Saturday, May 1, 2010

NYC the way we want it

Photo: Flickr user nate steiner, CC

A while back, I wrote a blog post about my favorite restaurants etcetera in San Francisco. In Swedish. The post turned out to be very useful and much appreciated by some of my friends and colleagues. So, I decided to write one about NYC as well. The difference: this time I've asked a couple of my American (mostly) friends who all have lived or are currently living in NYC. And not just any NYC friends but those whose advice I really trust. Thus, this is not your regular Swede-trying-to-be-cool-in-NYC-list. No, this is something else.

Olof (@olofster):

Best pork butt (delicious Asian meal): Momofuku Ssäm, East Village
Best bagels: B&H, East Village
Best brunch: Freemans, Lower East Side
Best place for second hand shopping: Beacon's Closet, Williamsburg or Tokio7, East Village
Best bar/pub/club: Death & Co, East Village
Best morning coffee: Abraco, East Village
Best place for (secretly) making out: Abraco Sugarland, Brooklyn
Best restaurant ever: Chiyono, East Village
Best hole-in-the-wall option (food): Abraco
Best museum/exhibition: The Met, eastern edge of Central Park
Best of all things in NYC: Abraco
Best outdoor: Fort Tilden and Breezy Point, far Rockaway, Queens

Roger:

Best pork butt: The pulled pork (a dish) at Fette Sau, Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg
Best dim sum (Chinese dumpling brunch): Ocean Jewel, Flushing, Queens
Best bagels: Murray's Bagels, 6th Avenue, Greenwich Village-ish
Best brunch: Dressler, Broadway, Williamsburg
Best place for swimming: Quogue Beach out on Long Island has nice, very clean water and a broad sand beach
Best bar/pub/club: Larry Lawrence, Grand Avenue, Williamsburg (just a bar)
Best morning coffee: Doughnut Plant, Grand, Lower East Side (not really a coffee place, but their donuts are what make it worthwhile going to) or Supercore, Bedford Ave, Williamsburg
Best restaurant ever: Ippudo, 4th Ave, East Village (My favorite Japanese ramen place in the US)
Best hole-in-the-wall option (food): Lovely Day, Elizabeth Street, Soho or Xi'An Famous Snack, Basement of Golden Shopping Mall, Flushing, Queens
Best museum/exhibition: the giant scale model of NYC at the Queens Museum, Flushing Meadows, Queens
Best of all things in NYC: A walk across the Brooklyn or Williamsburg bridge on a warm, sunny morning on the way to brunch. It makes you feel fortunate to live in New York!

Aaron (@azinman):

Best bagels: Murray's Bagels
Best morning coffee: Abraço, Grumpy, Joe the Art of Coffee. If you're in Williamsburg, check out Blue Bottle Coffee Co.
Best hole-in-the-wall option (food): Mamoun's Falafel or This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef, East Village
Best shopping: Opening Ceremony, SoHo
Best museum: The Met, MoMa

Some of my personal favorites:

Brunch: Egg, Williamsburg; 202, Chelsea and Roebling Tea Room, Williamsburg
Fort Greene restaurant: No. 7, Fort Greene
Bar: Nublu, East Village and Please Don't Tell (PDT), East Village
Japanese food: Kenka, East Village (Best described as a Japanese fast food joint on acid, but very good!)
Second hand shopping: Buffalo Exchange, Williamsburg and the stores along Orchard Street, e.g. Hairy Mary's.
Best walk: The High Line
Best park: Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters, Upper Manhattan/Washington Heights
Indoor Market: Chelsea Market, Meatpacking

More to come...

[UPDATE]

I made a Google map based on this blog post.

