New_York_City_2012_-_Fodor_39_s
.pdfHebrew letters and antique Jewish books in the windows.
EAT AND SHOP WITH THE HIPSTERS
The epicenter of the trendy, gentrified Lower East Side falls along parallel Rivington and Stanton streets, between Orchard and Essex streets, and the section of Ludlow Street that crosses them. Among the restaurants, boutiques, and bars are stores that fluctuate from hip to historic, like Babeland, a women-oriented sex shop, and Economy Candy, every kid’s fantasy and a pseudogeneral store literally crammed to the rafters with barrels of nuts and shelves of old-time and current candy favorites. The area also has a handful of quirky shops, most of which sell vintage-y clothing and knickknacks.
The indoor Essex Street Market took the place of the pushcarts that once dominated Hester Street, and has a colorful assortment of fish markets, butchers, cheesemongers, and more, where sellers are more than happy to pass out samples.
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TOP ATTRACTIONS IN THE LOWER EAST SIDE
Eldridge Street Synagogue.
This was the first Orthodox synagogue erected by the large number of Eastern European Jews who settled in the Lower East Side in the late 19th century. The exterior is a striking mix of Romanesque, Gothic, and Moorish motifs. Inside is an exceptional hand-carved ark of mahogany and walnut, a sculptured wooden balcony, jewel-tone stainedglass windows, stenciled walls, and an enormous brass chandelier.
The synagogue can be viewed as part of a tour, which begins at the small museum downstairs where interactive “touch tables” teach all ages about Eldridge Street and the Lower East Side. The crowning piece of the museum’s restoration of the synagogue is a new stained-glass
window by artist Kiki Smith and architect Deborah Gans, weighing 6,000 pounds and with more than 1,200 pieces of glass. | 12 Eldridge St., between Canal and Division Sts., Lower East Side | 10002 | 212/219–0302 | www.eldridgestreet.org | $10 | Sun.–Thurs. 10–5; tours on the hr | Subway: F to E. Broadway; B, D to Grand St.; N, R to Canal St.
Fodor’s Choice | Essex Street Market.
Started in 1940 as an attempt by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia to establish a place for street pushcarts and vendors, the Essex Street Market’s character was defined early on by the Jewish and Italian immigrants of the Lower East Side. After being run cooperatively by the merchants for years, the market was taken over by a private developer in 1992 until the New York City Economic Development Corporation assumed control of it. They started their $1.5 million renovation and consolidation of the space in 1995.
These days the market has been reinvigorated, and is filled with terrific stands of produce, meat, fish, and gourmet cheeses. Standouts include Jeffrey’s Meats, Saxelby Cheesemongers, and local favorite Shopsins General Store, which moved there in 2007 after decades in the West Village. The store’s extensive and creative menu is an all-around feast (you need a microscope to read the menu, and it’s filled with delicious and creatively named items such as Blisters on My Sisters sliders). | 120 Essex St., between Rivington and Delancey Sts., Lower East Side | 10002 | 212/388–0449 | www.essexstreetmarket.com | Tues.–Sat. 8–7| Subway: F, V to Delancey St.; J, M, Z to Essex St.
WORTH NOTING IN LOWER EAST SIDE
Gallery Onetwentyeight.
Inside the jewel-box space, artist Kazuko Miyamoto directs crisp and provocative group shows. | 128 Rivington St., between Essex and Norfolk Sts., Lower East Side | 10002 | 212/674–0244 | www.galleryonetwentyeight.org | Subway: F to Delancey St.; J, M, Z to Essex St.
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Planning
Greenwich Village and the West Village: Top Touring Experiences | Top Attractions | Worth Noting
Chelsea and the Meatpacking District: Top Touring Experiences | Top Attractions | Galleries
Updated by Arthur Bovino
Long the home of writers, artists, bohemians, and bons vivants, Greenwich Village is a singular section of the city. High-rises and office towers have no business among the small curving streets, peculiar alleys, and historic town houses here, although a new boom in distinctive apartment living by designer architects has emerged around the west edges of the West Village north to Chelsea.
