new york city

Fresh Direct To (Eventually) Stop Using Those Awful Cardboard Boxes

Fresh Direct To (Eventually) Stop Using Those Awful Cardboard Boxes

FreshDirect is finally doing away with the awful cardboard boxes! (For those of you who are unfamiliar, it’s like Peapod but in New York City, and not as good.) One of the main problem with Fresh Direct (from a customer standpoint) is that they pack everything in cardboard boxes.

Restaurant Week Returns To New York City

Restaurant Week Returns To New York City

If you ever wanted a literal taste of the good life, this is your lucky week. Through the 27th, over 200 New York restaurants are throwing open their doors to New Yorkers on a budget. Participating restaurants offer a three-course prix fixe menu; $24.07 buys you lunch, while dinner costs $35.00. Some of the city’s top restaurants deign to welcome the relatively impoverished, including Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill, Le Cirque, and Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s Nobu. You can try to snag a reservation through OpenTable, but your best bet is to call restaurants directly. Don’t fret if traveling to New York is too much to sate your gluttony: Boston’s Restaurant Week starts on August 5th, with Washington’s starting the day after.

Subway Is Not Ashamed: First Fast Food Restaurant To Put Calorie Info On Menus

Subway Is Not Ashamed: First Fast Food Restaurant To Put Calorie Info On Menus

While the other large fast food chains sue the City of New York to keep calorie information off their menus, Subway has gone ahead and complied with the New York City regulation. Dunkin’ Donuts, meanwhile, submitted a sample menu meant to “prove” that putting calorie info on its menu just couldn’t be done… and the NYC Health Department responded by having its own graphic designer redo the sign to prove that it could be done.

Bottled Water Costs 1,000 Times More Than Tap Water

Bottled Water Costs 1,000 Times More Than Tap Water

You do not need to buy bottled water for health reasons in New York City since our water meets all federal and State health-based drinking water standards. Also, bottled water costs up to 1,000 times more than the City’s drinking water.

We don’t know exactly what they’re basing their numbers on, but we do know tap water is just as good as bottled. Put it in the Brita, put the Brita in the refrigerator, boom, lovely water. Just make sure to clean your Brita often enough.

Introducing Jezebel

Introducing Jezebel

The razor-fingered Valkyries seen above are the editors of the newest addition to the Gawker stable, Jezebel. They’ll be delivering an unvarnished excoriation of women’s magazines, celebrities, sex and fashion.

Rat Infested KFC/Taco Bell Closed Forever And Ever

Rat Infested KFC/Taco Bell Closed Forever And Ever

Yum! Brands just issued a press release apologizing once again for that rat infested KFC/Taco Bell in NYC. Further, they confirmed that the rat infested restaurant had served its last customer.

Since the incident, this KFC-Taco Bell restaurant has been closed for business, and it will not reopen.

Done! No more KFC/Taco Bell. It’s gone forever and ever. It’s been abandoned to the rats who claimed it as their own.

NYC Human Rights Commission Drops Charges Against Chinese Restaurant

NYC Human Rights Commission Drops Charges Against Chinese Restaurant

The case of the Wisconsin man who filed a complaint with the NYC Human Rights Commission has come to a close with the commission dropping charges against the restaurant. In the original story, David Lopez, a tourist from Wisconsin, noticed that other (Chinese speaking) customers in the restaurant were given rice with their meals, but when Lopez asked for rice with his dinner he was told that he would be charged $1 extra. “Being Hispanic, we both like rice,” said 46-year-old Lopez. “We saw other customers getting a different menu. We were told we could order from it if we spoke Chinese.” The Chinese menu had prices that were, on average, $1 cheaper per dish.

New York City Health Department Takes Blame For Rat Fiasco

New York City Health Department Takes Blame For Rat Fiasco

New York City’s Health Department has taken the blame for the KFC/Taco Bell rat infestation that made national news. (If, though some miracle you haven’t seen the footage yet, i.e. you’ve just come out of a coma or recently regained lost eye-sight, do give it a look. It’s worth it.) Anyhow, the inspector who gave a pass to the KFC/Taco Bell has resigned and the Health Department is, like, really sorry and stuff.

Target Giddy Over Walmart's New York Defeat

Target Giddy Over Walmart's New York Defeat

The Minneapolis-based retailer views Wal-Mart’s move as “an opportunity,” but will take its time to find the right space at the right price, Jim Hogan, Target’s group vice president for New England stores, told M.B.A. candidates at Harvard Business School on Sunday.

Target is already alive and well in New York City, but has not yet made the move to Manhattan. —MEGHANN MARCO

Walmart Gives Up: No Stores For New York City

Walmart Gives Up: No Stores For New York City

Frustrated by a bruising, and so far unsuccessful battle to open its first discount store in the nation’s largest city, Wal-Mart’s chief executive said yesterday, “I don’t care if we are ever here.”

Post Office Meltdown: Customer Flips Out On Video At Brooklyn Post Office

After several minutes of the customer’s rant, three police officers respond to the scene, but the 5-minute, 43-second clip ends too soon to see what happens next.

Yum! Brands Shuts Down Rat-Infested Franchisee After More Failed Inspections

Yum! Brands Shuts Down Rat-Infested Franchisee After More Failed Inspections

After a day of reinspections yesterday, the company that owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut decided to close all its ADF Companies franchises that have not yet been inspected by the Health Department.

Health Inspector That Passed The Rat Infested KFC Suspended

Health Inspector That Passed The Rat Infested KFC Suspended

The health inspector – whose name was not released – was “removed from restaurant inspection duty,” while the city’s health department reviews other inspections the staffer performed since being put on the job in June 2006, officials said.

KFC/Taco Bell Rat Apologist Comments On Vincent Ferrari's Blog

KFC/Taco Bell Rat Apologist Comments On Vincent Ferrari's Blog

KFC/Taco Bell left a note over on Vincent Ferrari’s blog on a post about the profusion of rats at a western Manhattan KFC. We really liked this part (emphasis added):

This Will Totally Be A Whole Foods Just As Soon As We Clean Up The Toxic Waste

This Will Totally Be A Whole Foods Just As Soon As We Clean Up The Toxic Waste

For those of you not familiar with the landscape of the borough of Kings, this is a photo taken from inside of the site of a new Whole Foods store in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn. Currently, the site is home to an underground toxic plume of benzene that may or may not have originated at the nearby Verizon fuel station. Verizon denies that the fuel station, which is at the epicenter of the toxic plume, is the cause of the mess, despite the fact that there have been 5 oil spills on the site.

Charged Extra For Not Speaking Chinese?

Charged Extra For Not Speaking Chinese?

David Lopez, a visitor from Wisconsin, contacted the commission after eating at the restaurant with several friends last October.

Rat Infested KFC Passed Health Inspection The Day Before

Rat Infested KFC Passed Health Inspection The Day Before

“It doesn’t look like the inspection that was done Thursday met our standards,” said Geoffrey Cowley, a health department spokesman. “I don’t want to prejudge that. We’re concerned and we’re going to carefully reevaluate that inspection.”

The so-called inspection was performed in response to complaints about rats in the restaurant, and yet the inspector couldn’t find any. How mysterious. —MEGHANN MARCO

KFC Taco Bell Rats Gone Wild: Raw Video Footage

Raw video footage of the massive rat infestation in a West Village KFC/Taco Bell. If you do not watch another You Tube video today, or for the rest of your life, watch this one.