Bedford-Stuyvesant: St. John's Bread and Life is a computerized food bank that gives out donations to members and even encourages healthy eating. [ABC News]
Chelsea: Klee Brasserie will host a $35 prix fixe pig roast every Sunday night through August. [Grub Street]
Hell's Kitchen: Terrence Brennan's Artisanal Cheese Center sells a special internationally themed cheese collection in honor of the Olympics. [Artisanal Cheese]
Soho: Rheon Café is hiring a pastry chef, and they want someone creative. [Grub Street]
Upper East Side: Parlor Steakhouse is launching brunch service this weekend, when you can try a BLT frittata, and lunch on Monday, when the chef will test out soft-shell crab with spiced mango. [Grub Street]

Carroll Gardens: The Clover Club's encyclopedic drink menu is pretty interesting for those "uninitiated to the nuances of high-class cocktails." [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Chinatown: The former East Side Cafe diner will be reopened as a spot called Cafe Petisco. [Eater]
East Village: Belcourt has introduced a daily oyster happy hour from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., with a half-dozen oysters for $10, plus half-price hooch. [Zagat Buzz]
Soho: The family behind Lombardi's has opened a little café called PetalBelle on Sullivan Street, between Houston and Prince streets, where they're serving patisseries from Balthazar and traditional Belgian waffles baked with pearls of sugar in the batter. [Thrillist]
Lower East Side: Bondi Road offers some funny-sounding but equally awesome deals throughout the week, like Shark-Attack Sundays, with $10 shark steaks and $10 pitchers of "beach juice"; an all-you-can-drink $15 brunch with unlimited Foster's, greyhounds, and screwdrivers; and Barramondays, when barramundi fillets are $10 and cocktails are $5. [Grub Street]
Midtown: There's an expensive restaurant where the sommelier poured a really bad Pinot Grigio as the first wine in a pairing and wouldn't take it back. Anyone else feel recently scammed by a sommelier? [Mouthing Off/Food&Wine]
Murray Hill: Pamplona has an all-night happy hour on Saturdays, with glasses of sangria or wine for $5 and mojitos for $6, from 5 p.m. until close. [Grub Street]
West Village: Since Keith McNally says he's not going to change the look of Minetta Tavern, he offers this response as to why construction is taking so long: “There are…parts of the tavern that have been ‘modernized’ over the past 25 years in a manner which I found sufficiently disturbing to make me decide to replace them with something much closer to their original state.” [Villager]
Upper East Side: Frank Bruni and his cohorts are not fans of Allorro's fried pasta, which a "pessimist would call rock-hard and an optimist would call super-crunchy," or any of the food, really. His first impressions are in stark contrast to Steve Cuozzo's recent rave. [Diner's Journal/NYT]

Dumbo: An outpost of Clinton Hill's Choice Market will open on the corner of York and Jay streets (near the F subway stop at York Street). [Dumbo NYC]
Flatiron: Jay-Z's 40/40 Club turns five this summer and will start serving a new sports bar–type menu in August. [Grub Street]
Nolita: Elizabeth restaurant has let go executive chef John Iconomou, and former Ilili chef Ryan Grant is filling in for the time being. [Eater]
Red Hook: The 360 space should reopen as an Italian restaurant by September. [Eater]
West Village: Danyelle Freeman reviewed Sheridan Square this week and only noted in the last line that chef Gary Robbins, who created the menu she focused on, has left. [NYDN]
Upper East Side: The burger at J.G. Melon "is the epitome of aesthetic perfection: griddle-cooked fresh ground beef, American cheese, a toasted white bun, sliced red onions, and pickles. It is served straddling both sides of the bun, which is laid out with the two halves facing up." [Hamburger Today]

