Kevin White

Here are the winners for Chef of the Year, Restaurant of the Year, So Hot Right Now, Stone Cold Stunner, and Bartender of the Year

Ladies and gentlemen, please inch a bit closer to your computer screen or smartphone because it's time now to announce the winners of the 2015 Eater Awards. The winners comprise a diverse group of the finest and most interesting chefs, operators, and characters in the continent that have defined this year in dining. The full list is live on Eater.com with intel on why these people and places are so special, and the New York winners are listed below. We applaud them. You are hereby instructed to applaud them.

To recap, Eater's local editors in 23 cities nominated candidates for five major local categories: Restaurant of the Year, Chef of the Year, Bartender of the Year, So Hot Right Now Restaurant, and Stone Cold Stunner. Eater readers then voted to narrow the field to a final three in each category. From that final three, the Eater editorial team chose the winner. In very rare cases, Eater exercised Rule 17, Sub. 19, which allows for veto of the popular vote (this happened only once in 2015). In addition to these main stage winners, said Eater editorial team named worthy winners in more specialized categories, for myriad notable achievements.

Nominees and winners alike will be feted at a party tonight in Manhattan. Those winners that couldn't make it should watch their mail for packages containing cans of Italian peeled tomatoes. And now, without further ado, here are the winners in New York City.

The 2015 Eater Awards for New York City

Restaurant of the Year

Nominees: Wildair, Santina, Momofuku Ko, Cosme, Faro

Winner: Cosme

Chef of the Year

Nominees: Angela Dimayuga (Mission Chinese Food), Fabian von Hauske and Jeremiah Stone (Wildair; Contra), Jonathan Wu (Fung Tu), Pam Yung & José Ramírez-Ruiz (Semilla), Rita Sodi & Jody Williams (Via Carota).

Winners: Pam Yung & José Ramírez-Ruiz (Semilla)*

[*Eater Awards Rule 17, Sub. 19 invoked]

So Hot Right Now

Nominees: Bowery Meat Co., Bruno Pizza, Fuku+, Superiority Burger, Sadelle's.

Winners: TIE — Fuku+ and Bruno Pizza

Bartender of the Year

Nominee: Leo Robitschek (The Nomad), Ivy Mix (Leyenda), Pam Wiznitzer (Seamstress), Kenta Goto (Bar Goto), Thomas Waugh (Santina).

Winner: Leo Robitschek

Stone Cold Stunner

Nominees: Sadelle's, Upland, Momofuku Ko, The Polo Bar, El Cortez

Winner: The Polo Bar

Bonus Categories

Shitshow of the Year: Tavern on the Green

Danny Meyer Empire Builder of the Year: Ravi DeRossi

Spectacle of the Year: Javelina

Instagram Bait of the Year: Seamore's

Find more information about this year's winners over at Eater.com.

Remember The Cronut Craze? Well, it's still a thing. [ more › ]

mikejuk writes: Have you had a suspicion that your GPS app is overestimating the distance traveled? It is something that runners and walkers complain about a lot. If so, you are probably correct -- but the reason isn't an algorithmic glitch. The answer lies in the statistics, and it is a strange story. If you make a measurement and it is subject to a random unbiased error, then you generally are safe in assuming that the random component will make the quantity larger as often as it makes it smaller. Researchers at the University of Salzburg (UoS), Salzburg Forschungsgesellchaft (SFG), and the Delft University of Technology have done some fairly simple calculations that prove that this is not the case for GPS distance measurement. Consider the distance between two points — this is along a straight line, and hence it is the shortest distance. Now add some unbiased random noise, and guess what? This tends to increase the distance. So unbiased errors in position give rise to a biased overestimate of the distance. There is an exact formula for the bias and in some cases it can be more than 20%. Is there a solution? Perhaps using velocity measurements and time to work out distance is better — it isn't biased in the same way, but how accurate it could be remains to be seen. So when your fitness band tells you you have run a 4-minute mile — don't believe it.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Preening brings out the coy side of a blue-winged macaw, also known as an Illiger's macaw. Found in the wild in parts of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, the small parrot is classified as near threatened by the IUCN. Habitat loss and the pet trade have contributed to its shrinking numbers.

This photograph was submitted to the 2015 National Geographic Photo Contest.

Browse galleries of editors’ favorites >>

Between 1913 and 1920, many Americans sent their children around the country by mail. Provided your child weighed less than 50 lbs, you could simply affix stamps to their clothing and send them off with the postmaster. They'd be whisked across the country in the railway system's mail compartments and delivered to relatives safe and sound. (more…)

A press release sent out moments ago by "art collective LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner" has announced that Shia LaBeouf is currently sitting inside of the Angelika Film Center watching his own movies. You can join him.

From noon today, #ALLMYMOVIES by LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner will commence at the Angelika Film Center, 18 West Houston Street, NYC. [ more › ]

Love brunch? Totally heart NYC? I have a cozy artist loft available 10/1 in the heart of the edgiest neighborhood in Manhattan. A stones throw from organic grocery stores, the hottest brunch spots and hipster bars.

