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LucalifoodBrooklynCarroll GardensNow that Dom DeMarco of Di Fara Pizzeria is dead, I think this is where I'd send you for a highend (though I think BYOB, fyi) pizza mission. Beautiful oven and simple, dark dining room. The pizza is very special, but this is also the only place in NYC I'd order a calzone sober.
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De Hot PotfoodBrooklynFlatbushYou're going to order a "doubles with everything" and at least two if you're hungry, because the first will be so good you'll order another anyway. Soupy Trinidadian chickpea curry in a doughy, roti-like pocket of baras. These are my and Shar's favorite food in Brooklyn. Walk them over to Prospect Park if they last that long.
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ScoopsfoodBrooklynFlatbushRastas doing vegan ice cream (grape nuts flavor, for one!) and Caribbean food. The move is to order a "small food" or a "large food", which is an assorted plate of vegetables, pastas, and starches, from what I remember. Kind of a mishmash, but so satisfying.
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Radio BakeryfoodBrooklynGreenpointGreat new bakery, excellent sandwiches and pastries — highly recommend grabbing to go and hitting Transmitter Park or riding the ferry!
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Vinegar Hill HousefoodBrooklynVinegar HillBeautiful old building with a great little New American (I hated even typing that) restaurant. Nice to sit at the bar, too. Menu changes, but you can't really go wrong. Cute little five-some-odd-block neighborhood to walk around too: very old, cobbled, romantic.
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ArchestratusshopBrooklynGreenpointFun newer culinary bookstore with an excellent cafe for lunch or a beverage next door
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Poster HouseartManhattanChelseaNewish little museum for design, typography, and posters. Good, not earth-shattering.
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MmuseummartManhattanChinatownTiny museum in a freight elevator in Cortlandt Alley showing bizarre artifacts from contemporary culture, like tools made by incarcerated people or the shoe thrown at George W. Bush in Iraq!
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The StoneartManhattanEast VillageJohn Zorn's weirdo music performance space. Great stuff.
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Music at Trinity Church Wall StreetartManhattanFinancial DistrictI recommend the complines by candlelight and early evening chorale stuff they sometimes put on. If you're close by!x
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The CloistersartManhattanInwoodGo. Enjoy the totally ahistorical medieval art and architecture smorgasbord. Walk around Fort Tryon Park. And have lunch afterward on the uppermost edge of Manhattan! Nice to visit when it's nice, of course, but I like it best up there when it's really cold.x
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The Morgan Library & MuseumartManhattanMidtown EastJ. Pierpoint's library is a trip, but the real draw is the stellar museum programming. Good nerdy shit, and sometimes just a nice place to go listen to classical music in the lobby. Free Friday evenings.
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Dream HouseartManhattanTribecaMy favorite art thing in NYC. Algorithmic, atonal sound installation in an apartment in Tribeca put on by great NYC weirdos for years. Very meditative. Spend some time there. You'll find that the city feels oddly quiet when you leave.
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The FrickartManhattanUpper East SideWhen the remodel is over, you must go. Some of the finest honky art in NYC. I think they have four Turners (all good), and they have a gorgeous "garden court".
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The MetartManhattanUpper East SideBest monument to colonialism and imperialism in NYC. Two things: find Saint Firmin Carrying His Head, and don't forget to look up when you approach the entrance (from at least as far as the street) — there are four enormous, haphazard stacks of stone on top of the colonnade that were supposed to be carved into statues like a hundred years ago and never were lol (and you must now also live with the curse of never being able to unsee them).x
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Amor y AmargobarManhattanEast VillageTiny but excellent bar focusing on amari and bitters. One of the stops on Shar's and my first date :)
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International BarbarManhattanEast VillageBest dive in the world. I grew up here, laughed til I peed here, made mistakes here, etc. etc. The vibe is: margaritas in a pint glass, a great punk jukebox, and eating takeout in the tiny backyard.