Clinton Hill: Tamboril's hosting a post-fireworks party on Friday with live music and D.J.'s. [Clinton Hill Blog]
East Village: Artichoke Pizza was actually open by 12:30 p.m. today. Maybe the cousins found a Manhattan apartment? [Eater]
Lower East Side: When Freemans opened, it was "looking for an accessible brown cocktail that worked with our fall menu." The resulting mix of rye, orange bitters, and pomegranate has become the spot's house cocktail. [Down by the Hipster]
Prospect Heights: A 55-year-old klepto was collared by police outside a supermarket on Washington Avenue after she swiped some packaged roast beef, but, alas, the fuzz was one step behind: "The sandwich meat was not recovered intact." [Brooklyn Paper]
Tribeca: The Knitting Factory building has sold for $12 million, but the venue hasn't decided where it's moving yet. [Real Deal]
Upper East Side: James Beard Rising-Star Chef Gavid Kaysen, of Café Boulud, was once "a certified sandwich artist for Subway.…I even had a really cool tricolored shirt!" [Restaurant Girl]

East Village: The Chocolate Bar has moved across town to 127 East 7th Street, near First Avenue. [Strong Buzz]
Murray Hill: Bar Milano might not be getting raves yet for its food, but Frank Bruni considers a specialty cocktail of "rosemary-infused Hendrick’s gin, freshly squeezed lemon juice, a touch of reduced Balsamic vinegar, fresh basil and strawberries...a lively dance of flavors, and it’s not excessively sweet." It also didn't taste excessively alcoholic when we tried it. [Diner's Journal/NYT]
Park Slope: Applewood's annex, Applewares, now sells house-made sweets, and will soon carry savory items from the restaurant team. [NYS]
Soho: Former Top Cheftestant Nikki Cascone's first food job was slicing meat at a pork store in Staten Island. [Restaurant Girl]
Upper East Side: Serendipity's latest cookbook focuses on party planning. [NYDN]
Upper West Side: A former Frederick’s chef has opened his own Mediterranean restaurant called Vai, at 225 West 77th Street. [NYT]
Williamsburg: A new spot called Bedford and Berry serves house-made cookies and milky cocktails, like the "Sixto" (French press coffee, Baileys, Kahlua and Drambuie) until 4 a.m. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Metropolitan Bar has been closed by the Department of Health. [Eater]

Clinton Hill: Olivino offshoot Bar Olivino, on Fulton Avenue, may already be in soft-opening mode. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Hell's Kitchen: A 5 Napkin Burger opens tomorrow. [Strong Buzz]
Red Hook: The long-shuttered 360 space had a mysterious sign posted on its window that said "back in 5 minutes," and the for-rent placard has been taken down. [Amy's New York Notebook]
Upper East Side: A new steakhouse called Parlor is opening June 24 on Third Avenue at 90th Street. [Grub Street]
West Village: Conveyor-belt Japanese spot Sakae Sushi has opened its second location, on West 3rd Street near Sixth Avenue. [Grub Street]

Astoria: You can watch the Euro Cup at Bohemian Hall. [Joey in Astoria]
Dumbo: At least five different ice-cream and slush trucks have hit the streets so far this summer. [Dumbo NYC]
East Village: De Nova Café has opened in the former Furniture Place space, at 182 Avenue B, near 11th Street, and while it looks like a regular old coffee shop, you'll find nachos and Greek food on the menu. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Financial District: Zaitzeff really does make a great burger: "Everything points to a dry, disappointing burger here — grass-fed sirloin, nonstandard bun, cooked on a griddle under a weight — but the meat is surprisingly, amazingly juicy and hella flavorful." [Hamburger Today]
Flatiron: Chef Douglas Rodriguez (Patria) will transform Sapa into a Latin restaurant called Nuela by this summer. [Strong Buzz]
Earlier: Douglas Rodriguez May Be Headed to Sapa
Tribeca: Mangez Avec Moi has a bright new annex specializing in Vietnamese sandwiches, and you can get some Asian gourmet foods and bottled teas there now, too. [Grub Street]
Upper East Side: Dorrian's karaoke Tuesdays are gaining in popularity. Check out the pics of pink shirts and bottle blondes who've turned out thus far and see for yourself. [Guest of a Guest via Down by the Hipster]

