When we first noted this incoming Brazilian restaurant/bar back at the beginning of January, we incorrectly referred to it as Favela. Turns out it's Miss Favela to you (and us); the South Williamsburg "Brazilian Botequim" is currently in soft opening mode. Co-owner Alain Denneulin (of Soho's French Bistro Felix) tells us they're shooting for an official opening June 2nd. And once Miss Favela is in full swing, they'll be serving lunch and dinner until midnight......

Andrea Schwartz, the Brazilian ex-pat who settled in Manhattan and became a madam with powerful clients, is back in the news. And she's as saucy as ever, this time denying that she's a lesbian. Tell us more! Schwartz, who was arrested in 2006 after the vice squad busted her Midtown prostitution ring from her apartment (where she also sold coke to customers), was sentenced to 18 months in jail, which she's already served, and probably......

Some L.A. Lakers fan (we assume) came up with a brilliant plan to psych out Phoenix Suns guard Leandro Barbosa last week. Barbosa fell victim to a hoax where his hotel gave him a message saying that Suns GM Steve Kerr wanted to meet him to discuss a trade to the New York Knicks. Jeez, that's maybe the meanest prank call we've ever heard! The Brazilian player sought out assistant coach and mentor Dan D'Antoni......

Last night, Savoy chef and local foods champion Peter Hoffman gave a presentation at the Museum of Natural History on the role of water in sustainable farming, in conjunction with the ongoing Water: H2O = Life exhibit (now through May 25). We missed it too, but found some similar upcoming events. Call it the Mr. Wizard meets Escoffier edition- these food happenings deal with the intersections of ingredients, science, and art. Experimental Cuisine Collective While......

Photo by Youngna Park It's a dark day for South Billyburg lovers of southern comfort food – dark as blackened catfish on a moonless Brooklyn night. Eater points out Peter Meehan's discovery that the beloved hole in the wall Pies 'n' Thighs, in the shadow of the Williamsburg bridge, will close tomorrow night. Party, or wake, to follow. The closure has to do with some gripes on behalf of the reactionaries at the health......

FOOD: Trestle on Tenth, the “homey joins hearty” Swiss-inflected restaurant that takes its name from its proximity to the High Line and the avenue where it’s found, kicks off a special five-night series called “metzgete.” The Swiss tradition loosely translates to “butchers affair” and arises from the practice of salvaging every scrap of pig after the winter slaughter – “especially those parts that would or could not be dried, smoked or pickled for later consumption.”......

It’s now trendy for tourists visiting Rio de Janeiro to eschew the nice hotels in favor of a full immersion in the city’s sprawling shantytowns, or “favelas”. But for those who can’t make the trip to Brazil, a new restaurant will soon bring a taste of that scene to Williamsburg. Called Favela, the establishment is described as a "Brazilian Botequim", a simple place for the neighborhood to gather for drinks, food and watching soccer.......

MOVIES: It's a perfect night to head to the movies. Get a double-feature in at the MoMA with Fabricating Tom Zé followed by David Cronenberg's Crash. Let's focus on the former film. Tom Zé (pictured) is a Brazilian songwriter and composer and this documentary (filmed during a 2005 European tour) charts his "personal universe". Zé is an "uncompromising and inspired artist...seen by many (including David Byrne and Arto Lindsay) as revitalizing the ever-evolving Tropicalia movement.......

MUSIC: If you haven't checked out the Summer of Love exhibit at the Whitney, head over there after work and get a double dose of rock while you're at it. Tonight Dirty Projectors and Lucky Dragons take the stage at Whitney Live. Get there early to get in. Check out this "Take Away Show" in New York featuring the Dirty Projectors. Friday // 6pm // The Whitney [945 Madison Ave at 75th St] // Free......

The Coupon Clipper scours the specials for the best deals in New York's big grocery stores. Two weeks ago, searching for limes among the piles of produce in Fairway seemed like cruel game. Because they were out of the “regular” ones, we had to wade through the organic bins, tossing over strange foliage to find the citrus at over a dollar a piece. So imagine our shock when we walked in this week and faced......

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA......

Street artist Highraff recently came to the United States for the first time to raise awareness about the culture of his hometown São Paulo, Brazil, where he’s been painting in the streets since 1997. The twenty-nine-year-old artist, whose given name is Rafael Calazans Pierri, currently has work on display here in New York as part of Ruas de São Paulo: A Survey of Brazilian Street Art at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery. If you think his......

The Brazilian street artists have landed, and we're tracking their every move as they get ready to launch Ruas de Sao Paulo: A Survey of Brazilian Street Art at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery this Saturday. Here’s an account of the movements of Boleta, Fefê, Highraff, Kboco, Onesto, Speto, Titi Freak, and Zezão. Feb. 14 – The Installation: The artists installed their work at the gallery. Flavio Samelo captured some moments of the installation at his......

VALENTINE PICK: Let Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio) and Scary Mansion serenade you and your valentine tonight. Glasslands is advertising the night as a Valentine's Dinner. The venue was opened last year by artist Brooke Baxter and commercial real estate broker Rolyn Hu, who have created the perfect art-centric space/venue. 7pm // Glasslands [289 Kent Ave, Brooklyn] // Price TBD ANTI-VALENTINE PICK: It's not Valentine's Day without an "down with love"-esque sort of party.......

Brazilian art is scorching hot this winter. Hopefully you made it to the Tropicalia exhibit at the Bronx Museum before it closed this past weekend. Next stop: Ruas de São Paulo, an exhibition on Brazilian street art that begins next month at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery. But, before that gets underway, there’s going to be a must-attend benefit art auction today, January 31, at 7-10 PM, at The Newspace (530 West 21st St., Chelsea) to......

