New York City: Your favorite things to do or places to go

[El Diablo]

SF Bay Area Version

Alright, time for city number two. Tons of New Yorkers here, so let's hear it.

I really don't even know where to start. There's an infinite amount of stuff to do in NYC. So much of what I love to do is just walk around the city. So many great bustling neighborhoods to experience, so many interesting people and things to see.

Bars, restaurants, museums, hotels, neighborhoods, galleries, stores, you name it, New York has every possible variety.

I'll start out with a recomendation for one of my favorite NYC activities. I've done this a number of years. Sept 29, 2007 is the date this year: Fifth Avenue Mile. A mile long race down Fifth Avenue. I do 5Ks from time to time and the occassional 10K, but I'm not a serious runner at all, so it's really fun doing a mile race - you just run really fast. The weather is usually beautiful for this. Just a fun way to start your Saturday in New York.

Please put in at least a little detail about what you post. Just listing random names of things/places is lame.

[tdarko]

Le Pain Quotidien was recommended to me from 2p2 NY'ers and it is my favorite bakery in the city. There is about a dozen of them but I go to the one in Central Park.

[4_2_it]

I usually take my wife and kids once a year. One of our highlights is taking the subway to Brooklyn and walking the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.



We then eat lunch at Grimaldi's (get there early to avoid the line)


and walk back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge (yea nits, I know the picture is facing Brooklyn [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] ).

[matt2500]

Walking the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan is up there on my list.

I love going to the turtle pond in Central Park. That one never ceases to amaze me; smack dab in the middle of the most urban city in the country is this raw piece of nature. I can sit and watch those turtles for hours, knowing that any time I feel like it, I can be in Times Square in ten minutes. It's the ultimate in contrasts.

I also love the Natural History Museum. I love these in general, but the one in New York is so....old school. It really has this air of 19th-century colonialism about it; a sense that it's stocked by the plunderings of eccentric rich explorers and self-taught anthropologists doing their own versions of 'eco-tourism' 150 years ago.

[KDawg]

as a jazz guy, I love hitting up the jazz clubs when I'm in NYC.

i like the new iridium as you don't have to deal with the obstructed view that you used to when it was near the lincoln center.

The Village Vanguard is probably my favorite place to visit. Its in the west village off of broadway and can be easy to miss if you aren't paying attention. The atmosphere there is great and they usually put on great acts. I don't know what the current price per set is right now, but it shouldn't be more then 40. There is a two drink cover there

[NoCarsGo]

Upright Citizens Brigade theater has great improv, SNL guest appearances, even weekly free shows ... definitely check this out.

Also, Film Forum and IFC are great theaters to check out independent / foreign movies.

The Coffee shop (union square) and Jerry's (soho) for great casual food.

[LyinKing]

Gotta see the revised MOMA. The inside space of the building itself is reason enough.

NY Philharmonic at Lincoln Center. Needs no explanation.

St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Brunch at a Sarabeth's location

Oh, and for the hip hop folk, visit the Big L memorial mural uptown

[pokerlaw]

[ QUOTE ]
There's an infinite amount of stuff to do in NYC.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ain't that the truth. As such, here are some great NYC resources:

Menupages is a website that lists menus of just about EVERY Manhattan restaurant. Its a priceless resource. As a caveat, the reviews they have should not be taken all too seriously b/c of the very small sample size.

Gothamist is a very handy NY blog that is updated every hour or two and covers local news, upcoming concerts, restaurant reviews, and other kinds of fun stuff. A similar site that is more geared to music news/concerts is Brooklyn Vegan.





Citysearch is like Menupages, but covers bars and clubs exclusively. Every neighborhood has something to offer. But every kind of scene can be found.

OK, time to go to the concert. specific questions as to things to do are welcome.

[Evan]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
There's an infinite amount of stuff to do in NYC.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ain't that the truth. As such, here are some great NYC resources:

<a href="www.menupages.com" target="_blank">Menupages</a> is a website that lists menus of just about EVERY Manhattan restaurant. Its a priceless resource. As a caveat, the reviews they have should not be taken all too seriously b/c of the very small sample size.

<a href="www.gothamist.com" target="_blank">Gothamist</a> is a very handy NY blog that is updated every hour or two and covers local news, upcoming concerts, restaurant reviews, and other kinds of fun stuff. A similar site that is more geared to music news/concerts is <a href="www.brooklynvegan.com" target="_blank">Brooklyn Vegan</a>.





Citysearch is like Menupages, but covers bars and clubs exclusively. Every neighborhood has something to offer. But every kind of scene can be found.

OK, time to go to the concert. specific questions as to things to do are welcome.

[/ QUOTE ]
On the theme of useful websites for those unfamiliar with parts of New York, hopstop (subway/walking directions/estimated cab time and fare) is just about the best resource out there for traveling within the city (boroughs too). I use it myself at least once/week just to double check how long it will take to get somewhere. The estimated travel times are extremely accurate in my experience.

Also, Citysearch is alright but I think Yelp has better content and is much easier to navigate.


I'm sure Daver would have posted this had he been here before me, but Barcade is a very cool bar that isn't a "typical NYC place." It's got 20 or so old school arcade games and about an equal amount of beers on tap. It's in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

I might as well steal Egg from Daver too. It's a cool little diner just a couple blocks from barcade, so if you wake up hungover in some hipster chick's loft it's a great way to start the day.

Just about anything in Central Park is a good time when the weather's nice. Unfortunately I don't go nearly as often as I wish I did.

Everyone should hang out in the southwest corner of Washington Sq. Park and play chess with crazy old guys then chat up some girls at the dog run. If the pick up lines Bruiser taught you from his Vegas camp end up working there's some pretty cool places to eat/drink in the area. I like Town Tavern for cheap drink specials and great burgers (chef used to work at Corner Bistro, also close by).

[Evan]

One other cool but likely completely irrelevant idea. A couple weeks ago my buddy read about a place in Coney Island (read: FAR) called Sahara and decided we were going. So three of us head out there around 7:30 on a Friday night. It's a really cool Turkish (I think) place. It's got all kinds of really tasty roasted meats (chicken, beef, lamb, etc.). It works really well as a family style place; two entres would probably do three people very nicely.

We had a bunch of some Turkish beer (called Efez I think) at diner and didn't really know what to do when we left. We saw a liquor store just down the block and each picked up a bottle of champagne to drink while we walked around. This neighborhood was completely empty, I wouldn't advise walking around Manhattan gulping champagne out of the bottle.

Eventually we saw a sign for the Beach and decided to go check that out. It ended up being kind of a hike but it was a lot of fun being basically lost in what feels like a completely different city from your own, all the while getting wasted. We walked around the boardwalk for a a bit and talked to some random crazy guy that was also on the beach.

On the way to the beach we had passed a club called Rasputin. There were no reviews for it on Yelp and they both describe it as a caterer/restaurant. I'm pretty sure the address is right but it definitely isn't a restaurant. There were hot chicks and a red carpet outside...IN THE MIDDLE OF BUMBLEFUCK, BROOKLYN!We had to check it out. What it turned out to be was a dance club full of the most beautiful Russian women I've ever seen. I usually am not that into Eastern European chicks but these girls were drop dead gorgeous and the girl/guy ratio was probably 2 or 3. That being said, we were the only people there that weren't obviously Russian. We walked around getting shot down by lots of chicks and then snuck into the second floor VIP area to hang out for a little while. It was an awesome time.



Anyway, the point, I guess, is that one of the most fun things to do in NYC is basically get lost and not really know where the hell you're going to end up. There's tons of cool/crazy stuff/people here and you're going to run into some of them no matter what you do.