Brewer Stephen - New York Select

New York overview

New Yorkers tend to think of their city as the center
of the universe, and even if you arent willing to
subscribe to that belief, you will have to agree that
New York is one of the greatest places on the planet.
At least, you will feel that way after you spend any
time at all here.

With its skyscrapers and sophisticated ways, the city is the essence
of urbanity, just about everyones notion of what a city should be. This
is a place where dreams come true, vast fortunes are made and lost, and
fame might descend briefly and flit away or linger for a spell.

What all this means for visitors
is that New York is a fascinating
spectacle. You can see top-rate
drama and great art, dine and

drink very well, and simply soak in the excitement. You might run into
a celebrity on a grimy side street, or enjoy being drawn into streams of
ordinary folks on the sidewalks. The city is so iconic that even visitors
who have never set foot in Manhattan feel they are on familiar ground.
You can look up the heights of the Empire State Building and imagine
King Kong clinging to the spire or still hear Cole Porter hammering out
a tune in one of the citys refined cocktail lounges.

The best way to appreciate New York is simply to throw yourself into
the fray. Walk up the Upper West Side to sample bagels, amble through
the galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ogle diamonds on
Fifth Avenue, linger over coffee in Greenwich Village, listen to music
on the Lower East Side or Brooklyn. Explore colonial New York, catch
up on the contemporary art scene, ascend to the top of a tower to see
the spectacle of the glittering city at your feet. However you choose to
amuse yourself in this great city, you will find more to do than you
have time to do it in.

in the mood for...

street life

As the old song says, East Side, West Side, all around the town, the
sidewalks of New York are a great place to trip the light fantastic and
to watch New Yorkers, some of the most fascinating specimens of
life on the planet. Some especially rewarding stretches of pavement
are Union Square , animated around the clock on many days with
shoppers poking through the stalls of the citys largest greenmarket
() . On weekends, the streets of Soho teem with style-hunters both
locals and the Bridge and Tunnel crowd (named for out of towners
means of egress into Manhattan), checking out high-end boutiques and
each other () . New York goes to the dogs in enclosed runs in parks
like Washington Square () and Tompkins Square Park (pictured,
) , great places to observe the antics of two- and four-legged New
Yorkers. To see hipsters in their natural environment, make the trek to
Williamsburg () , Harlems
main thoroughfare, you can step into such iconic bastions of black
culture as the Apollo Theater and the Lenox Lounge, and you may even
run into former President Bill Clinton, one of many recent newcomers
to the legendary avenue.

fine dining

You can eat well anywhere in
New York, but the settings are
suitably refined and the cuisine
is masterfully French-influenced
in such gastronomic uptown
spots as Daniel , Picholine , and
Jean Georges () . Then
again, refined French cuisine is
served in sophisticated, subdued
surroundings downtown, too,
most notably at Bouleys, while
the mouthwatering sushi at Nobu
in Tribeca () is said to be the

best this side of Tokyo, eliciting
raves from celebrities and foodies
alike. For some genuine New York
buzz, pull up a chair at the bar
of the elegant Gramercy Tavern
in the Flatiron District ()
or charm your way into getting
a table at the celebrity magnet
Waverly Inn in Greenwich
Village () . To sample some
of the most original and creative
some say bizarre haute-cuisine
in the city, head to WD-50 on the
Lower East Side () .

in the mood for...

retail therapy

New Yorkers fall into two camps,
bargain hunters and those who
consider it rather crass to look at
a price tag. The former are quite
willing to battle the crowds at
Century 21 in Lower Manhattan
or Loehmanns in Chelsea ()
in hopes of finding a designer
original on the racks. Shoppers
with an eye for vintage clothing
prowl Housing Works and the
Angel Thrift Shop on 17th Street
in Chelsea () . Hipsters should
head to the Lower East Side for
new designer co-op boutiques
() , or to the East Village for
used and new CDs, LPs and DJ
equipment ().

Meanwhile, those who just
have to have it, whatever it costs,
will find plenty of temptation
on Bleecker Street from Bank to

7th Avenue in the West Village
() , where the quaint, tree-
lined blocks shelter such high-
end designer boutiques as Marc
Jacobs, Ralph Lauren, and Cynthia
Rowley, and on the cobblestones
of Soho () . The Upper East
Sides if you have to ask, you cant
afford it attitude comes to the fore
on Madison Avenue in the 60s
() , a little patch of designer
heaven where the celestial
creations of Valentino, Armani and
Ralph Lauren are on offer.

Fifth Avenue around 57th
Street () is home to the citys
holy trinity of refined department
stores (Saks, Henri Bendel, and
Bergdorf Goodman) and where the
shop windows of Tiffanys, Harry
Winston and Cartier are filled with
glittering jewels .

Old New York

New York is more caught up
with the brash new than with the
distant past, but you can get a
sense of the early days of the city
in such cherished landmarks as
the Morris-Jumel Mansion () ,
Revolutionary War headquarters
of George Washington and later
home to Eliza Jumel and Aaron
Burr the vice-president who killed
Secretary of Treasury Alexander
Hamilton, who lived down the road
in Hamilton Grange () . The
19th-century Merchants House
() shows off the domestic
tastes of prosperous New Yorkers
of a century and half ago , while
uptown the Neue Galerie ()