Primarily residential, Greenwich Village and the West Village have many specialty restaurants, cafés, and boutiques with a warm and charming neighborhood vibe. Tiny as they might be, hot spots such as Little Owl and ‘ino invite you to linger, as do larger restaurants with outside dining areas.
Of course, the Village has a long history of people lingering on sidewalks and in cafés. In the late 1940s and early 1950s abstract expressionist painters Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning congregated here, as did Beat writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The ‘60s brought folk musicians and poets, notably Bob Dylan. New York University students keep the idealistic spirit of the neighborhood alive, but polished professionals have also moved into the highrent town houses.
The Meatpacking District, in the far northwest part of the Village, has cobblestone streets whose original meatpacking tenants are being replaced by a different kind of meat-market life: velvet-rope clubs, trendy restaurants, and trendy-chic shops. Now, with the opening of the High Line in the Meatpacking District and its continued plans for expansion northward, there’s a new artery of life happening in this part of the city, bringing new foot traffic and gentrification.
Overlapping the Meatpacking District to the north, the Chelsea has usurped SoHo as the world’s contemporary-
art-gallery headquarters. Chelsea’s galleries along the west edge of the neighborhood are housed in cavernous converted warehouses that are easily identified by their ultracool, glass-and-stainless-steel doors. Other former warehouses, unremarkable by day, pulsate through the night as the city’s hottest nightclubs. Chelsea has also replaced the West Village as the heart of the city’s gay community. One-of-a-kind boutiques and gay-friendly shops are scattered among unassuming grocery stores and other remnants of Chelsea’s immigrant past.
PLANNING
MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR TIME
Weekday afternoons the streets of the West Village are nearly empty. Because of the many artists, students, and writers who live here, you’ll have just enough company at the cafés and shops to make you feel like an insider instead of a tourist. To truly appreciate the Meatpacking District, make a 9 pm or later dinner reservation at a hot restaurant, then hit the bars to see where the glitterati are this week. If shopping is your pleasure, weekdays are great; come after noon, though, or you’ll find most spots shuttered.
Chelsea has a dual life: typical gallery hours are Tuesday– Saturday 10–6, but at night the neighborhood changes into a party town, with gay bars and difficult-to-enter clubs that don’t rev up until after 11.
GETTING HERE AND AROUND
The West 4th Street subway stop—serviced by the A, B, C, D, E, F, and M—puts you in the center of Greenwich Village. Farther west, the 1 train has stops on West Houston Street and Christopher Street/Sheridan Square. The A, C, E, 1, 2, 3, and L trains stop at 14th Street for both the Meatpacking District and Chelsea. The latter is further served by the C, E, 1, F, and M lines at the 23rd Street stop and the 1 stop at 28th Street. The L train connects Union Square on 14th Street to the Meatpacking District at 8th Avenue and 14th Street. 14th Street and 23rd Street are both also served by the PATH trains.
FODOR’S CHOICE
Chelsea Market
The High Line
Washington Square Park
TOP EXPERIENCES
Gallery hopping in Chelsea
Walking on the High Line
Checking out nightlife in the Meatpacking District
Catching live music at teh Village Vanguard or a movie at the Film Forum
People-watching in Washington Square Park
Eating your way through Chelsea Market
GREENWICH VILLAGE AND THE WEST VILLAGE: TOP TOURING EXPERIENCES
GORGEOUS PARKS AND
ARCHITECTURE
At Washington Square Park the city’s central business artery, 5th Avenue, officially ends, and the studentbohemian feel of the West Village begins. Circle the recently spruced-up open square, but don’t expect to find a bench or fountain-side seat not occupied by New York University students, professors, pigeon-feeders, or idlers of all sorts. On the park’s north side is the grand Washington Memorial Arch, which looks upon the Row, two blocks of lovingly preserved Greek Revival and Federal-style town houses.
Make sure to stop to take a peek down a few residential streets tucked away in little enclaves in the Village.
Washington Mews and MacDougal Alley are two cobblestone private streets just above the park. Grove Court, a cluster of brick-front homes, seems like a precursor to today’s gated communities. West of 6th Avenue on 10th Street is the wrought-iron gateway to a tiny courtyard called Patchin Place. Around the corner is another alley filled with homes, Milligan Place.