Astoria: Mundo Cafe will bring back its summer menu next week. Which means the return of Hungarian cherry soup, which only looks like Pepto-Bismol. [Joey in Astoria]
Carroll Gardens: Yes, that's a giant gondola made out of ice in the window of Marco Polo. The restaurant's celebrating its 25th anniversary, but no, they probably won't let you ride it even in this heat. [Lost City]
Greenwich Village: Recently opened Thunder Jackson's has good bar food, but the forties of Miller High Life served in paper bags are $12. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Upper East Side: Frank Bruni finds the most interesting outcome of the Beard Awards to be Café Boulud's Gavin Kaysen as Rising Star Chef since "this says a lot about the impression Kaysen has made, or rather how quickly he’s made it. And it says a lot about Daniel Boulud’s ability to pick talent." [Diner's Journal/NYT]
Williamsburg: A Harvard grad got himself locked into Trophy Bar after passing out in the bathroom, and by the time he got a friend to come by the morning after and try to help, he had fallen asleep in the bar's back garden. [NYT]
West Village: Web buzz has it that Sheridan Square's food is legit, but the atmosphere is strange since so far the restaurant always feels empty. [Eater]

Midtown West: 4-Foodies heads to Kellari Taverna Monday for a tasting of chef Gregory Zapantis's mezedes including skewered scallops, spinach pie puffs, and chicken and lamb brochettes. [4Foodies]
Upper East Side: The Roof Garden Cafe at the Metropolitan Museum is number one on one of the season's first roof-top bar round-ups. [Gridskipper]
Upper West Side: La Creperie will be going out of business next week. [Kosher-NY]
Williamsburg: The owners of Pies-N-Thighs might have their new three-section space (that includes a back garden) open by June and serving a slightly expanded menu, but they'd also be satisfied with a July opening. [Eater]
West Village: If you have a pound of ground duck hanging around you should whip up Perilla's duck burger recipe. [Restaurant Girl]

Bay Ridge: A Chinese bakery and noodle shop called Full Lee Gore Café is a nice, clean addition to Fourth Avenue. [Bay Ridge Blog]
Bedford-Stuyvesant: The owner of the Smoke Joint may soon be opening a restaurant in the former Petite Bassam space. [Eater]
Carroll Gardens: A Middle Eastern café called Olive Vine is coming to 316 Court Street. [A Brooklyn Life]
Fort Greene: The otherwise reasonably priced Five Spot restaurant is now charging five bucks for a soda and residents are flabbergasted: “You could buy an entire meal for $5.” You could, once. [Brooklyn Paper]
Nolita: Botanica is a favorite bar of the media according to this roundup: "Some might argue that Botanica is a place for well-intentioned pansies, just like the Huffington Post." [Gridskipper]
Red Hook: "Workingman's tapas" are to be found at Red's Produce on Columbia Street. [Gothamist]
Upper East Side: A new grocery called Straight From the Market has opened on 92nd Street at First Avenue, and they're offering some grand-opening deals. [Upper East Side Informer]

East Village: Nomad on Second Avenue at 4th Street will spotlight Algerian wines and meze pairings for a month starting March 20, in honor of the restaurants third anniversary. [Grub Street]
Flatiron: Lunetta will serve a prix fixe Easter supper that offers roasted-beet salad with fennel and orange, and braised rabbit with Robiola agnolotti. [Grub Street]
Hell’s Kitchen: If the prices of your Broadway tickets get you down, a delicious, cheap meal at the new wine bar Gallo Nero is a good follow-up to a show. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Upper East Side: A new Persian restaurant called Shalizar is opening at 1420 Third Avenue between 80th and 81st streets. [Upper East Side Informer]
Upper West Side: The Empire Hotel plans to unveil a China Grill Management–renovated rooftop bar by this May. [Zagat Buzz]

