Best place to take the pulse of the city
1010 WINS-AM
So they don't tell you much, what with the news being limited to mere soundbites, but John Montone and the Jam Cam, "because your whole world can change in 24 hours" and that emotional theme music make this the best way to start the day. The world it's not, but 22 minutes with 1010 WINS should make you a fan.
Best Old-School Bar
McHale's - 750 Eighth Avenue @ 46th Street (212-997-8885)
Its rich history should be enough to draw anyone in through it's swinging glass door, its noir-ish interior will make you want to stay. Never too loud, never too quiet, this is one of the few spots where the food and drink is as fabulous as the atmosphere - a good drink selection, sweet-as-pie servers and burgers with at least a pound of cheese and a half-slab of bacon atop will send you to that happy place you long for after a day behind a desk in your dark-paneled Midtown office.
Best Bar. Period.
Siberia - 1627 Broadway @ 50th Street (212-333-4141)
Stick with the loud, little room with the yellowing Post clips on the window facing the passageway, order up a shot of chilled vodka from the low-key barkeep, schmooze with the Post's most eligible bachelor Bill Hoffmann, flirt with whichever celeb is slumming behind the counter that night, and drink in the colorful mix of patrons that all want a piece of the action. Here is proof that a bar rife with cubicle rats needn't be a bad thing. Thanks to it's tacky location, there's little pretention about this truly hip place, which is why we love it so.
Best Mindfuck (when you're really, really drunk)
Staring at the ABC display in Times Square
You're getting queasy just thinking about it - so enormous, so colorful and so fast moving, the endless stream of promos and ads for the yellow-and-black network sets heads spinning sober. Never mind after a few too many at Scruffy Duffy's on Eighth Avenue. Suddenly you don't feel so good.
Best Multiplex
Sony Theatres Lincoln Square -1998 Broadway @ 68th Street (777-FILM)
You may take your cramped downtown shitboxes and shove them where the sun don't shine - we'll take this overpriced, glitzy Upper West Side googleplex anyday - thanks to great acoustics and spacious seating, even the noisy folks in the back won't be too annoying once you settle in for whatever it is you're here to see. A pleasant mix of blockbusters and limited run pics make this the ultimate moviegoing destination. So its expensive -- $9.50 here is better than $8.75 in those downtown closets they call theatres.
Best Revival/Art House
BAM Rose Cinemas - 30 Lafayette Ave @ Ashland Place, Fort Greene (718-623-2770)
Having endured more than my share of Angelika nightmares, my faith in movie going was reaffirmed after attending one screening at BAM. Immaculate, spacious theatres as well as fresh popcorn will be sure to keep you coming back, as will retrospectives on Fellini, Capra, Harvey Keitel and Monty Python, to name a few current offerings. Worth the trip from anywhere. Support this place. And don't forget to check out the membership program -- $300/yr or so gets you a season pass to any first-run or revival showings. Imagine!
Best Coffee
Ozzie's Coffee - 57 7th Avenue @ Lincoln Place, Park Slope - 718-398-6695
It's tempting to say Dunkin Donuts, but I know how truly awful Manhattan outlets of the chain are - the outer boroughs seem to fare better, the coffee is quite good. Ask me how pissed I am that I no longer have one between me and my subway station, as I did for near a year. Ozzie's in Park Slope, while it's house blend does not excel (order the French Roast), stands out above most others just because they're so damn down-to-earth - order a regular coffee and perhaps earn the undying gratitude of at counterperson that rolls their eyes when hearing the words "half-caf," "mochachino" or "macchiato." As one young man said offhand to me the other day, sometimes the patrons need to be reminded that "they're no longer in L.A."
Quickest Escape from the City
The Little Red Lighthouse (and the Great Grey Bridge),Washington Heights
DUGWB just doesn't work, but that's really the only way to describe the location of this nifty, secluded and damn near inaccessible greenspace that lies directly underneath I-95 You can play tennis, go rock climbing, dangle your feet in the almost clean river and watch little boats fight the water's vicious currents. Walk down West 181st, turn right onto what looks like an on ramp to the parkway (it is), take the pedestrian bridge over said road and wend your way down through the woods to the rocks, and beyond to the Little Red Lighthouse (did you read the book as a child?) and the tennis courts beyond. Always quiet, save the deafening roar of traffic overhead, the view down-river is surprisingly rewarding, and you'll feel like a kid again jumping from boulder to boulder.
