offManhattan

• Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition’s opening reception for the National Juried Art Show is this Saturday in Red Hook. [BWAC.org]
• Bikers were especially pedal-happy this week when news broke of the “Bike There” feature in Google Maps. [TreeHugger]
• The Folk Music Society of New York is producing an all-day Festival of Traditional Music in Jackson Heights this Saturday; Oscar Brand, WNYC host of “Folksong Festival,” is being honored for having the world’s longest-running radio show. [FolkMusicSociety]
• President Barack Obama plans to tap Robert A. Harding, a former Army intelligence officer, to man the Transportation Security Administration post.
• Brooklyn Restaurant Week begins Monday, March 15 with $25 three-course meals; consider dining at a venue like iCi (their garden opens April 15th) that also gives to New York City Coalition Against Hunger and the Food Bank for NYC. [VisitBK.org]
• $20 prix-fixe lunches and $28 prix-fixe dinners are on the menu at 141 restaurants participating in Hudson Valley Restaurant week, which also starts Monday, March 15.  [HVRW]

Just in time for the onset of spring fever, Woodloch Pines Resort in the Poconos is offering a two-night all-inclusive stay at its eco-friendly lake-perched property. Although it has been billed as a family destination, the resort’s secluded location and relaxing natural setting makes it an ideal spot for a romantic getaway or summer retreat with friends. Whether your ideal weekend is spent cozily curled up in one of the resort’s rustic interior spaces or traversing the property’s many miles of hiking trails, Woodloch can provide that much-needed tranquility and rejuvenation after a city winter of slowed-down commutes and over-salted sidewalks.

The winner will be given the best available room, depending on the selected weekend in spring, summer, or fall. Included in the stay package are three family-style meals a day, as well as on-site activities (excluding the spa and golfing) and other standard amenities.

Consult offManhattan’s Woodloch Pines Resort review to learn more about the destination.

1) Follow us on Twitter and tweet this message (if you already follow us, just tweet!):

“Win an all-inclusive weekend at Woodloch Resort in the Poconos. Just follow @offManhattan and RT! http://bit.ly/FreeGetaway”

OR

2) Sign up for our email list. (If you’re already a subscriber, you are automatically entered for a chance to win the giveaway.)

You can do both to be entered twice, and tweet once a day to be entered multiple times and increase your chance of winning. Deadline is Tuesady, March 16th at 11:59pm EST – a winner will be chosen at random and announced the next day. Good luck!

• On March 17, purchase a special $5 Chipotle package (burrito, chips, salsa, and drink) and get a sneak peak of their new Union Square location, while listening to a garden demonstration by Farmer Jack Algiere; 100% of the proceeds from meals purchased will go to the nonprofit Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture in Westchester, NY. [StoneBarns]
• Jim Gaffigan performs at the Tilles Center in Long Island next Saturday. Hot Pockets! [TillesCenter.org]
• Instrumentalists, singers, DJs, spoken word artists and performance artists from across the five boroughs will bring their best underground beats at the Battle of the Boroughs: Brooklyn Throwdown, beginning tomorrow night, March 5, at The Greene Space. [wncy.org]
• Park Slope’s newest stretch spot, Dharma Yoga Brooklyn, will open Tuesday as a pay-by-donation studio. [BrooklynBased]
• When in D.C., walk two blocks past the White House and saddle up at the Occidental Grill’s bar for 95-cent cocktails. [UrbanDaddy]

We all love good eats, but at what cost to the environment are you enjoying that greasy hamburger and fries? On the other hand, given the glut of ambiguous green advertising around New York City, how can you be sure you are satisfying your food craving in the most eco-friendly fashion?

But green gourmands, despair not! Partnership for the Environment, a member-based organization of environmentally committed businesses, awards restaurants emblems that represent various aspects of sustainability, and each verification is explained in detail on their website. For example, if an eatery is “verified” in the food and water categories, the food is USDA organic, and the produce is certified to have been locally harvested from small farms. Among other things, water certification guarantees that drinking water is only reserved upon request, and that a broom, rather than a hose, is used to clean the sidewalk in front of the building.

Partnership for the Environment is offering one hungry (and eco-conscious) oM reader a $50 gift certificate to the member restaurant of their choice—be it in Philadelphia, Greenwich, or New York City. May we recommend GustOrganics, an organic restaurant with an Argentinean flavor that carries its commitment to sustainability from its solar lighting to its reclaimed wood tables.

For a complete list of certified sustainable restaurants, visit Partnership online: partnershipfortheenvironment.com.

