Well, fall is now officially in full swing—Shacktoberfest is on.The two week Oktoberfest celebration at the Shake Shack brings a taste of the old country to Madison Square Park. Feast on Usinger’s Sheboygan-Style Beer-Soaked Bratwurst, Andouille, or Polish Sausage for ($6 each), topped with Cranberry Horseradish Relish, Shackmeister-braised Red Cabbage, or Celery Root Slaw. Then pad your belly further with Oktoberfest-influenced Concretes in rotating flavors like Cran-Apple Strudel and German Chocolate Cake, and wash that......

The folks at Serious Eats have launched the first of their city guides today, focusing on -- where else -- New York City. The guide is designed to highlight NYC's "essential eating experiences," and doesn't contain many surprises. You'll find quintessential New York icons like Russ & Daughters and Katz's Deli for "Best Old-School New York Landmark," Blue Ribbon for "Best Late Night Eats," and Blue Smoke, Hill Country and Daisy May's for "Best Barbecue,"......

For those New Yorkers not fortunate enough to have snagged U.S. Open tickets (and to nibble on the fancy food options out in Flushing), American Express has set up an alternate viewing and eating spot -- no 7 train necessary. From Friday, August 29 through Sunday, September 7 between 11:00 AM and 11:00 PM, you can watch the U.S. Open at Madison Square Park, where they're setting up huge viewing screens and stadium seating. There's......

A month ago, when news that a 79 year-old classic burger restaurant in Toledo – the last in town of a defunct chain called White Tower – was being sold for $1 (on condition the buyer moves it off the property where it sits), a reader of A Hamburger Today seized the opportunity to play matchmaker with a NY restaurateur. “Danny Meyer? Paging Danny Meyer?!” wrote the commenter. Indeed. Controversial logo design aside, Meyer's......

GQ's Alan Richman gives props to his five favorite burgers in the city. As expected, the list contains several of the usual suspects -- Shake Shack ("Not a great burger, but a very good one."); the Burger Joint ("No matter how you take it, your burger will be perfect, a manifestation of caring and know-how."); and Peter Luger ("There’s only one correct way to eat meat this wonderful, and that’s unadorned.") -- but others were......

Team Danny Meyer has partnered up with Aramark to bring some serious food to the new Citi Field. When it opens next season, Mets fans will have both Shake Shack and Blue Smoke on the premises along with a taqueria and a Belgian fry stand to be called Pop Fries. The stadium's Sterling Club will also receive the Meyer treatment, with the Union Square Hospitality Group handling all of the dining options there. According to......

In a clever ploy to undermine the city’s controversial proposal to lease out the 78-year-old Union Square Pavilion as a year-round restaurant, a group of activists sent a fake press release Monday that claimed to be from the Union Square Partnership Business Improvement District (BID). The release announced the BID’s decision to drop its push for “privatization of the famous park after overwhelming feedback from citizens across New York City.” (NewsBlaze still has the release......

Brooklynites may no longer have to haul across the bridge and wait in endless lines for burgers, dogs, and concretes at the Shake Shack. Or at least they won't have to cross the bridge -- the Daily News reports that Danny Meyer will be opening a Shack outpost in Brooklyn, and it's going mobile. Unlike the Upper West Side outpost planned to open later this year, which will be a brick-and-mortar affair, Brooklyn will be......

When Mr. Skewer & Co. Brazilian Grill began building out its space a month ago, anticipation ran high among meatheads. Could it be true? Amid visions of short ribs and other meaty treats, some wondered, “Would there really be a rodizio opening on W. 14 St.?” As a recent visit to the new spot revealed, Mr. Skewer has about as much in common with a Brazilian churrascaria as its neighbor Quizno’s does. For one thing,......

A State Supreme Court judge has issued a “preliminary injunction” prohibiting the city from turning the 78-year-old Pavilion in Union Square park into a restaurant. Last week the court ruled that the $21 million overhaul to the north end of the park could proceed while a lawsuit brought by community groups moves forward, but temporary stalled work on the Pavilion. Opponents object to what they see as the privatization of park space and insist the......

UPDATE: NY1's first report yesterday on the Union Square Pavilion lawsuit has been corrected. It turns out that, contrary to the initial news, the injunction stopping work on the park’s 78-year-old Pavilion is still in effect. While parts of the planned renovation to the north end of the park can now proceed, including construction of the expanded playground, the judge has also temporarily stopped the city from cutting down any trees while a lawsuit brought......

A state judge has issued a temporary restraining order to stop the city’s $21 million overhaul of the north end of Union Square Park, which would install a new restaurant in the historic Pavilion, redesign two playgrounds and repave asphalt where the Greenmarket had been operating. A coalition of community groups and parks advocates who brought the lawsuit say the city needs to get approval from the state legislature before privatizing part of the park,......

Today the Times’s chief food critic Frank Bruni revisits WD-50 (pictured) and elevates the Lower East Side avant-garde restaurant to three stars (a 2003 Times review by another critic had awarded it two). Chef Wylie Dufresne has made WD-50 a destination with his experimental, transgressive menu, and Bruni concedes that in the past “too many of his creations were gratuitously perverse… many visitors understandably feel that what they’ve experienced isn’t so much a meal as......

The holy Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, adored for its succulent burgers, righteous shakes and hellish lines, will soon expand into multiple locations. Owner Danny Meyer has signed a lease for a branch at 366 Columbus Avenue (at 77th Street), the former home of New Orleans import Jacques-Imo's. The new location will be entirely indoors, enabling delicate Upper Wide Siders to do their time on line out of the elements. And two Shake Shack......