The beautiful blocks of 19th-century redbrick town houses that predominate in the Village are occasionally marked by attempts at nonconformity. At 18 West 11th Street sits a home with a modern, angled bay window, a building erected to replace the town house inadvertently blown up by the antiwar group the Weathermen in 1970. The triangle formed by West 10th Street, 6th Avenue, and Greenwich Avenue originally held a market, a jail, and the magnificent towered courthouse that is now the Jefferson Market
Library. Where Christopher Street crosses Waverly Place is the triangular 1831 brick Northern Dispensary building.
THE VILLAGE’S GAY COMMUNITY
Christopher Street has long been the symbolic heart of New York’s gay and lesbian community. On this street, among cafés, lifestyle boutiques, and clothing shops, is one of the city’s most acclaimed off-Broadway theaters, the Lucille Lortel, where major off-Broadway playwrights like David Mamet, Eugene Ionesco, and Edward Albee have their own markers in the sidewalk. There’s also an active nightlife scene, anchored by the Duplex piano bar and cabaret at the corner of 7th Avenue. Nearby, at 51–53 Christopher Street, is the site of the Stonewall Inn and the historic Stonewall riots, which marked the beginning of the gay rights movement. Across the street is a green triangle named Christopher Park, where there are commemorative statues of gay and lesbian companions. Far west, where Christopher Street continues to the river, a fountain and a landscaped pier with benches are a green and peaceful part of Hudson River Park.
GETTING LOST ON THE VILLAGE’S STREETS
On purpose, that is. Even long-time residents will reluctantly admit to not knowing their way around this area, as the city’s grid gives way to a maze of streets that date back to the 19th century.
Walk from one end of Bleecker Street to another and you’ll pass through a smattering of everything Village: NYU buildings, used-record stores, Italian cafés and food shops, charming restaurants and bakeries, and funky boutiques, plus a park with a playground and tables and benches. Grab an espresso, check out century-old butcher shops, and sample some of the city’s best pizza. At 119 MacDougal Street is Caffe Reggio, one of the Village’s first coffeehouses, pretty much unchanged since it opened in 1927.
Afterward, make a quick stop at Our Lady of Pompeii Church at Bleecker and Carmine, where Mother Cabrini, a naturalized Italian immigrant who became the first American saint, often prayed.
Partly because of the proximity of NYU, the streets attract a young crowd to its theaters, cabarets, and jazz clubs. Two of the best for getting a jazz fix are the Blue Note, at West 3rd near 6th Avenue, and the Village Vanguard on 7th Avenue South just below West 11th Street, considered by many to be “the Carnegie Hall of jazz.” A more recent but much-loved jazz club is Smalls, a small subterranean club started in 1993 by jazz impresario Mitch Borden. Forced to close after 9/11, Smalls reopened with a full bar in 2007.
West of 7th Avenue South the Village turns into a picturebook town of twisting tree-lined streets, quaint houses, and tiny restaurants. Greenwich Street and Greenwich Avenue bear no relation to each other, West 4th inexplicably crosses West 10th and West 11th streets, and names of streets become confusing in a seemingly random way.
The area where Grove and Bedford streets intersect is among the most beautiful in the Village. These streets still feel like 19th-century New York, with simple redbrick homes from the early part of the century as well as a clapboard home and even a home built to resemble a Swiss chalet. Commerce Street, the location of the historic Cherry Lane Theatre, is undoubtedly one of the city’s most romantic lanes. Minetta Lane, a “hidden” alley dating from the city’s speakeasy history, lies between Washington Square Park and 6th Avenue, and is now home to the innovative Minetta Lane Theatre and Minetta Tavern.
BLEECKER STREET’S LITTLE ITALY
Little Italy can be besieged by slow-moving crowds, touristy shops, and restaurant hosts hollering invites as you pass to dine inside. With its crowded cafés, bakeries, pizza parlors, and old-world merchants, Bleecker Street between 6th and 7th avenues seems more vital as a true Italian neighborhood.
For an authentic Italian bakery experience, step into Pasticerria Rocco (No. 243) for wonderful cannoli, cream puffs, and cookies packed up, or order an espresso to linger over the treats.