Room includes a window, a door, your very own bathroom and walls dressed with authentic NYC street art. Hot water included. I provide a space heater for the winter months.

The photos above would be your bedroom. The neighbors are kind of shitty but you can't beat this price!

The shower is located at the Comfort Inn next door. I'll personally introduce you to the door man Juan Pablo. Juan only works two nights a week so plan accordingly.

Looking for a roommate that doesn't bring the party home, doesn't smoke cigarettes (e-cigs OK) 420 friendly. No overnight guests. Week to week. If I like you, you'll have a chance to take over the lease as I'm moving to Williamsburg in January to be closer to Five Leaves (which by the way is my FAV brunch spot)

This is a v rare opportunity to have a Manhattan zip code for Ohio prices. Looking forward to meeting my new best friend.

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There is something majestic about witnessing a coach get pelted by a waterfall of Gatorade after a winning game, whether it be at a high school cross country meet or or a professional football game. While most of these moments go relatively well,…

The post Witness the World’s Saddest Gatorade Bath Ever appeared first on First We Feast.

Good Business



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Mark Levine, the Upper West Side Councilmember who'd like to open up North Brother Island to the public, would also like to assign personal (personal?) e-mail addresses to 200 trees in New York City. "This is not meant to serve as a maintenance hot-line so much as a mechanism for deepening public engagement with the trees," said Levine's spokesman Tyrone Stevens, closing the window for misinterpretation. Good Samaritans would, however, be encouraged to e-mail individual trees about their own "issues" (blight, rot, etc.). [ more › ]

As part of its ongoing brand evolution, Playboy is refreshing its online shopping presence.

Playboy is rolling out a new e-commerce site as part of its ongoing rebrand—and hoping that the company's iconic (and profitable) rabbit iconography will be a hit with millennial shoppers.

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Posters are available at my shop.

https://youtu.be/x9n9dt2fKeE

This is wonderful. When Stoney Emshwiller was 18 years old, he filmed himself interviewing his older self. Thirty-eight years later a 56-year-old Stoney completed the interview by answering his younger self's questions. He's funded the production of a movie, called "Later That Same Life."

Seeing familiar landscapes from above lends uncommon and often arresting new views. “The colors, shapes, and patterns in the Great Salt Lake are absolutely stunning. I have always wanted to fly over this particular area,” writes Your Shot community member Jassen Todorov, who captured this striking aerial image of evaporation ponds from just west of Stansbury Island in Utah’s Great Salt Lake.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now >>

Ever since Macy’s added balloon floats to their iconic Thanksgiving Day parade in 1927, mishaps and fails have become regular occurrences.

Felix the Cat (above) got tangled in telephone wires that year. Popeye dumped cold rainwater that had collected on his cap onto the crowd in 1957. And poor Kermit the Frog; his head sadly deflated in 1991.

But at least it’s been 83 years since a float was hit by an airplane.

This midair collision happened in 1932 over a heavily populated area of Jamaica, Queens—long after the parade had ended and the helium-filled balloons were released into the sky (the custom in the early 1930s).

Annette Gipson, 22, happened to be at the controls of a biplane with her instructor, flying at 5,000 feet.

All of a sudden, the brazen “girl flyer,” as newspapers dubbed Gipson, noticed the 60-foot Tom-Cat balloon coming her way.

“She shouted, ‘I think I’ll have a piece of the neck’ to [her instructor], as she took dead aim at the cat,” reports the book Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

“Upon impact, the balloon wrapped itself around the left wing. The plane went into a deep tailspin and sped toward the ground out of control.”

Afraid that the plane would catch fire when it hit the ground, Gipson turned off the ignition. “Witnesses in the surrounding neighborhoods, straining their necks to look skyward, gasped as they heard the engine die and saw the plane plummeting to earth.”

Before it did, her instructor managed to take over. As the craft came within 80 feet of rooftops, he got control and was able to land at Roosevelt Field, as planned.

Considering that she almost crash-landed in the middle of Queens, Gipson was nonplussed.

“It was a sensation that I never felt before—the whirling housetops, rushing up to meet me—and the thoughts of a whole lifetime flashed through my mind,” she told reporters who had rushed out to Roosevelt Field to speak to her after they’d been tipped off about her collision.

Gipson went on to become a prominent “aviatrix,” as the newspapers called her, touring the country and hosting headline-grabbing women-only air races at Floyd Bennett Field.

The stars are aligning for NFL obsessives and fans of frosted-tipped legend Guy Fieri. According to a press release, Fieri has been announced as the official chef of the 2016 Players Super Bowl Tailgate.  The tailgate will feature all-you-can-eat food created by The Donkey Sauce Gawd, as…

The post Guy Fieri Named Official Chef of The 2016 Players Super Bowl Tailgate appeared first on First We Feast.