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Lucy'sbarManhattanEast VillageGreat dive with pool — Lucy (a good-hearted, tough old Polish lady) is a gem and basically the only person working there??
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Sophie'sbarManhattanEast VillageAnother East Village pool dive. Look out for Slimma, who plays with just one arm.
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Martiny'sbarManhattanGramercyNewish bar from one of the Angel's Share (RIP) bartenders. $$$$, but you're gonna get a phenomenal drink in an old carriage house cum sculpture studio for the guy who designed the Washington Square Arch. I had a sherry cocktail aged in a leather bladder for a month.
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JadisbarManhattanLower East SideWarm little French wine bar. Always surprised by the range of wines. Nice food too, maybe, but I can't remember?? Can get bustley, but that's NYC, baby!!
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Bar OraibarManhattanMidtownTiny Japanese listening bar in what appears to be an apartment. Excellent contemporary drinks, great music, great snacks, and you can leave a bottle at the bar with your name on it, for future revelry.
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Tomi JazzbarManhattanMidtownLovely jazz bar, traditional and loungey for the most part. Almost impossible to get in, but if you can, it's so worth it. I don't know what the strategy is these days: go impossibly early before they open or very late for the second set?? But it's lit by oil lamps and they make mean cocktails, traditional Japanese bar fare, and Itameshi-style pastas. Good whisky, too.
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Julius'barManhattanWest VillageGreat cheap gay bar (the oldest in the city?) with great burgers. x
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Anthology Film ArchivesfilmManhattanEast Village"Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent, experimental, and avant-garde cinema." Great stuff!
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MetrographfilmManhattanLower East SideA little too clean cut for me, but they show great films sometimes!
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Film ForumfilmManhattanWest VillageMy favorite place to see cool films in NYC. Banana bread that was famously beloved by Jacques Derrida. Old New Yorkers shushing each other. I could cry.x
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IFCfilmManhattanWest VillageGood programming but without the charm of Film Forum.
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ALF BakeryfoodManhattanChelseaNew bakery from one of the people from Arcade Bakery — haven't been to ALF but Arcade was legendary (even the ham and cheese on baguette, done in the purest French style, was perfect: looks like you can get thaem at ALF!). ALF's in the basement of Chelsea Market: I would bet that a Very Good Day would be picking up some pastries or sandwiches and heading to the 10th Street Overlook on the Highline, followed by some galleries and/or grazing at Tia Pol for dinner :)
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Tia PolfoodManhattanChelseaMy cousin Tenny used to take me here for tapas when I first moved to NYC and was absolutely lost and out of my depth lol. I remember perfect patatas bravas, grilled octopus and good, easy drinking.
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Xi'an Famous FoodsfoodManhattanChinatownExcellent, excellent Western Chinese noodles. It's a chain, but I love the Bayard Street location most. My faves are the spicy cumin lamb noodles, spicy and sour spinach dumplings, and oily-ass cucumbers, but you can't go wrong. Chrysanthemum tea if you need to cool down
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Deluxe Green BofoodManhattanChinatownReliable Chinese-American comfort food. Great soup dumplings, crispy Cantonese pork noodles, Singapore mei fun, etc. Has always been relatively easy to get a table even for larger groups, even when it was Nice Green Bo, or for that matter, New Green Bo!
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KopitiamfoodManhattanChinatownMalaysian breakfast and lunch. Consistently some of the best food in the city. Any proper dishes like Nasi Lemak are going to be phenomenal, but do NOT pass on pastries or dessert: the kaya butter toast is decadent condensed milk + pandan porn. The banana leaf-steamed otak otak will knock your socks off.
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Superiority BurgerfoodManhattanEast VillageThe theme here is like... if seasonal and unfussy but very smart cooking were brought to bear on vegetarian hardcore band tour food. In the old Odessa space, which will likely be meaningless to you, but the fact that Superiority Burger could take it over without pissing off old Villagers says a lot.