Step into the past at the old-style butcher shops, such as
Ottomanelli & Sons (No. 285) and Faicco’s Sausage Store (No. 260), where Italian locals have gotten their pork custom cut since 1900.
The sweet (or stinky) smell of success seems nowhere more evident than at Murray’s Cheese (No. 254), at Cornelia Street. The original shop, opened in 1940 by Murray Greenberg (not Italian), was not much larger than the display case that stocked the stuff. Now it’s a fromage fiend’s emporium, with everything from imported crackers and bamboo cutting boards to a full-service sandwich counter. Samples of cheese, gelato, salami, and other
goodies are frequently offered.
In a town that’s fierce about its pizza, some New Yorkers swear by John’s Pizzeria (No. 278). But be forewarned: they do whole thin-crust pies only—no individual slices.
Luckily, one of the city’s best slice joints is right around the corner, Joe’s Pizza (7 Carmine St.). To complicate the Bleecker Street pizza situation further, newcomer Kesté Pizza & Vino (271 Bleecker St.) is serving up Neapolitan pies that some would argue give even Da Michele in Naples a run for its money. It is also the official location in the United States for the Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani, whose mission is to protect and promote the Neapolitan pizza tradition.
HALLOWEEN IN THE VILLAGE
All things weird and wonderful, all creatures great and squall, all things witty and fantastical, New York City has them all—and on All Hallows’ Eve they freak through the streets in New York’s Halloween parade. White-sheeted ghouls feel dull compared with fishnets and leathers, sequins and feathers posing and prancing along 6th Avenue in this vibrant display of vanity and insanity.
In 1973 mask maker and puppeteer Ralph Lee paraded his puppets from house to house visiting friends and family along the winding streets of his Greenwich Village neighborhood. His merry march quickly outgrew its original, intimate route and now, decades later, it parades up 6th Avenue, from Spring Street to 21st Street, attracting 90,000 creatively costumed exhibitionists, artists, dancers, and musicians, hundreds of enormous puppets, scores of bands, and more than 2 million spectators. Anyone with a costume can join in, no advance registration required, although the enthusiastic interaction between participants and spectators makes it just as much fun to watch. It’s a safe “street event” for families and singles alike, and a joyful night unlike any other.
The parade lines up on 6th Avenue between Canal and Spring streets from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. The walk actually starts at 7 pm, but it takes about two hours to leave the staging area. It’s best to arrive from the south to avoid the crush of strollers and participants. Get there a few hours early if possible. Costumes are usually handmade, clever, and outrageous, and revelers are happy to strike a pose. The streets are crowded along the route, with the most congestion below 14th Street. Of course the best way to truly experience the parade is to march, but if you’re not feeling the face paint, it’s possible to volunteer to help carry the puppets. For information, contact www.halloweennyc.com.
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TOP ATTRACTIONS IN GREENWICH VILLAGE AND THE WEST VILLAGE
75½ Bedford Street.
Rising real-estate rates inspired the construction of New York City’s narrowest house—just 9½ feet wide and 32 feet deep—in 1873. Built on a lot that was originally a carriage entrance for the Isaacs-Hendricks House next door, this sliver of a building was home to actor John Barrymore and poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. | 75½ Bedford St., between Commerce and Morton Sts., Greenwich Village | 10014 | Subway: A, B, C, D, E, F, M to W. 4th St.
Gay Street.
A curved, one-block lane lined with small row houses, Gay Street is named after Sydney Howard Gay, managing editor of the long-defunct NewYork Tribune, who lived here during the Civil War with his wife and fellow abolitionist
Lucretia Mott. In the 1930s this darling thoroughfare and nearby Christopher Street became famous nationwide when, from No. 14, Ruth McKenney wrote her somewhat zany autobiographical stories published in The NewYorker and later in My Sister Eileen, based on what happened when she and her sister moved to Greenwich Village from Ohio. | Between Christopher St. and Waverly Pl., Greenwich Village | 10014 | Subway: 1 to Christopher St./Sheridan Sq.; A, B, C, D, E, F, M to W. 4th St.
Patchin Place.