1) Follow us on Twitter and tweet this message (if you already follow us, just tweet!):

“Win a $50 certificate to a sustainable restaurant of your choice. Just follow @offManhattan and RT! http://bit.ly/FreeMeal”

OR

2) Sign up for our email list. (If you’re already a subscriber, you are automatically entered for a chance to win the giveaway.)

You can do both to be entered twice, and tweet once a day to be entered multiple times and increase your chance of winning. Deadline is Friday, March 5th at 11:59pm EST – a winner will be chosen at random and announced the next day. Good luck!

Photo: Courtesy of h-bomb

A new Argentine bistro and bottleshop called Twisted Vines, offering free wine tastings on weekends and a “tart of the day,” soft opens in Arlington, Virginia on Saturday. [Thrillist]

The Brooklyn Heights Association-produced “Brooklyn in Prints: A Special Gathering” begins with a reception and gallery talk tonight from 6:30p.m. to 8:30p.m. at the Brooklyn Historical Society and continues through March 14. [BrooklynHistory]

After a successful Haiti benefit at the W Hoboken Thursday night, Party with Purpose prepares for its next big fundraiser: a 5K run along the Hoboken waterfront on July 13. [PartywithPurpose]

Kelly Ripa got a tattoo in Brooklyn. [HuffPo].

People who love kielbasa, beer, live music, and hunting for new vinyl should go to Warsaw in Brooklyn on Sunday. [RecordRiots]

Mayor Bloomberg announced plans to expand the amusement park at Coney Island, which will open this summer. [NYCGovParks]

The non-skiing, café-lounging, nightlife-loving New Yorkers will come flocking in the middle of winter. If Atlantic City is lucky. With offers of free money and a restaurant week in tow, the warm season destination has enough going for it to make a quick weekend getaway to the snow-covered beaches in New Jersey seem like a cool idea.

Jazz feels like New York. There’s no city with greater historical ties to this truly American genre. Chicago, New Orleans, and Kansas City are worthy competitors, but as in most things, you can’t beat New York. Top names in jazz have called New York home, like John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald and Thelonious Monk, Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong. And the list goes on.

This past June was the first time in 37 years that New York City did not host a jazz festival. Thanks to the good people at CareFusion, a global health care company, the Jazz Festival will be brought back to New York from June 17 – 26, 2010.

• The cozy creative nook of Philly’s Piazza at Schmidts in the Northern Liberties neighborhood now looks to be heading in the direction of a strip mall. [philly.com]
• NYC Performing Arts Spaces is looking for composers in Queens. [NYCSpaces]
• All ambitious creative types should head to the Work It Brooklyn networking event on Wednesday. [BrooklynBased]
• Love to shuck? The Chesapeake Oyster and Beer Festival takes place this weekend in Baltimore. [Thrillist]
• The experiential opera-theater-concert music organization Opera Cabal will perform at Galapagos Art Space on Monday. [Galapagos]

The Liberty Science Center, located right across the river from Manhattan, is to science what Charlie’s Chocolate Factory is to candy; a fanciful and imaginative playground where children (and adults too) can explore science through interactive activities and a larger-than-life IMAX theater.

LSC is offering one lucky offManhattan reader a Family Four-Pack good for admission to the center as well as the current traveling exhibition, “A T. Rex Named Sue.” Learn all about “Sue,” the largest, most complete, and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever unearthed in this internationally popular exhibition. In addition to a full-sized cast of Sue’s skeleton, visitors can learn about the science of paleontology through other brain-stimulating stations involving touchable replicas videos, illustrative graphics, and even smell-able activities.

How to get there: To Liberty Science Center, take the PATH train (catch it from Manhattan at Christopher St., Fulton St., 14th St., or 33rd St., check Port Authority web site for more locations) to either Pavonia/Newport, or Exchange Place Station and transfer to the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail. From there, take the Light Rail to the Liberty State Park Station exit. (Liberty Science Center, Liberty State Park, 222 Jersey City Blvd., 201.200.1000, lsc.org) For more information on the Liberty Science Center, read offManhattan’s review: Liberate Yourself.

1) Follow us on Twitter and tweet this message (if you already follow us, just tweet!):

“Win a Family Four-Pack to Liberty Science Center. Just follow @offManhattan and RT! http://bit.ly/LSCfree”

OR

2) Sign up for our email list. (If you’re already a subscriber, you are automatically entered for a chance to win the giveaway.)

You can do both to be entered twice, and tweet once a day to be entered multiple times and increase your chance of winning. Deadline is Wednesday, February 24th at 11:59pm EST – a winner will be chosen at random and announced the next day. Good luck!