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NYC beyond the LES
NYC beyond the LES
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5w
NYC beyond the LES
A $10 sack of Union Square Pretzel Co. (née Martin's) magic
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I'm a stone-cold pretzel snob + former fact checker; can confirm that these are the best hard pretzels on the planet. No preservatives/sweeteners/fat, just sourdough and skill. The generous $10 bag of janky pretzel pieces you can snag at USPC's greenmarket stands (M/W/F at Union Square, Saturdays at Grand Army Plaza, Sundays on the UWS) is the best snack deal in NYC, and they'll usually offer you a pretzel for the road.
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14w
NYC beyond the LES
The Polonsky Exhibition of the NYPL's Treasures (Midtown)
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NYC's hottest (free!) club is the New York Public Library's Treasures showcase at the Stephen A. Schwartzman building at Bryant Park. People have been giving their coolest shit to the NYPL for centuries, and its 56-million-piece collection rolls deep: In addition to actual Winnie the Pooh & co. (except Roo, who was lost in an apple orchard - although Charles and Camilla recently gave the library an honorary Roo), you can check out Charles Dickens's desk, Jefferson's copy of the Declaration of Independence, a Gutenberg Bible, Malcolm X's briefcase, Virginia Woolf's cane, the Hunt-Lenox Globe (featuring one of the first cartographic representations of America) - it is all FASCINATING, and it's beautifully displayed, and there are free 45-minute tours at 12:30 and 3:30 Monday through Saturday (and it's free to visit at your own pace whenever the building is open). It's also a stunning space, obviously, and just being in there is a multivitamin for the soul. I love you, NYPL.
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15w
NYC beyond the LES
Librae Bakery (East Village)
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Bahraini-founded magic with Danish technique and Middle Eastern ingredients (their pistachio-rose croissant is the diva and she's exquisite, but don't sleep on the za'atar labneh morning buns). If they have a special, you want three, but the classics are also bangers; getting one of their butter croissants on a windy day and walking home while eating it as little bits of those perfectly-laminated layers shatter and blow over my shoulders is a perfect Manhattan experience. My favorite croissant in NYC, easy.
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15w
NYC beyond the LES
Lloyd's Carrot Cake (East Harlem)
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Five cups of double-grated fresh carrots in each Tolstoy-dense, insanely-moist, cream-cheese-frosted-to-perfection medium cake, people. Lloyd's turns out the best carrot cake on earth, won't even say don't @ me because I'm so right it feels good, and they're delightful people to boot. I have half of one of these beauties chilling in my refrigerator right now, and by this evening I'll have...maybe a quarter? Bless Lloyd's.
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17w
NYC beyond the LES
Funny Face Bakery (Noho)
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Their iced novelty cookies are entertaining, but their curling-rock-sized crumbfetti cookies - which, like the chocolate chip numbers pictured here and all of their offerings that aren't repping Bad Bunny or a Real Housewife - are always warm, and if you eat one on the spot you'll sink through the sidewalk straight down to the earth's molten core and become the most serene magma-blorp ever to summit Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
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18w
NYC beyond the LES
(Early-Ass, Weekday-Breakfast Reservations at) Balthazar (Soho)
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I'm not a daywalker and believe the only winning move at NYC brunch is (à la WARGAMES) not to play, but a dear friend comes to town for work a couple times a year and is only available first thing in the morning; Balthazar, in turn, is one of the only spots in our overlapping neighborhood where you can make a reservation for 8AM. If you're up and social at 8AM on a weekday you deserve a pitch-perfect French omelette and the city's best home fries. I go straight home and go back to bed.
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18w
NYC beyond the LES
Spicy Moon (Nolita)
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Legitimately hot-ass vegan Szechuan on Bowery just south of Houston, with some satisfying GF options as well; this largest outpost (the wee original's in the East Village and there are West Village and Chelsea locations as well) has a substantial bar with solid NA options. The dry pepper wings are goddamn outstanding, but it's hard to go wrong; spice can be adjusted in most dishes. One of the few restaurants I would recommend to just about anyone.
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19w
NYC beyond the LES
Mast Books (East Village)
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(Avenue A at 5th) A lethally gorgeous gallery space and bookstore chock full of new and used rarities, art and photography books, zines, art, and ephemera; in the act of creating this rec I realized I had to buy a Cindy Sherman CdG postcard they'd just featured. The most beautiful books in my library are Mast finds, and it's the perfect place to find a one-of-a-kind gift. Fuck Amazon.
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19w
NYC beyond the LES
Kalustyan's (Murray Hill)
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(Lexington at 28th) A waking dream, an Indian/Armenian/Turkish wonderland with more than 10,000 products from 80 countries; if the spice you seek isn't there, it doesn't exist. Epicurious called it the best grocery store in America; so does Padma Lakshmi, and so do I, so there. Don't sleep on their Turkish delight - they roll deep, and it's all exquisite - and plan to leave with at least 3x what you thought you'd buy when you walked in. The magic of Kalustyan's is in finding what you needed and then finding what you hadn't known you needed even more.
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19w
NYC beyond the LES
Village East by Angelika (East Village)
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The most beautiful place to see a movie in NYC? A bloody gorgeous Moorish Revival theater built in 1925-26 when 12th Street and 2nd Ave was part of the Yiddish Theatre District, Village East is now a 7-screen movie house (this is its Jaffe Theatre; the others are smaller and modernized). They usually have a handful of big-studio offerings, but their indie and festival programming is the truly special stuff, and if you happen to be around when the Lower East Side Film Festival is cooking (typically in the spring; get updates via https://www.lesfilmfestival.com/), OH MY GOD GO.
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19w
NYC beyond the LES
Codex Books (Noho)
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(North side of Bleecker west of Bowery) Dangerously well-curated rare, used, and flat-out rad books; I've picked up multiple gorgeous foreign editions of NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, a poem I ended up framing, some new-to-me bell hooks. Don't say I didn't warn you to bring a big tote. Fuck Amazon.
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20w
NYC beyond the LES
Nitehawk Cinema (Williamsburg)
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God bless Nitehawk; we see a movie there almost every Friday night. "Our" seats are apparently also Questlove's seats, but we haven't had to fight him for them (yet). Fun fact, Nitehawk was responsible for overturning the Prohibition-era law that made drinking alcohol in movie houses illegal. It's a dine-in theater with impeccable first-run indie and arthouse programming with occasional retrospectives and blockbusters; Cressa Maeve Áine's preshow animations built my hot rod.
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20w
NYC beyond the LES
City Opera Thrift Shop (Chelsea)
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Bad news: It's so, so far west (26th past 10th)! Good news: It's right at the foot of a staircase up to the High Line! Even better news: Sometimes their (more vintage- than thrift-priced but always impeccably curated) clothing selection features OPERA COSTUMES! I've scored lamps, vintage crystal, and coats louder than My Bloody Valentine's reunion show at Hammerstein Ballroom (IYKYK) at City Opera.
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20w
NYC beyond the LES
Hanoi House Vietnamese Restaurant (East Village)
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My favorite vegetarian pho in NYC; the best summer rolls ANYWHERE.
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20w
NYC beyond the LES
Vintage Thrift (Gramercy)
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3rd Ave at 22/23, and my favorite upscale 'thrift' in Manhattan. Benefits the United Jewish Council of the East Side, and I've found everything from vintage designer clothing to a big old brass deer to a massive antique atlas to exquisite old dishes there. Budget enough time to look at EVERYTHING, and enjoy the music, which reliably makes me want to run for office and also go roller skating. Closes for Shabbat at sunset on Fridays and is closed Saturdays.
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