This little cul-de-sac off West 10th Street between Greenwich and 6th avenues has 10 diminutive 1848 row houses. Around the corner on 6th Avenue is a similar deadend street, Milligan Place, with five small homes completed in 1852. The houses in both quiet enclaves were originally built for waiters who worked at 5th Avenue’s highsociety Brevoort Hotel, long since demolished. Later Patchin Place residents included writers Theodore Dreiser, e. e. cummings, Jane Bowles, and Djuna Barnes. Milligan Place became popular among playwrights, including Eugene O’Neill. | Greenwich Village | Subway: A, B, C, D, E, F, M to W. 4th St.
Fodor’s Choice | Washington Square Park.
NYU students, street musicians, skateboarders, jugglers, chess players, and those just watching the grand opera of it all generate a maelstrom of activity in this physical and spiritual heart of the Village. The partially restored 9½-acre park had inauspicious beginnings as a cemetery, principally for yellow fever victims—an estimated 10,000– 22,000 bodies lie below. (A headstone was actually unearthed in 2009.) At one time, plans to renovate the park called for the removal of the bodies; however, local resistance prevented this from happening. In the early 1800s the park was a parade ground and the site of public executions; bodies dangled from a conspicuous Hanging Elm that still stands at the northwest corner of the square. Today that gruesome past is all but forgotten, as playgrounds attract parents with tots in tow, dogs go leashfree inside the popular dog runs, and everyone else seems drawn toward the large central fountain.
The triumphal European-style Washington Memorial Arch stands at the square’s north end, marking the start of 5th Avenue. In 1889 Stanford White designed a wood-and- papier-mâché arch, originally situated a half block north, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of George Washington’s presidential inauguration. The arch was reproduced in Tuckahoe marble in 1892, and the statues
—Washington as General Accompanied by Fame and Valor on the left, and Washington as Statesman Accompanied by Wisdom and Justice on the right—were added in 1916 and 1918, respectively. Completion of the renovation, which includes upgrading the northeast, southeast, and southwest quadrants and the perimeter sidewalks, and reorienting the Giuseppe Garibaldi monument, was scheduled for the winter of 2011. | 5th Ave. between Waverly Pl. and 4th St., Greenwich Village | 10003 | Subway: A, B, C, D, E, F, M to W. 4th St.
WORTH NOTING IN GREENWICH VILLAGE AND THE WEST VILLAGE
Christopher Park.
You might have to share a bench in this tiny park with George Segal’s life-size sculptures of a lesbian couple. A gay male couple is also captured in mid-chat nearby. The park was a punch line in the ‘90s gay comedyJeffrey. |
Bordered by W. 4th, Grove, and Christopher Sts., Greenwich Village | 10014 | Subway: 1 to Christopher St./Sheridan Sq.
The Row.
Built from 1833 through 1837, this series of beautifully preserved Greek Revival row houses along Washington Square North, between University Place and MacDougal Street, once belonged to merchants and bankers, then writers and artists such as John Dos Passos and Edward Hopper. | 1–13 and 19–26 Washington Sq. N, between University Pl. and MacDougal St., Greenwich Village | 10003 | Subway: A, B, C, D, E, F, M to W. 4th St./Washington Sq.
St. Luke’s Place.
Steeped in New York City history and shaded by graceful gingko trees, this street officially called Leroy Street has 15 classic Italianate brownstone and brick town houses (1851–54). Novelist Theodore Dreiser wrote An American Tragedy at No. 16, and poet Marianne Moore resided at No. 14. Mayor Jimmy Walker (first elected in 1926) lived at No. 6; the lampposts in front are “mayor’s lamps,” which were sometimes placed in front of the residences of New York mayors. This block is often used as a film location: No. 12 was shown as the Huxtables’ home on The Cosby Show (although on the show it was in Brooklyn), and No. 4 was the setting of the Audrey Hepburn movie Wait Until Dark. Before 1890 the playground on the south side of the street near Hudson was a graveyard where, according to legend, the dauphin of France—the lost son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette—is buried. | Between Hudson St. and 7th Ave. S, Greenwich Village | 10014 | Subway: 1 to Houston St.
Washington Mews.
