I have a res for 5 at Peter Lugers I might need to cancel. That's not incredibly fancy, but it's solid.

Thanks for the really nice offer Wyman. I'm actually going to go to Colicchio & Sons. Haven't heard of this place (though apparently everyone else has), but hopefully it'll be good.

No prob. Let us know how it is. I can never get my mom into the city but I book a place anyway, just in case. Fingers still crossed so I don't have to end up at Red Lobster!

I've been to Colicchio and Sons. The food was great and we had a special tour of the kitchen. I'm sure you'll enjoy...

I know this is from almost a year ago, but did you ever check out any of the other MTM guys? I want to get a suit made, and I'd like to keep it under 1k if possible. I only wear suits a few times a year, but nothing off the rack ever fits quite right, even with significant tailoring. This one is important, though (my wedding), so I'd like to get it right.

I'm a 23 year old grad student living in San Francisco about to move to NY for the summer for an awesome internship opportunity. I found a place to live in Midtown. My question is, does anyone have a short list of must do things that I need to experience while being in NY. I want to make sure I get the full experience.

Congrats aj,

How long are you going to be here?

The answer really depends on what you like to do, and how do you enjoy spending your free time.

With sports, you would probably want to visit MSG, cental park and Yankee stadium. If you're into art, or theater, or food there are tons of great options. As a general rule, I would just recommend visitng neighborhoods. From chinatown, little italy,times square and on and on. And don't forget the outter boroughs! You're going to have a great time

Actually setup an appointment with Freeman's for next week. They do have a lower end suit they can do MTM for under $1,200 now.

I have heard good things about Suit Supply as well for cheaper suits.

Was just @ Suit Supply in Philly last weekend with a buddy. MTM starts at like 600. Wasn't terrible.

Recommend the Rain Room installation at MOMA, it's pretty cool. Currently has insane lineups though (we had to wait about 2 1/2 hours for 10 minutes in the exhibit, lol). Maybe later when it's not so new the waits will be shorter. But it's really neat - they have a room with falling water that detects where you are and stops the "rain" above you.

I just found out I'm going to have a ~17-hour layover in Newark. I've never been to NYC, so I thought I'd take the train there and find something to do/kill time.

a) is this a reasonable idea?

b) any recommendations? any sightseeing or other touristy things i can do within the timeframe, not-too-pricey food recs, etc.

thanks!

It can certainly be done depending on the train schedule, if not you could always take a cab into the city. Give yourself 1 hour each way, and considering 30 minutes after landing to get going, along with getting back 1.5 hours early (being conservative with all these things), you're in NYC for 13 hours. You can see a lot in that time.

I would consider just walking around through midtown, then maybe take a subway to an area where you have interest. Go to the top of the Empire State or Top of the Rock, go to Central Park, go to a museum, you could even see a Broadway show or a baseball game if the timing is right.

With more info (time of day, day of week) and what interests you, you'll get better recommendations.

Train is very easy from airport - takes 30 min to be at penn station and generally at least two an hour as they run often throughout the day. Check NJ transits train schedule if you want specific times.

Agreed on train being the best option. Each way will cost $12.50 for Newark Airport - Penn Station. From there, it really does depend on what time of day you'd be around, but walking around midtown up to Central Park is always good.

I just feel like typing.

A couple months ago I asked for some advice for an upcoming (back in April) trip. Here are the highlights of that trip in a completely random fashion. It may also serve as help for the guy with the 17 hour layover.

To summarize, we (my wife and I) came to NYC for just 3.5 days. As you can imagine, that isn't remotely long enough. We came primarily for Broadway, so we stayed at the Marriott Marquis which was amazingly amazing. The convenience was perfect (like....I would change nothing), the room was way bigger than I expected Manhattan rooms to be, just...everything.

At this point, I'll summarize again. The trip was amazing and perfect and just wow. Summary over.