ART: Check out Pale and Blue at 14 tonight at Giant Robot New York. Jeana Sohn’s paintings are a testament to the bond between humans and nature. Meanwhile, The Village Voice is calling Giant Robot New York, “Best New Gallery/store For Big Kids Who Still Like To Play With Toys.” Closing January 3rd. - Stephanie Nikolopoulos Closing Tomorrow // Giant Robot [437 E 9th St] // Free THEATER: The Big Voice: God or Merman? is......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a high-rise fire on 31st and Broadway, a pedestrian struck by car on Hester and Bowery, and a "missing prisoner" (!) in the West Village. Charlie Rangel wants to reinstate the draft: "he sees his idea as a way to deter politicians from launching wars and to bolster U.S. troop levels insufficient to cover potential future action in Iran, North Korea and Iraq." Yikes! Two Long Island pilots are......

There seem to be a lot of LVHRD events lately! Tonight they present Bi-FOLD II: Street. The event will bring together two diverse artists inspired by the same muse, the street. The night will include both presentation and performance, including Brazilian graffiti artist Speto, who will present his work and create a live mural, followed by an interactive performance piece with New York based Graffiti Research Lab. Who better to introduce these folks than......

Jelena Prokopcuka won her second ING NYC Marathon in a row, finishing at 2:25:05, while Marilson Gomes Dos Santos of Brazil won the men's race with a time of 2:09:58. Latvian Prokopcuka broke away from the other elite women's runners from the start of the race in Staten Island, closely following the women's pace-setter, and never gave up the lead. Tatiana Hladyr of the Ukraine finished second and Catherine "Catherine the Great" Ndereba finished......

No ordinary days exist for a Paulo Coelho character - the battle between Good and Evil is a daily and commonplace occurrence. So commonplace, in fact, that the Brazilian writer has dedicated ten books to the pursuit of it. The Devil and Miss Prym, his latest U.S. release, is the third book in a loosely-linked trilogy, preceded by By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, and Veronika Decides To Die. All three novels......

Brazilian Andreia Schwartz, arrested two weeks ago for running a prostitution and drug ring, was singing like a canary during her arraignment. She named two of her big clients - previously mentioned Time Warner executive Wayne Pace and Robert Voccola, bigwig at a Barrett Associates - and what they gave her:I wouldn't have kept having sex with [Pace] or any of these guys if they weren't paying me...I got up to $200,000 ... from just......

On Sundays Gothamist runs opinion pieces relevant to life in New York and reviews of recent books and performances. The judgments expressed below are entirely those of the author. Over the past centuries, people have adapted Shakespeare’s plays in countless ways, often to put them in a contemporary setting. With Clean, by contrast, Bob Epstein has taken an already contemporary story and setting and written it in the manner of a good Shakespearean comedy mixed......

The heat is on, the humidity is rising, seems about the perfect time for a good old fashioned tabloid hooker scandal, doesn't it? Well, ask and you shall receive. The News and the Post both ecstatically report today that alleged madam Andrea Schwartz was more then happy to give interviews yesterday from Rikers Island. Even more exciting for the tabs Schwartz, who steadfastly denies that she is either a prostitute or a madam and claims......

How do you know your brothel is making serious cash? When you can buy a floor of condos at the converted Plaza hotel. At least, that's what prosecutors claim Andrea Schwartz was going to do, as the NYPD's Vice Squad busted a Midtown prostitution ring yesterday. Brazilian-born Schwartz confessed to running the business out of her 100 West 58th Street condo, as well as selling coke to some of her customers. Schwartz and three other......

At noon today, Suzanne Vega and Lou Reed will play a free concert at the opening of 7 World Trade Center. As we all know, 7 WTC is the only tower to be rebuilt since 9/11; the plaza already opened this week. The first tenants (the developers of the building - Silverstein Properties) will move in Friday, followed by the architects (Norman Foster, Jean Nouvel and Richard Rogers) working on the three buildings being......

The crux of mas (farmhouse) is the use of the freshest organic ingredients to make the most inventive food, so it's no surprise that the bar introduces cocktails seasonally, too. This week we tried new cocktails at the bar courtesy of the bar manager and partner Tom Wilson featuring Leblon, a Brazilian Cachaca (rum). The bar offers the now-standard Mojitos and Caprinihas made with a flourish and this surprising, smooth liquor, but have also created......

March 4: Caipirinha Making Brazilian Extravaganza Join in the fun at LeNell's Ltd: a Wine & Spirit Boutique, as they celebrate Brazilian culture with Brazilian music, food and of course a variety of tropical concoctions made with Cachaca Fazenda Mae De Ouro. Munch on Pao de queijo (Brazilian cheese bread), grilled sausage (two types!) and even more Brazilian cheese. Sip traditional and passionfruit caipirinhas and get ready to try some new tropical cachaca concoctions to......

February 22: From Disaster to Dessert – the Fate of New Orleans Food Slow Food NYC and the Project for Public Spaces will host a panel discussion on the impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita on food production in New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf region. Panelists include: Clara Gerica, an independent Gulf Coast shrimper; Richard McCarthy, founder of the New Orleans Crescent City Farmers Market; Poppy Tooker, the leader of Slow Food New Orleans;......

Drink. Then again, that’s our answer to most questions. But it seems we are not alone. To help us make it through the Blizzard ’06, we knew it would take a sturdy pair of boots, a warm fleece hat and the insatiable desire to find a warm cozy bar to serve up soul-warming cocktails. Luckily for us south of the border turns out to be right below 14th street. To transport ourselves from the......

It's that time of year again. The time of year we spend entirely too much money on going to a bar or party or club that any other night would cost nothing to enter. But we go, we pay and we fight the Bridge & Tunnel crowd for a spot at the bar. Why? We don't know. It's just part of NYE in NYC. This year we're fleeing the country, but for those of you......