A rarity in Manhattan, this private, gated street is lined on one side with the former stables of the houses on “The Row,” as it’s know, on Washington Square North. | Between 8th St. and Washington Sq. N, between 5th Ave. and University Pl., Greenwich Village | 10003 | Subway: A, B, C, D, E, F, M to W. 4th St.
CHELSEA AND THE MEATPACKING DISTRICT: TOP TOURING EXPERIENCES
THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS
North of the Meatpacking District, Chelsea is the nexus of the American art scene, with a thriving gallery culture that spans from 20th to 27th streets, primarily between 10th and 11th avenues. The range of contemporary art on display includes almost every imaginable medium and style; if it’s going on in the art world, it’ll be in one of the 300 or so galleries here. Standouts include the enormous David Zwirner Gallery on West 19th Street, across from the amazing Frank Gehry–designed IAC office building; the Robert Miller Gallery on West 26th Street, whose proprietor is a titan in the New York art world and represents the estate of Diane Arbus, among others; and the galleries of Gagosian and Matthew Marks, both showing the latest in painting, photography, and sculpture. For a taste of the artistic past, there’s the Chelsea Art Museum on West 22nd Street, housed in a former Christmas ornament factory. If it’s performing arts that you’re more interested in, the Joyce Theater on 8th Avenue and 19th Street showcases modern dance troupes like Pilobolus, Elisa Monte Dance, and Momix.
ARCHITECTURAL ICONS
The neighborhood’s history is on display a few blocks east on West 23rd Street at the legendary Chelsea Hotel, one of the best-known reminders of the street’s heyday as a gathering point for the literati and creatures of counterculture. Equally distinguished long-term digs can be found on West 20th Street in the Cushman Row town houses, dating from the 1820s, and at London Terrace on West 23rd Street, home to such notables as Isaac Mizrahi and Annie Leibovitz. Regardless of whether they rent or own, nearly all neighborhood residents make frequent pilgrimages to block-long Chelsea Market at 15th Street between 9th and 10th avenues, the former National Biscuit Company Building, now filled with gourmet and specialty stores, restaurants, bakeries, a florist, and the headquarters of the Food Network.
GLAM, NIGHTLIFE, AND THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS
The Meatpacking District is concentrated in a few blocks of the West Village, between the Hudson River and 9th Avenue, from Little West 12th Street to West 14th Street, with some fringe activity heading toward West 16th Street. Besides beloved meat purveyor Pat LaFrieda, there are few meat markets left in this burgeoning cobblestoned area, but it’s certainly a metaphorical one at night, when the city’s trendiest frequent the equally trendy restaurants and bars here. Attracting a late-day shopping crowd, affluentangled retailers and services line West 14th Street and include boutiques of fashion designers Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney. For one of the city’s most extensive and expensive shoe departments, visit Jeffrey, the district’s pioneer retailer. The ever-popular High Line, a formerly abandoned railroad track recently turned promenade and park is becoming a runway of sorts for fashionistas as they strut past the gleaming windows of the new über-chic hotel The Standard.
The city’s recent crop of slick mega-restaurants seem to have found their homes in the streets between Little West 12th and West 16th, with huge Asian-food and Asian-style “temples” like Buddakan (16th Street and 9th Avenue), Morimoto (16th Street and 10th Avenue), Matsuri (16th Street and 9th Avenue), and Ajna Bar, formerly Buddha Bar (Little West 12th between 9th Avenue and Washington Street). Equally sexy but somewhat smaller, Jean-Georges’s Spice Market has a rich Southeast Asian design, Tanuki Tavern dishes up Japanese tapas, and late-night hot spot Pastis is a wall-to-wall French bistro scene. Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich’s huge Italian restaurant, Del Posto, one of the city’s newest four-star restaurants, can also be found nearby (85 10th Avenue). The scene-y Hotel Gansevoort is brilliant purple at night and has a rooftop pool and bar. From the top, look down at the pool at the private SoHo House, used in Sex and the City. A notable exception among all the glitz is the rough- and-tumble Hogs and Heifers, a neighborhood drinking hole infamous for its bra-covered bar and the movie
Coyote Ugly, based on it.