Ignorance will no longer be bliss for drinkers at some of New York’s fine franchise restaurants. Starting next month, whether you like it or not, you’re going to find out calorie information on every drink you order at Olive Garden, Applebees, T.G.I. Friday’s or Pizzeria Uno. The new Health Department law requiring chain restaurants with more than 15 locations nationwide to print calorie counts on menus also requires them to display their beverage stats. The......

Mike Huckabee, featured in a profile in Sunday's New York Times magazine, chose to eat at T.G.I.Friday's when given a choice of lunch spots in Manhattan. The author vetoed his choice, and they ended up at his second choice, the Olive Garden. Politics aside, that's reason enough for us not to vote for the guy. Then again, we're pretty impressed that he lost over 100 pounds and runs marathons despite eating such crap. Gael Greene......

This week in New York life is like a box of chocolates – on steroids. (Mmmm, chocolate steroids.) The wicked masterminds behind the 10th annual International Chocolate Show decided that this year the usual three day, 40,000 square foot cocoa orgy just wasn’t going to cut it. So they’ve gotten a number of area restaurants to collectively boost the city’s blood sugar levels by declaring the next six days Chocolate Week. Some notable New York......

Local One, the Broadway stagehands’ union, has never struck in its 121-year history. Since salaries for stagehands – who handle lighting, props, sets and, yes, even Tarzan's vine – currently top off at 100K, who could blame them? But The League of American Theatres and Producers, who control 22 of 39 Broadway houses, are now wringing their hands after the union’s unanimous vote on Sunday to strike. (Last week the Nederlanders, the producers who......

A 26-year-old Yale graduate and Greenpoint resident got a lot of attention in Times Square yesterday - and the NY Post's cover today - by walking around naked. The Post reports that Josh Drimmer was walking in his birthday suit for "several minutes" around 11AM along Seventh Avenue between West 47th and 48th Streets. Reporter Jennifer Fermino overheard one witness calling a friend on his cellphone and saying, "Yo, homeboy's got full-frontal nudity right here!"......

Times Square has always offered a nice dose of "weird," whether it be in the pre-Giuliani days or its now more Disney-fied incarnation. Now some more strange will be saturating the area, in the form a famous Odditorium. Yes, tourists will be able to see things like locks of Abe Lincoln's hair after having a nice meal at the Olive Garden. Ripley's Believe It Or Not! is back, for a third time, in Times Square.......

After last year's mess of an awards show and this year's joke of nominations (where is love for Lauren Graham, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences?), we were going to swear off this year's Emmys. But then we realized Conan O'Brien was hosting, so we must watch and liveblog. And there's the hope of a good Steve Carrell bit, not to mention awkward reaction shots of Candy and Tori Spelling during the Aaron Spelling tribute.......

Just two weeks ago we were telling our friend to have his birthday party at Dave & Buster's. "There is no Dave & Buster's in the city," he said. Since we had never thought to go to the place, we didn't know...we just assumed this city would have one. For those who don't know, Dave & Buster's is an adult playground. Video games, virtual reality systems, skee ball and beer. Like recess served with spiked......

Eager to reassure everyone that things were moving along at Ground Zero, Governor Pataki's World Trade Center flunky chief of staff, said that the PATH Transit Hub designed by Santiago Calatrava would offer 200,000 square feet of space for retailers and bidding will start in a few months. All hell, does this mean there will be an Olive Garden down there, to compete with the Applebee's at the Battery Park Regal Cinemas? The NY Times......

Gothamist can recall a time before Smith Street's hip eateries - a time when Carroll Gardens was home to a myriad of "red gravy" dining establishments, with nary a stylish Thai restaurant in sight. Happily, some of the nabe's old world Italian mainstays remain, but changes are still afoot. Case in point: the corner of Union and Henry Streets, home to the decidedly traditional Nino's Pizzeria and the classic Italian-American Mazzola Bakery. Not long ago,......

Even though it's June, on fall television show we're excited about is Kitchen Confidential, the Darren Starr spin on Gothamist favorite Anthony Bourdain's seminal "life of a working chef" book of the same name. Zap2It has an interview with Bradley Cooper, who will star as the Bourdainish character and explains the premise: "[My character] got addicted to cocaine and blew it all up my nose, lost everything. Now I'm a line cook at an Olive......

Some familiar booths and vendors along the Boardwalk in Coney Island will have to leave by the end of the summer to make way for new development. The Daily News reports that developer Thor Equities has been negotiating to buy up more land in the area, including where the Nathan's stand is. "We are looking for a new home," said the manager of the gyro stand, who goes by the name Joey Clams. "Are......