Best Midweek Getaway
Twin Gables Guest House - 73 Tinker Street, Woodstock, New York - 914-679-9479
Never, ever, ever go to Woodstock on a weekend - you'll never want to go again. However, its worth heading up on a Monday or Tuesday and spending a night or two during the relatively sleepy weekday. You'll find that in the absence of busloads of weekend warriors who smoke weed on the Village Green before heading back to Hoboken, this charming village with one main street (with two names - Tinker Street and Mill Hill Road) is a most delightful place to spend time. Twin Gables has been around for ever, and it's Tinker Street location keeps you right in the heart of everything. Hike Overlook Mountain, spend hours over coffee at Bread Alone, pore over a book at the Golden Notebook, catch a French film at the Tinker Street Cinema, or a show at the Tinker Street Café. Dinner? Bear Café or New World Home Cooking will impress. Rooms range from $48 single -- $109 quad. Some private baths, some shared. Reserve well in advance. More info, go to woodstock-online.com. And remember, always, always, stay tuned to 100.1 FM, WDST.
Best place to confuse New York with L.A.
The Wintergarden - World Financial Center, Vesey St @ West St.
Nowhere in New York (as far as I know) is there as brightly lit and oddly attractive an atrium as the Winter Garden. Lined with expensive shops and overpriced restaurants, filled with towering palm trees and bathed in light from above, you'll swear you're somewhere in California, were it not for the fact that outside lies the harbor, not a sandy beach. But it's pretty damn close. Visit now, at Christmas time, for its overkill tree-light chandeliers hanging from the very high ceiling. Droves of out-of-towners visit here, and you can always always count on Asian wedding parties hosting informal photo shoots on the steps at the east end of the hall most weekend afternoons. Nobody seems to mind.
Best Upstate nabe you can't afford
Snedens Landing at Palisades, Rockland County
This most exclusive little enclave with the corn-dog name off of Route 9W just as you cross back into New York off the Palisades Parkway is very likely the most charming, most secluded of any spot near the city that we can think of - sure, you'll find country roads on Long Island, but what's that deafening roar? The LIE. (The what? I can't hear you!) At Sneden's Landing, the only sound you'll hear is rustling leaves and the occasional boat on the river. Turn right at the first light on the NY side, and drive down any of the barely-wide-enough-for-one lanes that lead down to water's edge. Folks who live there are used to you backing in and out of their driveways. You'll remember that you're a paltry 15 minutes from the bridge. And then you'll try and find a listing in the neighborhood. Good luck.
Best Upstate nabe you can afford
Ulster County
So I'm biased against the east bank - who could blame me, me being reared in Kingston. Talk about inferiority complexes. Now that the artists are moving in the Rondout neighborhood and everyone is finding out that all those old buildings make great live/work spaces, I can be proud of my heritage. And who couldn't love this low-key county a mere 2 hours north, a place comprised of such towns as New Paltz, Woodstock, Rosendale, Hurley, Saugerties? Witness the mint $42,000 cottage on the banks of the Esopus Creek off of Route 28 in Shandaken, listed recently on hudsonvalleyrealty.com. Or the vintage, mint three story brick house (wraparound porches) off of Kingston's Delaware Avenue, listed at $69,000. So it's not in the woods, but you're from the city - you hate the woods.
Best cityscape at ground level
Union Street Bridge, Gowanus Canal
Stand on the south side of the bridge, gaze at the romantic-industrial landscape, and to the lower Manhattan skyline beyond. You'll know you've stumbled on a great spot when you see the artists standing on the corner, putting view to canvas. Grab a cup from the Fall Café over on Smith, perch on the railing, and meditate, and remember how bad it used to smell.
Best cityscape from the sky
Ramona's apartment in the projects, East Harlem
No, you can't come up. Looking down from Harlem, you see the island Manhattan from the strangest viewpoint ever. You see how Harlem is actually downhill from the respective Sides, and you look diagonally across/down to the Biography sign at Columbus Circle. But wait -- the World Trade Center is right behind it, and the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings just to the left. It's as if everything south of 57th Street were 2D. Bizarre.