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Sundaes and ConesfoodManhattanEast VillageThis place has been going strong for a good long while and holds up. The gentle, unusual flavors like corn and black sesame are my go-tos.
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AbraçofoodManhattanEast VillageHonestly the only NYC cafe I intentionally go back to is Abraço. They used to use like... a lot of ground coffee every time they pulled a shot, which is a really old school move that if I'm being honest, I like more than the fruity, acid coffee that's en vogue. One of the owners also makes a lovely olive oil loaf they hopefully still have every day. Walk over to Tompkin's Square Park with coffee + pastry, and you're guaranteed a good day.
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Il Posto AccantofoodManhattanEast VillageHomey Italian place that's not trendy or glitzy in any way but is very good and, since young people discovered it a few years ago, kinda busy (but you can still get in). An excellent place to dine al fresco when it's nice out or to drink too much wine with a loved one. The specials are very often great (I had the best softshell crab of my life there once). I've even eaten solo here twice, and would do it again.
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Russo'sfoodManhattanEast VillageThick italian sandwiches and a nice little Italian grocery. It's fine. Charming and fine. The Italian sandwich game has declined so hard in NYC that I would argue any good sandwich is good enough.
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SafarifoodManhattanHarlemSomali hole-in-the-wall good for making sweet memories, before or after walking the wonderful north side of Central Park. Recommend the satisfying Sambusa (meat patty), chicken suqaar, powdered sugar-laden mandazi, and... linguine??? Goat looks mouth-watering, but I havent gotten to it yet. Oh, try one of the traditional coffee drinks: qaxwo (the ginger one) or shaax (kind of like a spicier horchata + chai latte)
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Morgenstern's/BananasfoodManhattanLower East SideWild way of thinking about ice cream. Whatever they're calling the space by the time you read this, go. One time Nick Morgenstern showed up to a party at an old job of mine with weed ice cream sandwiches, for context. Walk your cone to the Elizabeth Street Garden.
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B&HfoodManhattanEast VillageOld school veggie diner on 2nd Ave. Grilled cheese, tuna melt with cheddar and apple, blintzes, borscht, and their challah are the hits, but it's hard to go wrong. Still good, still cheap. "NO GUNS NO PHONES". Once, I went in there with my buddy after he'd kinda been dumped. Mike could sense something was wrong and slid a tiny glass of fresh OJ down the counter: "One thing at a time, brother. Only one thing at a time."
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Russ and DaughtersfoodManhattanLower East SideObviously get the everything bagel with caviar cream cheese, lox, tomatoes, capers, and onion — but don't sleep on the beet shrub.x
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Saravanaa BhavanfoodManhattanMurray HillClassic dosa spot. So, so good, and an expansive menu. Some intrafamilial murder drama, a la Zankou Chicken, if I remember correctly. Mysore dosa is a favorite.
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Thai DinerfoodManhattanNolitaProbably the best cool restaurant in the city right now, and derived from our old favorite, the now shuttered Uncle Boon's. It's a really wild menu worth ordering from all over, so go with a crew. Betel wraps, scallops, all the curries, khao soi, etc. Hard to go wrong.
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Barney GreengrassfoodManhattanUpper West SideGreat old Jewish deli breakfast and cured fish. "The Sturgeon King".
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NY DosasfoodManhattanGreenwich VillageI believe the story with this dude is he used to race motorcycles in Sri Lanka?? Regardless, excellent, nourishing, cheap food on the south side of Washington Square Park. An old student haunt, as it's a block from the library. Can be a long line.
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Joe's PizzafoodManhattanWest VillageThe best NYC slice. I go for pepperoni. Now a chain but the Carmine street location is my fave. Nice tiny park across the street for chowing.
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Via CarotafoodManhattanWest VillageUnfortunately as good as everyone says. Very hard to get in: we walked in to sit at the bar on a rainy 4th of July, so maybe try weird times or go early. Cocktails are phenomenal and simple — the martini Italiano was perfection (vodka, a nice white vermouth, and grappa!) as was the negroni terra (Cynar as the bitter) — and the salad is like cake: depraved and buttery.