Astoria: Wow, cheap-eats prices may be going up in elsewhere, but at Omonia (the café that baked the elaborate wedding cake for My Big Fat Greek Wedding), you can get a $12 brunch that includes an entrée, dessert, a morning cocktail, and coffee, tea, or juice. (And it’s good.) [Foodista]
Bronx: Peter Meehan found someone to drive him to Trattoria Zero Otto Nove on Arthur Avenue to try the margherita that’s been getting blog buzz as "the best Neapolitan pizza in New York City.” It’s good, he says, but needs work (and less sweet sauce). [Diner’s Journal/NYT] Slice’s Adam Kuban, Ed Levine’s, and DJ Bubbles also tried Zero Otto Nove and found potential not perfection. The grilled pizza from Coals at 1888 Eastchester Road was also dubbed "surprisingly good" during the same trip. [Slice]
Lower East Side: Chubo has closed, and it looks like it’s going to be turned into a Japanese cooking school that will sell its pastries out of a flagship café by this summer. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Upper East Side: Chef Michael Vernon has left Geisha to consult on new Serafina restaurants. [Strong Buzz]
Midtown East: The owner of now-closed Portofino Grille will open a steakhouse called Creston’s Bar & Grill in the same space come May. [Zagat Buzz]
Upper West Side: Spigolo chef Scott Fratangelo loves Land Thai restaurant. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Williamsburg: The state of neighborhood pizza here is weak overall, evidence being leftover slices you don’t even want to eat. [A Brooklyn Life]

Astoria: Sweet shop Oleput is now offering a lot more savories in the form of small plates and panini. [Joey in Astoria]
Clinton Hill: Rustik Tavern has a warm interior, but the menu doesn’t sound too rustic: chili, wings, nachos, though for the last one the blogger liked "that it’s cheese sauce rather than real cheese." [Clinton Hill Blog]
Dumbo: Food writers including Kara Zuaro (I Like Food, Food Tastes Good), Phoebe Damrosch (Service Included) and David Wondrich (Imbibe) and Edible Brooklyn’s Gabrielle Langholtz will talk about — what else? — eating, at Powerhouse Arena next Tuesday. [A Brooklyn Life]
East Village: Belgian Room has been closed for letting minors booze on Lambic. [Down by the Hipster]
Soho: Vosges bacon chocolate now comes in the shape of flying pigs. But they can’t escape. [Snack]
Upper East Side: Park Avenue Winter will turn into spring on March 26, just in time for Easter. [Zagat]

Astoria: McLoughlin’s on Broadway at 31st Street is featuring the German lager Spaten through February. [Joey in Astoria]
Chelsea: Morimoto’s $24.07 prix fixe lunch deal is more filling and generous than you might expect. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Clinton Hill: If you’re too “bored by the fresh produce, too cold/lazy to trek to Fairway” to cook for yourself in winter like this blogger, here are some of the nabe’s good takeout options, including Luz and Bombay Masala. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Columbus Circle: Porter House New York is looking for a new wine director now that veteran in the biz Beth Von Benz has moved on to new projects. [Grub Street]
Lower East Side: This list of ethnic groceries includes Pueblo Deli at 129-135 Ridge Street where you’ll find “brittle, tasteless cassabe (a yuca bread Dominicans find neither brittle nor tasteless)” but also “‘merengue’ flavored Country Club soda, Induveca salami, Bay Rum Constanza antiseptic, and candles dedicated to saints or those who may become them.” [NYT via Serious Eats]
Times Square: Cafe Edison has replaced its peachy-pink paint job with a nice soft tan color, and it’s “swell.” [Lost City]
Upper East Side: Bardolino at 78th Street and Second Avenue suffered interior and exterior damage caused by a fire last week, but they’ll reopen this weekend. [Upper East Side Informer]

Chinatown: A stellar Chinese dessert discovery: “[F]laky green pastries that resembled caterpillars” flavored with durian fruit “came to the table piping hot filled with a bright yellow pudding.” Find them at Chatham Square (6 Chatham Square). [Gothamist]
Clinton Hill: The food at Restaurant New Orleans is good, but the entire operation seems completely haphazard. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Cobble Hill: The Red Deli at 264 Clinton Street near Verandah Place opens this week with “house-made charcuterie along with grab-and-go items like fried chicken.” [TONY]
Dumbo: The D Space offering an Indian buffet is actually called Marrakesh Express, and the food is worth a try. [Dumbo NYC]
Nolita: This list of spots to drink up free or cheap wine includes Le Jardin Bistro, where on Monday and Tuesday nights $12 adds all-you-can drink Bordeaux to your dinner. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Upper East Side: A new sparkling vodka called Camitz is for sale at Sherry-Lehmann, Astor Wines, and, in the near future, at Morrell’s, but you can try it in a cocktail at Park Avenue Winter among a few other restaurants around town. [Strong Buzz]