Lots of bad things can result from a game of beer pong. For one, it’s an easy to way to transmit germs—people’s hands are all over those balls, which then end up in the beer, which then ends up in your mouth. Secondly, it makes an awful…

The post Drunk Dude Dressed as Super Mario Manages to Burn His House Down Playing Beer Pong appeared first on First We Feast.

Right under the bustling activity of Grand Central Terminal, the biggest transportation effort in the United States is taking place: The $10.2 billion East Side Access "megaproject" which will finally bring Long Island Rail Road trains to Grand Central. On a tour of the enormous caverns that will soon house eight new LIRR tracks, Dr. Michael Horodniceanu declared, "This is a project of historical proportions"—and an absolutely necessary one. [ more › ]

The remains of at least twelve people were discovered underground next to Washington Square Park on Tuesday by a crew of Department of Design and Construction workers who unearthed a white-walled burial vault. [ more › ]

SantaCon organizers tweeted out the date last evening... and per the SC website...



To date, at least one local bar has gone on the record as ready to welcome the Santas...

DUUUUUUUDE it is ON. Spraypaint a giant red "X" on your calendar where it says December 12th, unless you use your cellphone's calendar, in which case you'll want to make sure the screen has one of those protective skins on it before you paint that "X" on it. (I learned this one the hard way.) Why December 12th? Oh, just a little charitable fundraising event called SantaCon! "This is awesome": [ more › ]

An Italian man who went missing for two days after completing the New York City Marathon has been found. [ more › ]

Home protection



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Have you ever watched a K9 unit or an explosives unit dog and thought, "Wow, I would love to own a dog with such a specific skill set"? Well, your wish has come true: The Transportation Security Administration is looking for new, forever homes for explosives detection dogs that have either retired from the gig or didn't make it through the training program (aww, explosive detection school dropouts!). [ more › ]

On December 28, 1873, after a terrible economic recession descended on New York—bringing with it unemployment and eviction—the New York Times sounded the alarm on a new urban threat.

“At the present time there is supposed to be at least 3,000 vagrants in this City, while there is a large number who travel from place to place, either begging as they go along, or doing odd jobs for their meals,” warned the front page article.

“These tramps are always pretending to look for work, but it is very rare that they will accept it if offered, unless to get a chance to steal something.”

Tramps had arrived in New York—ragged, disconnected men who appeared on sidewalks and park benches in high numbers, scaring residents who felt they were “an army of the poor threatening respectable society,” states The Poor Among Us.

“The threat created by tramps was certainly exaggerated, but the underlying problem was real.”

Tramps “first appeared in the 1870s,” wrote Luc Sante in Low Life. “Many of them were probably Civil War veterans who hadn’t been able to adjust.”

“In the years when Central Park was new, tramps would hide out there, living in its sylvan recesses. They attracted notice as a public nuisance with their penchant for lying prone on the pavement and draining the lees from empty beer kegs set out in front of saloons.”

Tramps lived in 5 cent lodging houses or on police station floors—the  homeless shelters of the Gilded Age for those with absolutely no where else to go.

As the 19th century went on, Tramps became the face of homelessness in the city.

Charities directed their efforts toward decreasing the number of homeless children and women, who the public felt were more deserving of aid.

“By the end of the 19th century, however, the typical homeless person was a tramp,” states The Poor Among Us.

Tramps could be found all over downtown. Flop houses catered to them. City officials built farm colonies where they could be put to work. They became colorful characters in vaudeville and early movies.

Though their numbers were reduced during World War I in New York, they never really went away from the city for long, of course.

These were the “forgotten” men living in Central Park Hooverville shanties during the Depression, the Bowery bums drinking and standing around trash can fires through the postwar decades, and the homeless of today, begging on sidewalks and parks or edged into the shadows under bridges and inside subway stations.

[Top image: Jacob Riis, 1890; Harper’s Weekly; NYPL Digital Gallery; NYPL Digital Gallery; John Singer Sargent, 1906]

Because Bernie Sanders wants to redistribute candy, check out today's end-of-day links: Fallon's drinking problem, Jar Jar Binks fan theory, RIP Fred Thompson, needle candy, Sufjan Stevens covers Drake, city park peeing, and pup attacks shadow. And don't forget to follow Gothamist on Twitter and Instagram, and like us on Facebook. [ more › ]

A goby is nearly imperceptible, camouflaged against a gorgonian in the waters of the Republic of Palau—but it didn’t escape the lens of National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Enric Sala, who  captured this image while making photographs for the Pristine Seas project. When asked how photography plays into the project’s goal to create marine reserves and save the ecosystems he’s so passionate about, Sala says, “Photography and film play a very important role: to share what’s there with people … We need to inspire the leaders and the public emotionally. We need them to fall in love with these places. We bring the place to them—that’s why photography and film is important.”

To learn more about photographer Enric Sala’s work, read the story “A Scientist Becomes a Photographer to Help Save Our Oceans” on our photography blog, Proof.