BY ELANA DURE | For Grace Figueroa and Amber Kulak, it all started with a Labor Day trip to the Hamptons. The friends had traveled the two-to-three-hour journey to Kulak’s summer place for a relaxing vacation weekend. Taking friends’ advice, the women decided to dine at Happy Bowls in Montauk, a unique acai bar with read more here »

BY LEVAR ALONZO | A new business whose look and sound pays playful homage to the 1970s is serving up heaping mounds of fries that reflect the owner’s love of spuds. FryGuys opened a few weeks ago at 150 E. Second St., at Avenue A, and is serving up a pound and half of fries for read more here »

BY MICHELE HERMAN | My husband and I recently treated ourselves to dinner at 99 Bank, the new restaurant on the corner of Bank and Greenwich Sts., former home to the Marrow, Paris Commune and Nadine’s. All we knew about the place was what we could see from a cursory peek from the sidewalk, and read more here »

BY MICHELE HERMAN | We West Villagers used to have a rule of thumb: If you see a forlorn, anonymous, unimproved building, assume it’s a Gottlieb property. Bill Gottlieb, the eccentric local landlord, was more of a collector of buildings than a developer of them. Gottlieb died 17 years ago and his company is now read more here »

BY DENNIS LYNCH | The Village will lose a neighborhood favorite eatery and market at the end of the month. The Blue Ribbon Bakery Kitchen at the corner of Bedford and Downing Sts. aLd the Blue Ribbon Market nearby on Bedford St. will shut their doors because of a sharp rent hint at the Bakery read more here »