New York City (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [31]
Essex Street Market
TOP EXPERIENCES
People-watching on St. Marks Place
Stopping for a beer at McSorley’s
Strolling through the Strand Bookstore
Wandering around the Lower East Side Tenement Museum
Wandering around the Lower East Side’s funy boutiques
Having a classic New York Deli at Katz’s or Russ & Daughters
EAST VILLAGE: TOP TOURING EXPERIENCES
ASTOR PLACE: ANCHORED IN TIME
Stop for a moment at Astor Place, the triangle formed by the intersections of East 8th Street, Lafayette Street, Astor Place, and 4th Avenue. The area seems frozen in time, in a way, with both a university and an arts community holding on to the idealism of the neighborhood’s past. On any given day there are students from NYU or Cooper Union shooting a film or sketching a scene, political groups soliciting signatures, and punks and rockers boldly evincing the city’s bohemian subculture.
Distinctive architecture and design are also part of this area’s legacy. On East 4th Street off Lafayette is the Merchant’s House Museum, an example of upscale residential Manhattan life in the 19th century and open for a self-guided tour. Colonnade Row, around the corner along Lafayette Street, is marked by marble Corinthian columns in front of a sweep of Greek Revival mansions once home to millionaires John Jacob Astor and Cornelius Vanderbilt. It’s easy to miss, as they’re above the mix of theaters, restaurants, and other retail establishments that now fill their lower levels.
New design-forward buildings are also popping up in the area, including Cooper Union’s Science and Art Building, built in 2009. The Sculpture for Living building, a much-maligned glass-and-steel tower of million-dollar apartments, sits smack in the middle of numerous low-rises in jarring contrast. Its name and shape seem to ironically refer to what had previously been Astor Place’s focal point, the Alamo, a giant spinning cube on the central traffic island. At the entrance to the Astor Place Subway Station is a cast-iron replica of the Beaux-Arts kiosks that covered most subway entrances in the early 20th century.
TAKING IN LOCAL FLAVOR
Those living in the East Village come from a wide range of ethnicities and sub-cultures. East 6th Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues is known as Little India, and spilling around the corners to each of the avenues there are Bangladeshi and Indian grocery stores, boutiques, and restaurants that offer inexpensive dining choices. Two blocks east, the strip between Avenues A and B is a South American enclave, with an eclectic mix of generally affordable eateries as well.
East 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues is dominated by St. George’s Ukrainian Catholic Church, the meeting place for the local Ukrainian community and the site of an annual Ukrainian folk festival in spring. Incongruously, the block also has an odd assortment of brewpubs, including the grizzly McSorley’s Old Ale House, made famous by the writer Joseph Mitchell in his 1945 essay, which has remained unchanged in both menu and decor over its 100-plus-year history (but now allows women to partake in the revelry).
One block north is St. Marks Place, aka 8th Street between 3rd Avenue and Avenue A. Over the years, beatniks, artists, and musicians have congregated at this hub of the East Village scene.
Today the block between 2nd and 3rd avenues feels like a shopping arcade for the vinyl-pants set. It’s crammed with body-piercing and tattoo salons; shops selling cheap jewelry, sunglasses, incense, and caustic T-shirts; and restaurants and bars. And if you’re craving Asian food, there seems to be a new restaurant opening here every day. TIP Many attest that the egg cream was hatched at Gem Spa (131 2nd Ave. | 212/995–1866), a 24-hour newsstand at the corner of St. Marks and 2nd Avenue. Cold milk, seltzer, and chocolate or vanilla syrup combine to make this peculiarly New York drink, $2.50.
One block north in what feels like a world away is Stuyvesant Street, a strip of historic redbrick row houses—and the oldest street in Manhattan—laid out along a precise east–west axis