LOL. Perfect name for its current condition.

that would be a whole pork shoulder (well looks like "just" the upper shoulder so a whole pork butt)

Manny's Music on W48th street, I go there every year to work on the guitar collection; 24 and counting. Seeing Les Paul at the Iridium Club on 51st Monday nights is a great time as well.

Wu, No way you'll finish but they were very accomodating for leftovers.

L, Per Se is terrific. Completely lives up to the reputation.

so me, fslexcduck, nora (vanessas gf), whitelime, krantz and aaismyfriend went to per se last night. was pretty fantastic. i guess ill post a review in the high end dining thread.

also we ate at this sushi place near vanessa lives called J-Pan - its on 5th avenue and 1st street in brooklyn. i was incredibly impressed. we are not spoiled with fantastic sushi in sweden so that may have had something to do with it, but this was definitely the best sushi i have had in my life. the fish was super fresh and the different rolls where cool and varied (had one esp, some california roll topped with tuna tartare that was pretty sick). blew the sushi we had on friday the **** away.

also went to peter lugers which was incredible as well. i am going to try to luck out reservations to le bernadine or some similar place too. i love your city guys. ****ing love it.

oh, also went to a mets game. baseball is pointless as hell esp when u lose a bunch at the props

has anyone been to Cabrito in the west village yet? my buddy is the head chef, and i'm dying to find out how it is.

Just went tonight and holy ****!! supposedly, the daytime guys at this cart are different than the night time guys (7pm-5am). the night time line at 11pm on saturday night was half way down the block. people were pulling up in the no stopping zone and getting out of their cars to wait in line.
wife and I shared a combo platter (chicken, lamb, beef and rice, pita, salad), slathered it in white sauce and chowed down.

here's the website
http://www.53rdand6th.com/index.html

I'm planning a trip to NYC for this weekend. My girlfriend and I will be there friday-sunday. We've both been once before but we only had time to walk the times square area for 6 or so hours so we really have no idea what to expect.

So here the plan so far, Yankees-Red Sox game friday, fireworks at night. Saturday I want to go to the Museum of Modern Art (Dali exhibit) and per this thread will probably head up to the top of the rockafeller building. We have tickets to Avenue Q that evening. Sunday will probably just be trying to squeeze in anything we think we've missed.

Here's the questions, I read about a ferry service to the yankees games, anyone have any experience with this? Good way to see the city? Skip it and take the subway? Next something that wasn't mentioned in the thread earlier. Where is the best place to see the Macy's fireworks? As for food we are for sure giong to hit up one of the sushi places recommended here, probably one of the ramen places, and one of the 30-50$ restaurants. I'll probably just end up picking these places at random but I was wondering how busy these places are? Any places that we can expect a long wait?

Anything else worth doing? We are probably going to stay in Manhatten but I'm probably going to push walking the Brooklyn Bridge too.

Thanks for all the advice in this thread.

I've never taken the ferry, and for your purposes (tourism), it's probably good (plus it drops you off right next to the stadium, but then so does the subway), but if you want to just get there, I'd opt for the subway, I usually take the 4 from Grand Central and it'll get you to the game in anywhere from 15-45 minutes.

Usually, it's someone's rooftop who lives close to the water, but they also close down the FDR drive along the East river between Houston st. and 42nd st. during the fireworks and people go there and watch. If you don't mind the crowds, it's a very good view. In the past, I've watched either from Waterside Plaza (it's usually residents-only), as well as the roof of one of the Stuyvesant Town buildings (which they no longer allow, I believe), but if you can get access to either, both are great to watch fireworks.


Walking the Brooklyn Bridge is nice, but depending on the weather (i.e. if it's too hot, though it looks like it's going to be in the high-70s all weekend, so a walk'll probably be great), I'd also consider a trip on the Staten Island Ferry.

sorry, don't have time to see if it was mentioned already, leaving for wsop booth but http://patanegratapas.com/

is worth a peek. and the spanish wines are a relative bargain

Can anyone recommend a good teppanyaki/hibachi place in which the chefs perform? I have a party of 6-8 people and most have a strong preference for Midtown. Benihana's on W 56th fits the bill but it hasn't exactly received the best reviews on Tripadvisor/Yelp.

Benihana is the only Manhattan restaurant in Zagat's "teppanyaki" category, so I think they may be the only game in town.