We saw 3 shows (Annie, Nice Work If You Can Get It, and Matilda). Nice Work was the best comedy I've ever seen (maybe my favorite show ever, but tough to compare with Les Mis). All shows were great. We went up to Lincoln Center (and Juliard) one afternoon. 17-day layover dude...if you like the arts, this would be a good spot to go...there are lots of 'student performances' during the day that can be world class. Spending time at the Metropolitan Opera gift shop was spell binding. Browsing at Columbus Circle (including Time Warner Center and taking a menu from Per Se), gelato at Grom, all real swell. You're right at the corner of Central Park, so it's easy to go visit.

But...the biggest reason for me writing right now is...I can't believe that there is no mention of Eataly in this thread. To those who don't know, Eataly is an...area...(around 23rd st and 5th ave, as I recall). It's indoor. There are 7 (?) restaurants (the pizza restaurant, the pasta restaurant, the beer garden, etc), and tons of shopping areas. These shopping areas specialize in cheese. Or they specialize in meats. Or pastas. Or bread. Or wine. You get the idea. Everybody is in there, milling about, shopping, with a glass of wine in hand. Eataly was the only thing we saw/did twice in our 3.5 days. We coulda gone there everyday. My wife's cousin (who lives in Hell's Kitchen) wrote this on facebook today: "Just ate a prime rib sandwich from Eataly, and it gave me the biggest foodgasm. The sandwich is long gone and I'm still feeling waves of joy over its deliciousness. I love you, Eataly!".

So, there's that.

One night, after a show, we went to the Pony Bar (46th and 9th?). Seemed like a cool bar with local craft brews (well, mostly local. Widmer comes from West New York, aka Oregon). I had an oyster and bacon sandwich that was tremendous (you thought I was gonna say "amazing", didn't you?) and a couple beers that I don't remember. The sandwich was served with chips and horseradish-infused cucumbers that were sensational.

We went to the saturday matinee of chamber magic. It was fine, but it did not live up to the hype in this thread. Part of the problem was people getting up during the show to leave (use the restroom?), and the magician getting upset. I don't regret seeing it, but I'd never do it again.

I was hoping to go to a 3-star restaurant, but couldn't get it to work. We did go to Ai Fiori and had the tasting menu. It was good. I'm sorta a wanna-be foodie (which is far, far, far from a foodie), and I really enjoyed the experience, but I think a true foodie may have been a bit disappointed. You'll see how far away from being a foodie I am by reading my description of the dishes:

There were 2 amuse bouches. First one was three bite-sized things...a deep fried thingy, another thingy, and a raw fish thingy. Second one was a cold pea soup with a special thin cracker...thingy. Oh, this is hopeless. But undiscouraged, I forage on...

The first dish was a lobster salad which was very good.

The second dish was veal and mixed greens thing that was the worst of the seven, but still good. I don't want to like veal, but I did.

The third dish was a homemade ravioli with a type of mushrooms that I can't pronounce. This rocked.

The fourth dish was halibut and lentils. This was my wife's favorite dish. I like the halibut, the lentils were meh.

The fifth (and final non-dessert dish) was a bit o' beef. I honestly think it was sirloin. But it was the best sirloin-y thing I have ever had. This had a marrow-and-something reduction sauce that was delectable.

The last two dishes were desserts. The first was green apple sorbet and panicotta (?), and cookie crumbs. Man, this just hit the spot. We were both full (my wife didn't finish her halibut or steak, so I did for her, cuz I'm nice), and this was light and refreshing and delicious.

The last dish was all about chocolate. There was a hard dark chocolate layer, with ganache and candied fruits underneath, and rum raisin gelato on top. It was orgasmic.

It's really too bad that I'm too lazy to post pictures. Maybe in a week or two.

We can't wait to go back. There is so much more that we want to see and do.

Josh

Great to hear -- glad you enjoyed it.

Went to A Voce Columbus for lunch on Saturday.

I would say skip it unless there is some reason you don't want to go across the circle to Marea.

Dining room was oddly wedge shaped. My wife had a good view of Columbus Circle and the park, while I had a view of a bare white wall with an exit door. Our table was next to one of the floor-to-ceiling wine coolers, and we saw a tag labeled "Piers Morgan" on a Champaign bottle. The waiter said the restaraunt gets a lot of business from CNN, whose New York offices are in the same buidling.

I was disappointed that they weren't serving the brunch menu (maybe that is only Sundays) because I wanted to order the bombolini.