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KingfoodManhattanWest VillageSpare, elegant restaurant food (I think you could safely call it Northern Italian) that hits some deep notes for me. Love the wicker interior details, but sitting outside on King Street is such a treat. The chickpea panisse are always (?) on the ever-changing menu, and you should always order them. Pillowy fluff with this incredible, barely crispy exterior that gives way to the most pleasurable bite. Bits of dried sage leaves and good salt seem to be the only seasoning. Great, great early evening cocktails with only a couple ingredients. Lovely wine.
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East Village BooksshopManhattanEast VillageTight, dim EV stalwart for used books: especially good classical history, philosophy, and critical theory stuff. Used to sell a tote bag that read "IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, CHEER THEM ON".
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Mast BooksshopManhattanEast VillageSpecialized, high-end trendy art/philosophy books. Used to be an affordable left-wing used art/philosophy bookshop. IMO has become fancy in a not good way, but can be worth a browse. Interesting first editions if you need a nice gift.
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Bonnie Slotnick CookbooksshopManhattanEast VillageBonnie fucking rules, and this shop is amazing. Great used books on food and drink — they always have like ten editions of MFK Fisher's The Art of Eating, if you're in a pinch for a gift that says "Take this hold of this life and never let go!!!!"
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Pak Punjab Deli & Grocery (and Smoke Shop??)shopManhattanEast VillageEveryone likes to pop in here late for a little samosa or late-night chaat.
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Alabaster BooksshopManhattanEast VillageCrowded little store with old fiction and art book gems.
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Mercer Street BooksshopManhattanGreenwich VillageOld school Village/NoHo used book slop [sic]: a mess but a fun time. IIRC, interesting selection of weird periodicals that no one would ever want.
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CodexshopManhattanGreenwich VillageGreat relatively new (mostly) used book store. Such a solid shop and great selection.
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Dashwood BooksshopManhattanGreenwich VillageGreat, great photo bookstore. If she's there, Miwa is an amazing host who will help you find something you're really into. Her specialty is pervy 90s Japanese portraiture, but she's generally very knowledgable. Can get pricy but it's usually a special book you'll hold onto forever.
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BluestockingsshopManhattanLower East SideRadical feminist grumpy left-wing worker-owned bookstore.
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Kalustyan'sshopManhattanMurray HillSpice shop. Preserved foods. Brown people mecca.
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Wine TherapyshopManhattanNolitaThere are cooler wine shops, but I come back to this one again and again. They nail breezy French and Italian wines with personality. Often conveniently on my way to something I forgot to pick up wine for :)
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Chambers Street WinesshopManhattanTribecaExcellent booze shop with great everything. You can often snag great sealed bottles of vintage amari or other liquors.
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Argosy Book StoreshopManhattanUpper East SideOldest independent bookstore in NYC. Fun selection (A touch too old-white-people, but some lovely classics, maps, and prints) across like 5 or 6 floors you access via a dangerous old elevator with an elevator operator.
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Kitchen Arts and LettersshopManhattanUpper East SideThe best food-related bookstore I'm aware of. Staff is very, very knowledgeable and will direct you to great stuff that will surprise you, new and old. They also stock heady stuff like the Oxford Companions, Petit Propos Culinaires, and various zines if you want to learn about Lao bbq eel (cooked in wide bamboo culms!) or browse Apicius' ancient Roman recipes.
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Left Bank BooksshopManhattanWest VillageUsed to be a cooler old bookstore, now taken over by trendier younger folks with good taste in weirdo editions, but largely skippable, IMO
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Three Lives and CompanyshopManhattanWest VillageGreat neighborhood bookstore for new contemporary fiction and poetry, especially. Pretty good non-fiction too — and events, iirc. The people who work here are v smart
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Joanne Hendricks CookbooksshopManhattanWest VillageAmazing weird old lady's colonial house for excellent vintage and antiquarian cookbooks. She's great and the building is truly lovely. Appt only, IIRC.
