newyork

New york

People often ask me for NYC Recommendations. Here is a collection of e- mails.

First and foremost, my favorite restaurants

Pearl Oyster Bar – No reservations needed; phenomenal seafood. Cornelia and 6th ave.

Magnolia cup cakes – Best cupcakes in the world

Jean Georges – For lunch – Columbus circle

Sushi Yasuda – 43rd betw. 2nd and 3rd

Luger’s Steak House – Underneath Williamsburg bridge. Excellent steaks.

El paso Tacqueria – upper east side

Casa Mono – 17th and Irving

Orologio (Italian) – Alphabet city

Grimaldi’s (Best pizza) – Across Brooklyn bridge (in Brooklyn)

The New York wikipedia entry is pretty decent: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_york

My recommendation to have an overall outstanding weekend is ~$450-$500 per person.

1) Book your tickets to a broadway show immediately. They can run upto ~$100 per ticket. Ticketmaster.com

2) Use taxis as your main form of transportation: ~$120 for the weekend.

3) For meals, you can get AWESOME food for very cheap. Mamoun's falafel is $5 / meal. Pizza is $3-5 / meal. Shake Shack is $8 / meal. I would recommend at least one nice Seafood or Italian meal.

4) Comedy clubs: Relatively expensive... ~$35 per person. This may be cheaper on weekdays. Comedy cellar and Gotham are the two most popular: http://www.comedycellar.com/

http://www.gothamcomedyclub.com/

5) Walking around central park, museum mile is free fun.

6) Find some New York musician that you like on MySpace.com and try to find out which clubs/bars they will be playing at while you are in town. 55 bar is a cool music venue that jenny and I have been to a few times: http://55bar.com/ . ~$15 per person .

Other attractions include: Brooklyn bridge; Statue of liberty; Empire State Building; Time Square; Walking around Soho and West Village; Washington Square Park;

A list of small music venues will

follow...

Mamoun's Falafel on macdougal btwn bleeker and w. 3rd (across from

comedy cellar)-- CHEAP, tasty shwarma. tiny hole in the wall place.

walk around this whole west village area - VERY cool area. lots of

little shops and hippy-ish places

The Bitter End- small music venue i like for acoustic singer/songwriters

walk up museum mile (beautiful area, near central park) -

guggenheim? MOMA?(i don't understand art and haven't been to either

one but have heard that both are awesome)

central park- beautiful. must see.

5th ave in the 50's- ridiculous high-end shopping. but kind of fun to

see. might spot someone famous.

shanghai cafe in chinatown (100 mott st.) btwn canal & hester (nitin

loved it. i haven't been)

-shop for a cheap purse while in the area (fake designer purses...

kind of fun. but very crowded. lots of chinese people yelling at you.

can barter prices)

broadway show-- same day tkts booth? book now if you want guaranteed

tickets to a specific show. i already tried to get wicked tickets for

you guys. no luck. sold out. :( read reviews before choosing a show.

definitely WORTH the money. ask mom and jessica!

statue of liberty- haven't been. kind of a pain to get to. but

probably interesting and cool to see.

museum of natural history- very cool, but i wouldn't make it a top priority.

gotham or comedy cellar- HILARIOUS. i really recommend splurging on a

comedy show. there's a cover and 2 drink minimum (drinks ~$10 ea.) but

every time i've gone i've reeeeally enjoyed it.

walk around grand central station- cool architecture ...., but i wouldn't recommend buying tickets to go up. I heard it takes forever and isn't worth the time or price

junior's cheesecake- soooo tasty. there's one in brooklyn that I haven't been to, a little stand in grand central, and one that recently opened on broadway i think

magnolia bakery- yummy cupcakes :)

chess players in washington sq park (SW corner?) these guys are just

fun to watch

walk across brooklyn bridge (beautiful view, esp. at night) and

grimaldi's pizza (just on the brooklyn side after you walk across...

excellent pizza)

piano bar- Brandy's (upper east side)- sing along piano bar. this one

might be of more interest to addi, but i left it on in case. :)

alphabet city- cool area to walk around at night- you'll see funny

things like an entire restaurant dedicated to fries with dozens of

crazy sauces, orologio- good italian place, plan B- fun going

out/dancing place

harlem- interesting, historic... esp. if you read up on it in advance

and check out some harlem renaissance sights.... i haven't. but i'm

guessing it's cool

trump tower, columbus circle area- pretty to walk around

here are small music venues i'd check out if i had more time on my hands:

you should look on myspace.com to search for nyc shows (usually a

$0-15 cover and drink minimum) and sample music of different artists.

i like to go on the following sites, check their lineup of performers,

then search the artists' names on myspace to see if the show is worth

going to.

http://slanenyc.com/

http://www.rockwoodmusichall.com/

http://www.bitterend.com/

http://villagelantern.com/

http://www.ulyssesbarnyc.com/