If you're open to Korean barbecue as a substitute, I have two recommendations. Either Kum Gang San on West 32nd Street in Koreatown, which is full of actual Koreans and has traditional (i.e., hyper-cheesy) ambience; or Woo Lae Oak on Mercer Street in Soho, which is more upscale, plush and sedate. I'd say the food quality is similar between the two, with a modest edge to Woo Lae Oak; Woo Lae Oak's menu is also more innovative for non-barbecue items. Kum Gang San is significantly less expensive.

My friend had his 21st here. My pretty bad fake (that worked at 95% of the dumps I go to) didn't get me in. Neither did trying to buy my way in with 2 girls.

From what I heard it is a nice place. The crowd is ~25-30 years old.

Does anyone have recommendations for fun things to do for a first-time visitor to New York who's traveling by himself?

I've got some ideas for this thread but wondering if anyone has anything specific.. I'm going from Montreal to South American in a month and was going to try to stop by NY for a few days for the first time in my life. I am looking to do some very-touristy things but little things are cool as well. Thanks.

If anyone is down for getting old school sloppy drunk there's a great bar between 3rd and Bleecker at Macdougal called Off the Wagon.
My buddies and I were randomly walking around and stumbled into this place. It was awesome. We make a yearly pilgrimage to go back.
I heard it can get filled with the NYU crowd and douche bags but we always went in the summer so it was always mostly empty and laid back, the fact that we came to drink hard at noon probably helped as well. They do this ******ed pitcher deal on Saturdays where pitchers start at $3.00 (apparently $4.50 these days) at noon and raise the price $.50 every hour. As long as you're good to the bartender and servers they don't really ask you to leave. And trust me we should have been asked to leave several times. I'm not sure when the waitress started smuggling me shots, but i know the stumble home was something spectacular.

http://www.nycbestbar.com/off/index.htm

Funny how you think Off the Wagon is a unique bar or something. It's a lot like all the other bars in certain areas (near NYU, Amsterdam in the 80's, etc) that cater to the kind of 22 year olds who are impressed by a place with some cowboy crap nailed to the walls that have a beer pong table or let you drink until you almost die. Pretty sure that all the bars on that site you just listed are owned by the same people and have more or less the same gimmick.

Not to say they aren't solid bars for that kind of thing but it's basically like saying "Hey I'd never been to Macdougal St. before and I decided to go inside a bar, it was great."

Man I'm sorry that is a lot of hate. Hate hate hate.

I don't remember if I ever posted this in this thread but there is a great bar on Grand St. in East Williamsburg called Bushwick Country Club. Cardo came into town for a birthday last year and we went down there, nice place, has a photobooth and a hilarious "golf course" in the back yard, they make frozen Jim Beam slushies in an Icee machine and it doesn't get jammed with douchebags.

i was at off the wagon tonight. It is nothing special, but cheap pitchers in a fairly clean space is rare for NY. Also the booths are just small enough to fit 2 people if they are "comfortable" with each other.

Off the wagon is an awesome place to pregame. Screw the haters.

Hipster bar checklist:

[x] north Brooklyn location
[x] ironic use of bourgeois theming
[x] seeks added authenticity by claiming to be in Bushwick when it's really in Williamsburg
[x] photo booth
[x] "blue collar" signature drink

Do they have Schlitz on draft?

Went to a pretty cool bar for going out with the guys last night. Its called DBA. Its on 1st ave and 3rd st.

It had like 100 different beers and a ton of non commercialized single malt whiskey, bourbon etc. I'm far from a whiskey or bourbon sipping guy, but this place had the best selection of probably any bar I had been to. The bartenders were decently fast for a friday night and the place wasn't too packed.

i don't think anyone is ever going to accuse me, cardo, and euro of being hipsters (see various TR's in OOT for photos)... matty suspect might have once aspired to being a hipster, but i'm pretty sure he's too fat now, and hipsters aren't allowed to have six figure swongs in blackjack.

it's a good bar, i know some people just can't stand the idea that there are people who aren't total douchebags going out and having fun in north brooklyn, but there is some good **** to do out here in spite of all the waifs in their american apparel tights with funny haircuts

Can someone recommend a good place to eat on the west side? Requirements: cheap, must have seats tomorrow evening (can't be packed), air conditioned.

Where on West Side - upper, midtown, downtown? What's the max you would spend?

Between West Village and the UWS. I guess it can also be anywhere in Midtown. One of my friends isn't working yet, so as much as a busto can afford ($10-15?).

It's nothing fancy, but Island Burgers & Shakes has great food. They basically server hamburgers and chicken sandwiches, but offer dozens of variations on each. There is not a lot of seating so there could be a short wait.