Apparently there is no dress code as there was a family with six kids in t shirts and shorts (my guess is they were staying at the Mandarin) as well as a woman in spandex exercise pants, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap.

The standouts were the cassoncini con prosciutto di parma for antipasti and the cavatelli for primi. The first of these are small evelopes of fried dough filled with melted cheese and chard that you wrap in prosciutto, and the second was pasta with goat sausage.

The hanger steak was also quite good, although the lamb salad (really more like a hunk of lamb on top of some salad) was a little disappointing.

knowledgable

Beer bars :

Torst in greenpoint
Top hops in LES
Proletariat in east village

Are all awesome places to go, though all very different from one another. In all 3 places it's all about the beer

Anyone been to Locanda Verde?

Went to Empellon Cocina the other night. Was a little hit or miss on food, although more hits. Pastrami tacos were ridiculous good, ceviche was mehh. A pork special where they pull the pork and confit it i think and place it in a cube flanked by two crisped pork skins was very good. Good cocktails.

thanks for the advice, just updating this to post the dates: arriving July 20th 5am and departing 10pm same day. let me know if that timeframe helps with suggestions.

also got a couple other questions:

1. do they have lockers or something at the airport i can put my stuff in? i have two large bags, don't really wanna be lugging them all over NYC.

2. since i'm leaving the airport do i have to be back ~2-3 hrs early (or whatever the normal check-in time is)?

1. - are you checking your bags? or do you have 2 different itineraries or something? if you are leaving from the US and are under one itinerary, your bags will be checked through to your destination.

if you are arriving from another country, you'll probably need to pick up your bags, go through customs, then recheck them

if you mean you have 2 large carry ons, then yeah you'll want a locker but I don't know if newark has any.

2 - essentially yeah you should plan to be back at the airport nearly at the 'normal' time. you'll need to go through security again just like anyone else. the only time savings would be not needing to wait to check begs/get a boarding pass (assuming you do that earlier in the day)

I don't think they have lockers at Newark. If I recall correctly, I looked into this once and there was one airline that offered storage to it's customers, but not a general storage/locker area.

I think there are some luggage storage places close to Penn Station (but not actually in Penn Station) that could be an option.

It's actually a bit of a pain to store luggage in NY post 9/11. There was some concern that people would put bombs in luggage storage in major transit centers like airports or train terminals.

wanted to give more notice on this but i failed :

daniel kitson - after the beginning, before the end

http://www.barrowstreettheatre.com/w...rmanceSchedule

Sunday, July 07, 2013 through Saturday, July 13, 2013

i think it might be stand by tickets only now. anyway, try and get a ticket somehow.

bit of background - this is a uk comedian who has an insanely large following in comedy circles but basically never appears on tv or plays arenas. the average person in the uk will never have heard of him, but he sells out shows in minutes just from emailing out a newsletter. he talks very quickly and there's a lot of depth to his shows. his stand up shows and one man plays win awards year after year. i'm not saying he's as hilarious as prime louis ck (he's definitely very funny), but i generally leave his shows thinking 'jesus there is no one operating on anything close to this guy's level'.

there, i think i've sufficiently overhyped him. if you can't get tickets to this, he also has a new play which is premiering in NYC late nov.

Hi, hoping I can get some general advice of which neighbourhood/district to stay in.
Going to NYC for just under 1mo between Dec and Jan. Going with 2, maybe 3 friends, all university undergrads but our budget is pretty decent (we don't want to slum it in hostels). We're interested in all the sightseeing, shopping, theatre, dining, drinking, any sport if we get the chance etc etc...pretty normal touristy stuff I guess for young adults. Oh and obviously somewhere sick for NYE.

I'm looking at airbnb and getting a little overwhelmed by all the different neighbourhoods, I don't really have a perception of how big NYC is, so I'm a little worried that I'll book somewhere that's isolated from our interests - I don't really want to be catching the subway/busses/cabs everywhere.

So yep, any suggestions of areas that would cater to our interests would be greatly appreciated.

Also, what is the subway like in terms of frequency/convenience/area it covers. I was in Paris late last year and the metro there is amazing, is the NYC subway comparable?

Thanks!