Best Museum
The Cloisters, Fort Tryon Park, Inwood
Who doesn't love those arched windows in the passage off the herb garden - perch in there with a book - no one will bother you, and look out on the grass below. If it's a nice day, there'll be beautiful people sunning in various states of dress. Or, sit on the garden wall itself, and marvel at the drama of the landscape before your eyes. Yeah - the stuff inside's interesting too.
Best place to live if you're just here "for your job"
Sunnyside, Queens
Scores of young and uninteresting people are moving into this timeless and uninteresting neighborhood just a few stops from Grand Central on the 7 train. A shame, because everything is in place to make this a fabulous place to grow roots - diverse, friendly, an Irish pub on every corner, lots of practical shops, good transportation….. Many are here because they like the quiet and the family atmosphere. Well, we say bah. Aside from the fact that there's an Edwards Superstore and a Home Depot past the tracks on 48th Street, this is mostly where people who don't like New York move when they come up from the south, because they can keep their cars. Fine. Keep them. And your neighborhood too.
Best place to live if you're a glutton for punishment
Williamsburg
Do we need to go beyond $1200 rents to point out the problems with this newly-appointed capital of hipsterism? How about the streets. Veritable toilets. The buildings. Old and decrepit and below code. How about the idea that landlords are convincing fleeing Jersey refugees that Throop below the JMZ line is part of Williamsburg, charging $900 for a crappy railroad in an unfinished building? There's great stuff on Bedford Avenue. But this is Brooklyn. Things are spread out. Flushing Avenue is not exactly convenient to shopping, if you know what I mean.
Neighborhood of the Moment
Boerum Hill
How much do we love the transformation of Smith Street, that wonderful street stretching from MetroTech to Gowanus? Sure, it's going to turn way way expensive all too soon, but right now, it's not so bad - especially if you want to live down closer to the canal or the PJ's. A pleasant afternoon walk from my house down to the Fall Café puts me in the best of moods. How about all those new restaurants? Two words. Hurry up.
Best of the Classics (Neighborhoods)
Upper West Side
Of all the worn down, homogenized and outrageously overpriced Manhattan nabes, (do we need to spell it out for you?) this one has the largest number of redemptive qualities, to our minds. It feels most like home, in the city, but not caught up in it. Fairway. Zabars. Café Lalo. Central Park West. West End Avenue. The Ansonia. Grey's Papaya. Krispy Kreme (72nd St). Lincoln Center. Sure, you're living in a shared studio with a loft bed (and you get the loft). But you're living on West 85th Street just off the park. And five feet of headroom in that loft - ya, for $650, you're doin' pretty well for yourself there, mister.
Best Columnist
Toni Schlesinger, Village Voice
New York needs better columnists. Jimmy Breslin works in the suburbs, Pete Hamill doesn't write regularly anymore, and Steve Dunleavy is, well, Steve Dunleavy. Maureen Dowd's shtick is getting old, and Mugger, is, well, Mugger. So, as far as regularly recurring columns go in this city, you could do much worse than to spend a few minutes reading Toni Schlesinger's Money/Shelter column in the front section of the Voice each Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. If you want a consistently compelling view on life in the city, here you have it.
Best Gossip
Michael Musto, Village Voice
The Voice used to be a good read, but even in its current state of mediocrity, not a week goes by that I don't spend 20 minutes with the master. His blind items are outrageous -- you're just dying, dying to know who the hell these people are. For volume, Page Six beats all, but style? Musto is king.
Best Train Ride
F Train in Brooklyn
Sure, nobody in Brooklyn likes the F train - slow, unreliable, spotty service make this the one reason not to live in Carroll Gardens. However, for showcasing Brooklyn's unique character, a ride from Coney Island to Jay Street is probably the way to go - the Coney Island Yards, Bensonhurst, Washington Cemetary, and of course, the trestles across the Gowanus Canal, with the mindblowing view of Brooklyn, its Downtown, Manhattan, the harbor, the BQE, New Jersey - exit the train at the Smith/9th Street Station and savor the view from the rear of the platform. By the way, am I the only one that wonders why all the F train stations from Smith/9th down to Fort Hamilton were built on such a grand scale?
