ipitythefool, glad you had fun at Ninja.

i had the worst meal ever in recent memory. so bad i take every opportunity to tell people not to go there. in my opinion, it was inedible and i made my friend buy drinks afterwards as his punshiment for recommending this ****hole.

Sorry to hear. I only went the one time and everything was good. Prob not good enough for me to spend the money to go back, but it was a fun one time experience.

Anyone else going to NYC for New Year's? Any New Year's specific things I should be doing? I'm not doing the Times Square thing.

Something a bit different...

Get a 40, hop on the F train to Coney Island on a nice summer day. Get off train, get another 40 and walk around and people watch and soak in the NYC beach culture. Ride the Cyclone if your stomach is settled. Pretty awesome change of pace from Manhattan.

my favorite summer activity used to be the bohemian beer garden, but it seems like since last year everyone found out about it and it's now way too crowded (huge line on weekends).

I want to listen to egregious 80s music - mostly pop/club music. Where's good that plays Madonna?

any gay bar?

This is the obvious solution but I'd rather go to a bar with women that share my affinity for bad music.

Anyone in the East Village/LES knows that it is not, in fact, all. I've spent many awesome nights at that address, but not at Crif Dog's

edit: lol it's already been posted about like 20 posts up

http://www.villagevoice.com/nyclife/...8599,15.html/1

Should help you find anything you want to do.

Try Radegast in Williamsburg. Fun in the winter but it will be awesome in the summer. And it's huge. I was there opening night and there was still plenty of room.

GBH.tv party downstairs at Lotus on friday nights. Thrown by Michael T, who used to throw Rated X and was heavily involved with Misshapes.

I hope you got your drinks at B flat, about 7 blocks away on church street. Excellent [Japanese] bar with great cocktails, a very thorough collection of spirits including several Japanese whiskeys, and wonderful bartenders.

I'll also be in NYC for New Year's Eve and if anyone has suggestions in addition to those listed in the link from Azkedelia I'd appreciate it.

I hear that at Times Square it's claustrophobically crowded, that you're unable to enter/exit the area during certain hours, and that there are no bathrooms in this area you're stuck in... does that sound like a good description?

honestly... i can't think of a worse fate than Times Sq on NYE. your description is accurate but at the same time not nearly unpleasant enough

+1 some of my favorite drunk food.

Didn't read every post so sorry for repeats, just my favorite NYC stuff

Greenpoint- just an amazing neighborhood w/ a lot of fun places including Enid's which is pretty good for brunch, Msgr McGolrick park which is beautiful and tons and tons of hot polish chicks.

Madison Square Park- another beautiful park w/ free wifi and the excellent Danny Meyer-owned Shake Shack right there so you can drink beers, be outside, and 4-table at the same time

Grassroots Tavern- one of the only dive bars in Manhattan, low prices, free popcorn, perfect for super-low key meetups

The Metropolitan Museum of Art- the first time I went here I was having a terrible day and fully intended on keeping it up but I just couldn't help feeling good while being in here. Such great art and lots of great spaces, definitely a must see.

Bryant Park- I liked skating here in the winter a lot more than in Rockefeller Center, it's much cheaper and it feels more like you're skating in the middle of the city which gives you that much-needed "on a break" feeling. Rockefeller Center always feels like a tourist area to me. Also Bryant Park is one of my favorite chill-out parks b/c it is so big and the Public Library is a great backdrop.

The Guggenheim- I love modern art so I loved this place, but if you don't like modern art you probably will be served by just walking through the lobby and looking up. It's kind of short for the price but it is an amazing space and they put on some great exhibits.

You can't really go wrong w/ any Irish pub that isn't in the Times Square area

Stout is a bar in the Herald Sq. area that I went to to watch the World Cup games, and I was very pleased w/ my experience. It was pretty standard food-wise but definitely a place to consider for soccer viewing

Danny Meyer restaurants- great service and great food whenever I went. A note to the Blue Smoke haters- don't order BBQ, get the burger and mac and cheese, both are some of the very best in the city.


The Strand-

1. Go to the Strand
2. Browse
3. ?????????
4. Profit eternally


Madison Square Garden hosts a great basketball game, and Yankees stadium hosts a great baseball game, both are steeped in history and worth visiting for any sports fan.

