deals and street fairs around the city to ease the planning process. Free stuff 1) Toloache 50 A complimentary mimosa is offered for all mothers at brunch. A $30 pre‐fixe brunch is offered includ ... More >>

Say Hello to Pounds & Ounces, Mahzen Grill

Bricola, a tiny wine bar created by the people behind Aria Wine Bar in the West Village, has opened in Hell's Kitchen. [Zagat] Pounds & Ounces, a gastropub outfitted with an in-house DJ, is opening Wednesday in Chelsea. [Grub Street] Granduca di Sicilia, an Italian restaurant with a Sicilian focus ... More >>

Under the Toque: Zak Pelaccio's Upstate Restaurant Plans, David Chang on Kitchen Microbiology

Dale Schnell, formerly of Setai New York and Artisanal, will be the new executive chef of KTCHN, which will open in Hell's Kitchen in June. [Grub Street] Zak Pelaccio is planning to open a restaurant in Old Chatham, New York, which will be independent of the Fatty chain. [Capital New York]

Say Goodbye to Life Cafe, Manganaro

Life Cafe, the Alphabet City hangout that inspired Jonathan Larson's musical "Rent," is set to close. [NY Daily News] Veronica People's Club, "a weird, wonderful little bar with some of the best and most unassuming cocktails in Greenpoint" is shutting down. [Flavorpill]

Botox Party Tonight! With Wine And Cheese!

And it's on the early side, so you can pulverize your forehead by 9:30, then head to the clubs looking fierce! Check out the info on Facebook -- or if your face is too frozen to move, I'll just tell you the deets right now.

Robert Sietsema at Bowery Diner; Lauren Shockey at Brasilina

This week in the Voice, Robert Sietsema questions whether Bowery Diner really qualifies as a diner: "There are whelks, for God's sake -- just try requesting those in a Greek diner -- served raw or cooked with garlic butter. You'll also find periwinkles, Jonah crab claws, oysters, scallops, clams, mu ... More >>

Brasilina: A New Pseudo Brazilian Spot Comes to Hell's Kitchen

The décor at Brasilina, a new Brazilian-ish restaurant in Hell's Kitchen, is certainly pretty if not totally South American in feel: brick walls, potted trees, wood beams, mismatched vintage plates. The menu, too, features a somewhat bizzare hodgepodge of Brazilian classics (black bean soup, pastel ... More >>

Happy Hour at The Distinguished Wakamba Cocktail Lounge

The Distinguished Wakamba Cocktail Lounge has a few distinctions that don't really relate to its drinks.

Say Hello to Kutsher's, Konditori

Here are some of the latest newcomers to New York City's cutthroat dining scene. If you hear of any new openings or closings, let us know. Mega-restaurateur and convicted felon Jeffrey Chodorow has launched Kutsher's, a Catskill-resort-culture-influenced resto in Tribeca. The menu includes pastrami ... More >>

Saddle Up For NYC'S Newest Gay Bar

​The only Gulch most gays seem to know is Elvira, but suddenly a western-styled cowboy-hatted joint has opened in Hell's Kitchen, for those craving both a hoe-down and a 'ho-down.

INDIE GEMS

A new film fest opens in Hell's Kitchen

Neapolitan Pizza, Demystified

​Earlier this week, we heard that Kesté's Roberto Caporuscio is teaming up with Antonio Starita, proprietor of Naples' legendary Pizzeria Starita, to open Don Antonio, a Neapolitan pizzeria in Hell's Kitchen. Its birth is one that will doubtless be breathlessly anticipated by pizza fanat ... More >>

Teleporting for the First Time to Dohyo in the Yotel Hotel

​The futuristic facade of the Yotel stares down at Tenth Avenue right at the corner of West 42nd Street. When I heard about a sumo-themed restaurant in a futuristic hotel in Hell's Kitchen, my initial response was, "So what?" I knew that theme restaurants often let the food lag, since they k ... More >>

Tomorrow: Our 10 Best Places to Eat in NYC on Gay Pride Weekend

​Hmmm, Bone Lick B-B-Q -- the name and location are right, but will it score high on the other criteria? This being the week of Fork in the Road's Big Gay Food Blog, there was really no other choice for Our 10 Best than ferreting out the optimum places near the parade march route to eat brunc ... More >>

La Silhouette Jumps in la Time Machine

A West '50s restaurant dials it back a few decades

Breaking: The East Village Has a Lot of Bars

sickfacebook.comThis is what Community Board 3 warned you about.​Over the weekend, The New York Post thoughtfully made official what most people already knew: the East Village is home to many, many bars.

No. 16: Burek at Gazala Place

​No those aren't ants on top of chef Gazala Habibi's flaky burek! They're black sesame seeds. Heart of the menu -- though not listed on it -- at Hell's Kitchen Druze cafe Gazala Place is the humble burek. This meal-in-your-hand is prominently displayed in the front window, so you don't reall ... More >>

Cholulita Sells Smut Under the J Tracks

Corn smut, that is. A Bed-Stuy bodega's authentic Pueblan food.

The Opulent Organs of Western Beef

​Here's looking at you, kid -- I mean piglet. Organ meats, also known as offal or by the more all-inclusive category of variety meats, form a perpetual topic of conversation among food fanciers. Some love 'em. Some hate 'em. But no one is completely indifferent. Many chefs have fooled around ... More >>

Chelsea vs. Hell's Kitchen?

​When a lot of gay action started migrating from Chelsea to Hell's Kitchen a few years ago, I assumed the former neighborhood would become as obsolete as phone calls. But the reality is that Chelsea is still gay-thriving with successful bars like Splash, Barracuda, Gym Bar, G, XES, and Boxers ... More >>

How Green Was My Mole?

A New Mexican café in Williamsburg excels at Pre-Columbian fare