Bedford-Stuyvesant: A “family-run seafood/soul food take-out spot” called 71.Ate has opened at 417 Nostrand Avenue, and while the fried whiting is tasty, the house-made banana pudding will definitely make you want to come back. [Eat for Victory/VV]
East Village: Ruhlman’s hosting a nose-to-tail dinner with “gut man” Chris Cosentino on Tuesday, March 4, at Astor Center. [Ruhlman]
Murray Hill/Kips Bay: Can the 2nd Avenue Deli really be called kosher if it’s open on the Sabbath? Many observant Jews, whom Frank Bruni has chatted with, say no. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Tribeca: Bouley has been denied a liquor license for his proposed Japanese restaurant and cooking school, Brushstrokes, “based on the history of the owner, having problems with the community in the past, and the way he runs his establishments.” [Eater]
Upper East Side: Mia Dona is currently BYOB until the liquor license comes through next week. [Eater]

Astoria: The café Oleput at 31-13 Ditmars has reopened, and they might have a liquor license. [Joey in Astoria]
Clinton Hill: Krumbs (or whatever the bakery will soon be called) is now open at 154 Vanderbilt between Willoughby and Myrtle, and mini–carrot cakes seem like a hit. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Flushing: The legendary Chinese food court at J & L mall may be closed for good after a brief shutter this summer. The condo curse strikes again. [Eat for Victory/VV]
Hell's Kitchen: Kyotofu’s hosting a winter sake pairing Monday with the theme "An Evening at an Izakaya, a traditional Japanese Pub.” It includes real food like miso-grilled ten-grain yaki-onigiri rice balls and shiitake-and-pork-yuba dumplings. [Grub Street]
Park Slope: A new reason to join the CSA: Find a tiny frog in your lettuce and get a hilarious feature in the Daily News. [Gothamist]
Upper East Side: A San Francisco restaurant critic goes to Park Avenue Winter and other top-billed New York restaurants and admits being "struck by a trend that seems to be taking root [here]: Market-driven menus. Of course, this is common to the Bay Area." [Between Meals/San Francisco Chronicle]
Upper West Side: Eleven Madison Park chef Kerry Heffernan has outfitted the old Cafe Botanica with mirrors and glass to prepare for the opening of South Gate, his new restaurant slated for a mid-February opening. [Restaurant Girl]

Chelsea: The owner of the Cuban restaurant that replaced Havana Chelsea says he’s not trying to copy the former tenant: "It took years of grease to get on those walls and the smell of rotten wood and mice and stale water and dirt. We gutted the entire place, not even a tooth pick was worth saving." [Eat for Victory/VV]
Clinton Hill: Greene Grape Provisions has opened with fresh fish and meats, and if you bring a receipt to their nearby wine store, the owners will take 5 percent off your purchase of their recommended pairings. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Midtown East: Chocolatier Charbonnel Et Walker on the eighth floor of Saks sells a rich chocolate cupcake drenched in sticky toffee, which is well worth its $6 price tag and still "way cheaper than a pair of Chanel pumps" sold nearby. [NewYorkology]
Midtown West: Brasserie Cognac is coming to 55th Street and Broadway. [Grub Street]
Tribeca: Dekk seems closed indefinitely. [Grub Street]
Union Square: In an unsurprising conclusion, Bruni finds that Indian and Italian restaurants are better equipped to satisfy vegetarians. Dévi is one example where even meat eaters may want to eat those vegetable-based dishes. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Upper East Side: Barbejew Steven Levy hopes his new BBQ joint, Smokin’ Q, which opens this week at 206 East 63rd Street, will succeed where twelve restaurants have failed since 1977. Levy may have an edge against predecessors, however, since writer Gay Talese, who included the doomed space in his memoir, plans to be the writer-in-residence. [NYT]
Upper West Side: The Magnolia and Mermaid Inn uptown aren’t the first companies the Abrams brothers have introduced to the nabe; cupcake guru Steve owns "a construction company, high-end residential construction, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous sort of stuff. My clients are Samuel Jackson, Annie Leibovitz, Jeff Gordon." [NYO]