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......

No one knows for sure what’s to become of the future Union Square pavilion, but a strong contender for the space – formerly occupied by the shabby Luna Park – is a new restaurant helmed by Danny Meyer, who opened the Union Square Café in ’85 and whose Shake Shack in Madison Square Park is an object of obsession. Construction begins on a new pavilion this winter, but some insiders are betting Meyer wins the......

Shake Shack – that object of obsession for so many burger lovers within a 10-mile radius of Madison Square Park – reopens today for their first winter season. Gothamist commenter MaiaW articulated the passion and excitement best when we first reported the year-round Shaction last month: “OMG, OMG. Now I have absolutely NO excuse not to eat there once a week (calories shmalories). Woo hooooo!!” With typically disheartening lines stretching almost out of the......

Nine months. That's about how long pregnancies take and that's about how long it took for various agencies to coordinate bringing Manhattan its first new public bathroom. Community Board 5 approved a new, sleek glass-and-silver bathroom from Cemusa to be placed in Madison Square Park back in March and Promediacorp witnessed it being installed this morning. Of course, back in March, the NY Times reported it would be up and running by the summer,......

There are people in this city who literally go into mourning each year when the Shake Shack closes for the winter. Seriously. But this year, things are different. The Shack is staying open through the winter, and has added some heat lamps to the seating area to keep you warm and cozy. And as an added bonus, starting today they'll be accepting phone orders for pick up only (at a separate pick-up window) through March......

It's time for the Shake Shack's annual Shacktoberfest celebration, which starts Friday and runs through October 14th. If you can stand the lines, you can enjoy "special Shacktoberfest offerings" as well as the regular menu:A selection of Usinger's brats and sausages – Andouille with red pepper relish, Stuttgarter Knackwurst with cranberry horseradish relish and Italian sausage with pumpkin mostarda. A rotating list of Concretes in flavors such as Black Forest, German Chocolate, Apple Strudel and......

We almost did a little jig on the street when we walked by Grey Dog's new location on University last night and saw the sign that said it would be opening on 7/19 at 7 a.m. Guess where we're having coffee before work on Thursday? Eater informants snapped a photo. Indian mangoes are no longer considered contraband in the U.S., much to the joy of everyone who has been craving them for the past twenty......

The Coupon Clipper scours the specials for the best deals in New York's big grocery stores. Memorial Day usually conjures up some kind of natural reactions. Beyond the real reason-for-the-season aspect of the holiday, what usually comes next is food. Though hot dogs, chicken wings, and many other things could and should be used, what hits the paper plates more often than not are hamburgers. Which is all well and good, except that Memorial Day......

This week Bruni visits Katz's Delicatessen, awards the LES institution one star. Calls its pastrami sandwich "one of the best in the land" and Katz’s itself "the king of New York delis." He doesn't like the potato knish, the latkes or the desserts, but overall loves the institution—don’t we all? —that is Katz’s. Also in the Times, Peter Meehan goes to Lucky Eight in Brooklyn's Chinatown for $25 and Under. He recommends the dinner menu......

In a city that has everything, there are always a few things that we can use more of. For starters, maybe one or two more cheese shops, an extra beer garden wouldn’t hurt and who wouldn’t like another Trader Joe’s? Just saying. The same rule applies to wine bars. Sure we have a bunch, but after a while, the circuit gets old. Luckily, we have a new stop to add to our list. Wined......

We got ourselves a note in the inbox from the folks who run the Big Apple BBQ to let us know that Bubba FastPasses are currently on sale from now till May 25 for the June 9 & 10 event. Gothamist was all over this event last year; look for more great coverage and photos coming up soon. This year should provide a bit of a pre-show glimpse of what local pitmaster Robbie Richter has......

Ken Friedman, owner of the Spotted Pig, has been approved for a liquor license in a space between Craftsteak and Del Posto over on 10th Avenue, reports the NY Post. Not sure what it will be yet, but apparently it will be named after a different animal. Down by the Hipster reports that Danny Meyers' plan for a second Shake Shack in Central Park is a no go: "The sticking point was the lease term,......

- Passover is here, so naturally it is time for matzo brei, there was even a brei off at Makor over the weekend. While we are at it, here is a take on matzo ball soup for the excellent Cooking for Engineers. - Speaking of the Passover holiday, apparently the recipe for Coke switches in order to conform to kosher rules, here is a look at what it means to you and how to find......

Some love it to the point of being freakishly cultish. Others don't see what the big deal is. But everyone can agree on one thing: you can do plenty of productive things with the time you spend waiting on line to get a burger at Shake Shack. We checked in hamburger expert Adam Kuban of A Hamburger Today, who wrote last week, "Ai yah. It hasn't even opened yet, I'm already getting sick of......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: large protest at a school in Brooklyn, person in water in the Bronx, and two funerals for the slain Auxiliary Police Officers-- one in Brooklyn, and one in the Manhattan. Good news for St. Brigid's-- demolition stayed for now. Are Park Slope parents angry about school overcrowding, or scared of an Arabic-language middle school? Shake Shack opens on Wednesday-- let this year's backlash begin! Bronx Boulevard of Death: six......

March 19 - March 30: Dine in Brooklyn Sample nearly 200 of the borough’s best at $21.12, honoring Brooklyn’s zip code, ‘112’, for three courses. Read more about it here. March 20: Waldemar and Nadia at Vin Noir Cheesemongers Waldemar and Nadia are pairing up with Vin Noir owner Todd Flatham for a night of cheese and wine pairings, with a beer thrown in for good measure. Offerings include a unique Austrian red, La Meule,......