The US Open- Another quintessentially New York sports event

St. Patrick's Cathedral- Gets a lot of well-deserved love, but there are tons and tons of beautiful churches in NYC and many are worth visiting.

The Ontological-Hysterical theatre- always puts up really interesting stuff and is held in a church that I can't quite recall the name of right now, but definitely a unique experience in NY theatre.

Upright Citizen's Brigade usually has great stuff, although Monday and Sunday nights are often when the bigger names come in

Drunk food- "Anytime" in Brooklyn- works well

Random ****- Really the greatest part of New York is running into stuff whie you're walking somewhere else. There are restaurants and bars on nearly every block and while some are definitely better than others, most are good. During the summer you'll run into random street fairs that sell a bunch of random crap, but they are really fun to walk through. There is always something going on in Union Square, if only just skateboarders and chess w/ random street guys. You can find good barbershop quartets, breakdancing performances, and even decent magic shows all on the subway. Just take a walk and you'll find something eventually.

That happened a long time ago. I used to live a few blocks away and there wouldn't be more than 20-30 people there on a Saturday night. There was an article about it in Esquire (around 2000), and all of a sudden there were a couple hundred every night.

Still a great place...we used to hold our weekly cash game there.

i think strand is overrated but maybe that is because i have been to powell's in portland

Am glad I found this thread, am taking my wife to New York (free from the kids) for Valentines. Am looking for dinner ideas, am staying at the Trump (really good deal on a suite there, had a good year bonus wise!) so Jean-Georges is an obvious choice, but do you think Daniels would be better on Valentines or would you recommend somewhere else?

Also where would you say the most romantic places to go in NY are, we will likely do the normal touristy things (Empire State, Statue of Liberty, Broadway tickets, shopping gvien the weakness of the $!) but looking for other recommendations, only have 2 days and 3 nights in NY so need to have some plans in advance. I've been to NY lots of times on business but never really seen the city other than in passing in cabs so my first chance to really experience it.

Any advice gratefully received!

I had a great time in NYC over New Year's.

If you're pretty much a complete tourist like I was, I recommend the Top of Rock observatory. It's just a 70 floor building that sends you to the top for some great views of Central Park in one direction and the Statue of Liberty area in the other direction.



They sell the observatory tickets along with an entry into the Museum of Modern Art for $30... not a bad deal.

Other than that, I did a lot of wondering around Central Park, went to the NYC public library as per this thread's recommendation, MoMA of course, and had a great meal pretty much everywhere we went. We also went to some trendy Italian dessert place which was pretty good. We spent New Year's eve in a club called Pressure... it was pretty awesome. Like $150 for a table and bottle service (we bought the VIP tickets well in advance). It was busy enough to have a good environment but it wasn't packed like I was worried it would be.

Just saw this thread and wanted to chime in. Several good restaurants have been mentioned, I saw Kang Suh's and +1 to this place, I haven't been there in a while, but used to go there a lot with my asian freinds during college.

I'm glad that walking has been mentioned several, several times as it should be. I've had many good times just taking the subway to random places and walking around. I've lived in Brooklyn for most of my life and am still surprised how much of NYC I have yet to see.

I knew of a few good Indian restaurants to eat, but a lot of them were in Queens and some actually closed down in the city. Anyone have any recommendations here? Thanks.

Sbarro's pizza, Ruby Tuesday's, and "The Olive Garden," are some of the most diverse and culturally "New York" eateries you can find in Times Square.

on the continued subject of secret bars, Angel's Share is a great place to take a date. There's a weird, dirty looking staircase with a glass entry door at 8 Stuyvesant St. Go up the stairs and into the sushi restaurant. at the top of the stairs hang a hard left and there's an unmarked door. go through the door and into the lounge. the whole front wall is glass, looking over the street. the tables and chairs are very low to the ground and intimate. no groups larger than 4 and it's not a place to go be loud or rowdy but, like i said, it's an awesome place to take a date. you look extra cool if she has never heard of it before because it's so secretive.

the drinks aren't quite as good as PDT, but they're still decent. their special is an earl grey infused vodka.

oh, and live jazz on wednesdays.

oh yeah....

Mill Basin Deli and Art Gallery, Henny Youngman meets Erte.

Peter Luger's

Ben and Jack's (Peter Luger's in Manhattan).

Walk around the Village, Angelica film Center.

John's Pizza.

DiFara's Pizza in Brooklyn on Avenue J