offManhattan

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

From the first whiff of fresh mountain air at the train station in Rhinecliff to the old white churches long since converted into homes that dapple the road to your hotel, there is an absolute release of stress that comes with a sojourn in the Hudson Valley. The gravel parking lot at the Peekamoose tap room is packed and the smoky tendrils from the outdoor fire pit follow our shuttle as it zooms by. The Catskill Mountains sandwich both sides of Route 28 and you’ve forgotten all about skyscrapers and a steel-blocked horizon.

Light years away from Manhattan, the Emerson Resort & Spa is a long, intriguing stretch of property that includes 26 opulent suites, five duplex loft rooms, a family-friendly lodge, two restaurants, an eco-friendly spa, country store, the world’s largest kaleidoscope, and 40 some odd copies of Emerson: Poems by the Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets.

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.

Poutine—a greasy bechamel of fries slathered in gravy and cheese curds—is about as easy for an American to dismiss as curling or ice hockey. It’s just the type of handiwork we’d expect of the country that took our ham and called it their bacon.

What: Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris exhibition

Where: The Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA

When: Wednesday, February 26 through Sunday, April 25

Why: Picasso. Paris. Artsy expats: all combine to create a sweeping museum show. The Philadelphia Museum of Art’s exhibition begins in 1904 with a restless young Pablo Picasso, who at age 23 decided to move to Paris, during its bohemian and cultural heyday. There, he met up with fellow artists like Georges Braque and Juan Gris, and together they formed a lively, avant-garde society known as the School of Paris. They bantered about in smoke-filled cafes with other creative sorts, drinking absinthe and debating life, art, politics, and everything in between.

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.

What: BAMcinématek’s African Diaspora Film Festival

Where: Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)

When: February 19-24th, 2010

Why: For the past seven years, BAMcinématek has partnered with the African Diaspora Film Festival (ADFF) to bring the best moving images to its viewing auditoriums in downtown Brooklyn. (Although BAM launched its own indoor film festival last year—BAMcinemaFest—ADFF hasn’t felt like it got the shaft.) Instead, this marks the eighth year that the annual festival will take a six-day residency at the neighborhood institution devoted to the Diaspora of ideas and identities.

• 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]