Miracle Grill Closing?

Hells to the yeah, according to OTBKB:

"I just heard from a very reliable source that Miracle Grill, the Tex-Mex restaurant on Seventh Avenue and 3rd Street, will be closing. Sunday is their last day. My source was  told by an employee at the restaurant."

Also, HOLY SHIT!: Bobby Flay was the original chef there??

Anyway.

I was always kinda meh about Miracle, though it def sucks balls if their shuttering is recesh related.

That's a pretty hot piece of real estate ass they've got though on that corner...if this shit is true, wonder who will take it over next?

Put Out, or Take Out: Istanbul Park

Behold: our new semi-regular video series, Put Out, or Take Out.

Here's the thing: we order out a LOT. And yeah, we obvs always do so with the intention of getting some really delicious food. But ordering out isn't *only* about the taste of your Kung Pao shrimp. It's also very much about whether or not the dude who answers the phone understands English and can properly take your order, whether or not your shit was packed up by a blind person, whether or not said blind person included chopsticks or plastic ware, or whether or not the delivery guy has a pen for you to sign your cc receipt.

Put Out, or Take Out aims to go deep down into the dark underbelly of Park Slope take out cuisine to uncover the cold hard facts of what goes down from the moment you dial the restaurant, till the moment you throw out all your leftover shit into the plastic bag, tie it up and leave it sitting on top of the garbage because you're too much of a lazy fuck to bring it down to the trash room.

We'll also have a group of rotating guests as we work our way through the nabe that will, hopefully, be way funnier and more entertaining than my ass is.

Restaurant reviews are a dime a dozen, but no one else ever tells you whether or not these take out joints actually put out...until now.

Ok, so a couple things to note:

Click to read more ...

You Know Who's *REALLY* Fucked in Park Slope? Anyone Who Works In A Restaurant Here

Apparently things are so jacked in our nabe, the NYS Department of Labor conducted a special investigation of 25 restaurants and coffee shops along 5th and 7th aves, and here's what they found: 23 of the restaurants were commiting "wage theft" and majorly fucking over their employees.

"In the vibrant Park Slope neighborhood, filled with writers, activists and growing families, we found that many of the bustling restaurants were staffed by workers who were paid grossly illegal wages." said Commissioner Smith. "This investigation shows that wage theft happens not only in dimly-lit factories or grim depressed neighborhoods--it happens everywhere. Even our very nicest neighborhoods sometimes have sweatshops on their main streets."

They go on to say:

"in total, 207 workers were underpaid more than $910,000. Some of the worst violations were for delivery employees working 60 to 70 hours per week and paid a salary of $210.00 to $275.00 per week. At one restaurant, workers were paid as little as $2.75 per hour."

Daym.

Needless to say, I'm curious as hell about which restaurants were included in this study (particularly the two that were actually in compliance).

In the meantime, I think this is a good opp to remind everyone to tip long and tip hard...this ain't Europe, people. When that delivery dude is biking his ass through the rain/sleet/snow to bring you your fucking spicy tuna and shrimp tempura rolls, he's expecting more than a $1 spot.

Also, Park Slope restaurants: WTF?!

Ad-derall: Dunkin Donuts Tuna Sandwiches

Ad-deral is (Amanda's!) new column in which we rant and riff on the ridiculous ads we're subjected to while trapped on the subway.  From the borderline racist local businesses (1-800-MARGARITA Divorce Attorneys) to the condescending national brands that pretend to know what it's like to ride the goddamned F train every day (Snickers, Delta), we'll tackle them all with the same smug outlook that has made us totally (not) famous.

I think we all can agree that a best-case-scenario normal ride on the subway still finds you crammed up against at least two to four people.  And I'm talking C-L-O-S-E. Like so close you're worried you might be pregnant, because you're pretty sure you just had sex with someone as you were trying to get to the motherfucking Jay Street exit.

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Ain't No Thang But A Chicken Wing

Have you ever been eating a hot, delicious $0.40 chicken wing on "Wing Tuesday" at Buffalo Wild Wings and thought to yourself: "this is so fucking good I could seriously stab or shoot someone right now!"

Oh wait...

(via Gothamist)