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Village CutsshopManhattanWest VillageThis is where I used to get my haircut when I had some. It's like 4 buff gay men from Queens and Staten Island and 3 buff straight dudes from Sheepshead Bay just gossiping. They're the best — sweet and cheap.
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10th Avenue Square & Overlook at 17th StreetthingManhattanChelseaAmazing little amphitheater on the Highline with a huge glass window for you to watch 10th Ave unfold. I love this spot so much that I would take dates there, and if they weren't into it, I knew we weren't going on a second date.
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Albert's GardenthingManhattanEast VillageDirectly next to Bonnie Slotnick's. Tiny little garden with funny hours and sweet neighbors hanging out.
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The People's ForumthingManhattanGarment DistrictLovely lefty library and community space in a totally unexpected part of the city. Cute little cafe where you can sip drinks in Capri Sun-style bags and read your C.L.R. James.
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Statue of CervantesthingManhattanGreenwich VillageGoing north on 5th Ave from the Washington Square Park arch, you'll get to a little street on your right almost immediately called Washington Mews (also worth a quick stroll: just a cute little cobbled street lined with stables converted into period houses from all over Europe. They're now NYU facilities — I took my Joyce seminar in Ireland House, for example). Just south of the Mews on the east side of the street is Ireland House, and just south of that is a white colonnade — walk down it to find a mediocre old sculpture of Cervantes. I really don't know why I love this spot, but I do.
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The Colloquium for Unpopular CulturethingManhattanGreenwich VillageWonderfully bizarre art, film, music, literature programming from a generous, funny, lovable, mental old teacher of mine, Sukdev Sandhu, who loves showing rare old crap that's never been seen in the States. Follow on IG or message him elsewhere. Get on his mailing list, it'll start back up later this year.
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Elizabeth Street GardenthingManhattanNolitaWonderful garden with such a sense of place and some gorgeous flora, also filled with shit from the antique shop next door. The city wants to close it, but I don't know the specifics. Go in case they do!!
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Poets HousethingManhattanTribecaWONDERFUL public poetry library overlooking the Hudson, crazy underrated! They're supposed to reopen sometime in 2023: go when they are. Great books, great programming
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Central Park Manhattan Grid Surveyer's BoltthingManhattanCentral ParkIt'll take some hunting, but it's quite fun to look for this surveyer's bolt (a little piece of metal sticking a few inches out of a large boulder). It was one of the large stakes driven into the ground in the early 1800s to measure out the blocks for Manhattan's original grid! This one was supposed to be at 6th Avenue and 65th Street. Kinda hard to find and those who have don't share the exact location, but poke around online and near the Dairy in Central Park :)
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Café SabarskyfoodManhattanUpper East SideSuper charming, fin-de-sieclish Viennese cafe that's part of the Neue Galerie (early 20th-century German and Austrian art and design). My parents used to love this place, and now I do too. Luscious sachertorte and sexy hazelnut cakes. Viennese coffee. Great place to cosplay a Patron of the Arts.
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CubbyholebarManhattanWest VillageOne of the best bars of all time and one of the last remaining lesbian bars anywhere. A dive. Don't go with a gaggle of straights!
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Queens MuseumartQueensFlushing/CoronaUnderrated museum showing lots of work by people of color and out-there contemporary stuff (including performance art), plus a good bookstore. On the World's Fair grounds, which is a fun thing to cruise around. Also a permanent exhibition about the fair worth seeing. The main attraction here is the Panorama of the City of New York, a 1:1200 scale model of the entire city. "Each of the city’s 895,000 buildings constructed prior to 1992 and every street, park and some 100 bridges are represented and assembled onto 273 individual sections comprising the 320 square miles of New York City." Damn!!!!
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