Yesterday morning, a retired nun was hit and killed by a flatbed truck at the busy 6th Avenue and 23rd Street intersection. The nun, 80 year old Catherine Lee, had been "crossing to the west side Sixth Avenue 10:35 a.m. when the front passenger side of a flatbed truck turning right on to Sixth Avenue from 23rd Street clipped her," according to Newsday's police sources. Then, as a food cart vendor who went to help......

Today we wrap up our discussion with Steve Hurst, the guy who makes you look back at the television screen during the local forecast on The Weather Channel and ask, "Is that... Moby?" If it weren't for him, we'd still be listening to the Windham Hill New Age library during our local forecasts. But instead, Steve has mixed it up and given us something a little more interesting to listen to while we evaluate......

Will be in NY next month. Need a good restaurant for dinner after The Boy from Oz at the Imperial Theatre. Can you give me some choices? Many thanks. It's always an issue. Where do you go to eat after the theater? You want a unique dining experience, and not to end up at the Olive Garden. Here are some recommendations: There are several really great restaurants on 9th Ave. If you are willing to......

You can tell a lot about a year by seeing which posts were popular, and from Gothamist's standpoint, it's been a banner year for our readers who are perverts or nerds (we're hoping the loyal readers are both). Here are a few of our most popular posts: Thoughts on the Matrix Reloaded; 100 Best Songs; when we pretended to know all about friendster messages; Paris Hilton sex tapes and her SNL appearance; Nicole Richie's racial......

The NY Post gives date suggestions for where to take girls, whether they be trend surfer, a highbrow glamour-puss or a proud bohemian" - apparently proud bohemian also means "cheap date." (And it seems like the Post doesn't think the Olive Garden is a good date option. D'oh!) Some of the usual suspects are named: Sumile, The Sanctum at Tribeca Grand, the new cafes at the Met. But, if you want to show someone a......

The bitchiest NY theater critic in town, Michael Riedel at the Post, asks a panel of "four cranky New York drama critics" (no word if Riedel is one of them) what they are dreading this new theater season. Some priceless excerpts: On Little Shop of Horrors Critic No. 2: "Every high school and community theater has done 'Little Shop.' People know what they're going to get. It's cheeseburger theater. It's for people who go......

The Observer goes to check out the scene at the Chelsea Olive Garden four months after we do. Coincidence? We think not. Okay, probably writer Gabriel Sherman was influenced by last month's Times article a month ago and all his friends who work in Chelsea and go there for the unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks lunch, but he remarks upon two of our findings: The cocktails and the high potential for hipsters going there to......

Gothamist was wearing a sweater and puffy coat during this week in June. There are so many things wrong with that. Anyway... - Graydon Carter likes 'em young - Tests for New York tour guides - TiVo, Your Habits, and Big Brother - Someone at Vogue actually eats - When chain restaurants attack - Kitchen cut-ups - Book for the dumped - Captain Derek - When Will Ferrell went to Harvard - Solid gold lightswitch......

The Times' Marian Burros tries to understand why, in a city of so many wonderful and inexpensive restaurants, some New Yorkers would want to go to Applebee's, Olive Garden, Outback, or Red Lobster. Restaurant consultant Clark Wolf tells her, "New Yorkers as a group are not at the cutting edge and that's the dirty secret. As brutal as it sounds, these chains reflect the expectations of the community." See how Gothamist felt when we went......

601am.com has a great, thoughtful response to some person on Craig's List who is unhappy in NY. Gothamist would just like to add one thing: You have to read the Post and Daily News to know what the upcoming episodes of Law & Order will be about! Plus tabloids' coverage of sports, gossip, and local issues are unparalleled...you need to read extreme, crazy, poorly fact-checked articles. It's a way of life! Unhappy New Yorker does......

Josh's Kobe Beef Burger Birthday Gothamist celebrated Josh's birthday at one of the city's temples of beef - The Old Homestead Steak House....

Olive Garden Insanity
Chelsea Olive Garden has been open for a couple months, but Gothamist only made it there last night. The purpose: To understand how a chain restaurant like Olive Garden can fit into our urban lifestyles....

William Grimes came up with a better title for his Howard Johnson's restaurant review: HoJo's to Go? Say It Ain't So Apparently the old HoJo's in Times Square is thinking about packing it in, probably to make room for another Olive Garden restaurant or something like that. I love HoJo's- it was the hotel of choice for my poor pinko parents back in the 1970s. And I disagree with Grimes about the clam strips- I......

My favorite Vogue writer is featured in the New York Times today. Of course Jeffrey Steingarten writes about food, not clothes. Tania and I saw him a few weeks ago and I tried to convince him to go to the Olive Garden.......