[UPDATE 2]

Ganda (@ganda):

Best pork butt: I love the pork ribs at Al di La, Park Slope, Brooklyn; the pork belly buns at Momofuku, East Village, and any pork from Flying Pigs Farm at the Union Square Greenmarket
Best dim sum: Pacificana, Sunset Park, Brooklyn; Dim Sum Go Go, China Town
Best bagels: Columbia Bagels, uptown; Murray's Bagels, various locations; Tal Bagels, Midtown East; Russ & Daughters, Lower East Side
Best brunch: Prune, East Village
Best place for second hand shopping: INA consignment, various locations (This is more for high-end label consignment shopping.)
Best bar/pub/club: Angel's Share, East Village
Best morning coffee: Stumptown, Ace Hotel, Murray Hill
Best hole-in-the-wall option (food): Zabb, Elmhurst, Queens
Best museum/exhibition: The Met

[UPDATE 3]

Lily:

Best bagels: Straight up no joke classic new york bagel: H&H bagels.
Best brunch: No. 7, 7 Greene Ave, Brooklyn. Delicious food, great bloody maries, strong coffee, and pretty plants in the back.
Best place for swimming: Coney Island. Seriously. The water isn't nearly as grody as you'd think, and the people watching is unbeatable.
Best place for second hand shopping: Guvnors Vintage Thrift, 178 Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. Great selection, actually affordable.
Best place for (secretly) making out: The Cloisters or The Japanese Garden Room at the MET.
Best hole-in-the-wall option (food): Taste Good Malaysian Restaurant, 8218 45th Ave, Elmhurst. Curry Laksa - YUM!
Best museum/exhibition: The Frick (so pretty), The NY Transit Museum in Downtown Brooklyn (especially the part with the old trains), The Map Room in the New York Public Library
Best of all things in NYC: The tram to Roosevelt Island, Titan Greek Supermarket in Astoria (best olives i've ever eaten), the bar at the top of the Standard Hotel above the High Line (great views, great cocktails, the hostesses wear gold lamee and sun glasses, and the elevator has a strange seven circles of hell art installation that makes it feel like you are swimming in a kaleidescope designed by Hieronymus Bosch...but whatever you do, don't wear flip flops, they're a tad snobby...)

Gena (@genapeditto):

Best coffee (all day): Joe the Art of Coffee, West Village and Union Square
Best afternoon snack: Fresh shucked oysters from Murray's Sturgeon Shop (consumed in one of the nearby parks), Upper West Side
Best place for second hand shopping: Billy's Antique Shop, NoHo
Best restaurant ever: Motorino Pizza, East Village and Brooklyn
Best hole-in-the-wall option (food): Gray's Papaya, West Village
Best museum/exhibition: NY Transit Museum, Brooklyn Heights and anything Creative Time has going on
Best of all things in NYC: Big Gay Ice Cream Truck; the High Line, Meatpacking District; taking the ferry to and biking around Governors Island

David (@dam1975):

Best Dim Sum: My dad always likes Hop Lee Restaurant at 16 Mott Street, China Town
Best bagels: H&H bagels, which is sort of the standard; Murray's Bagels; Columbia Bagels is very good indeed, Columbia Uptown, 2836 Broadway (@110th St.).
Best brunch: I love Morandi, West Village. Very nice, and do sit outside if you can.
Best shopping: Uniqlo, SoHo
Best coffee: Joe the Art of Coffee, West Village and Union Square. Also, if you want the freshest, bestest brewed coffee, go to Cafe Grumpy, Chelsea. Grumpy uses a cool Clover single-serve brewing setup that you have to see to believe.
Best restaurant ever: Babbo, Greenwich Village. Reservations fill up as soon as they come available--one month in advance. If you call when they open, you shouldn't have a problem getting a table for next month. The pasta tasting menu is extremely good, and you should get the flight of wines to go with it (the pairings are sublime--the sum far exceeding the parts). The only catch is that the entire table has to get the pasta menu if you go that route. There's also a non-pasta tasting menu that isn't quite as good.
Best hole in the wall option (food): Cafe Mogador, a Moroccan place on St. Mark's Place, East Village
Best museum/exhibition: The holiest place in New York for me has always been the Temple of Dendur at the Met.

Bonus - Best sushi: Sushi Yasuda at 204 E. 43rd St, Midtown East. If you sit at the bar, Mr. Yasuda might serve you; you learn a lot about sushi. The menu varies by day; they go to the market daily, and they can tell you why the salmon from this particular river in Alaska is different from another river in Alaska. And it really is different.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Jag måste åka till NY snart så jag kan använda några av de här. :)

Pauspling said...

Absolut! Men först Asien, va?

Kalle said...

Sjukt bra tips, tack! Önskar jag hade ett par till veckor i stan nu bara...

Pauspling said...

Förstår precis hur du känner, Kalle! :)