New York City (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [32]
THE CITY’S BOHEMIA
East of 1st Avenue is Alphabet City. The streets of Avenues A, B, and C were once burned-out slums and drug haunts, but the neighborhood started to turn around in the 90s and has managed to hold onto the same young, artistic rawness it established more than two decades ago.
At the center of the crowded tenements is Tompkins Square Park, a popular hangout with playgrounds, green expanses, and active dog runs. The Avenue A side has one of the city’s most interesting arrays of inexpensive ethnic restaurants, Internet cafés, collectibles shops, and low-rent bars.
Contributing to the artistic bent is the popular Friday-night poetry slam at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe on East 3rd Street between Avenues B and C. At 151 Avenue B, on the east side of the park, stands a brownstone where jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker lived in the ‘50s.
QUIRKY ARCHITECTURE
The East Village’s reputation for quirkiness is evidenced not only among its residents and sites but also in the many incongruous structures that somehow coexist so easily that they can go almost unnoticed. Keep your eyes open as you explore the streets. You never know what might turn up:
The Hells Angel’s Headquarters tucked into a residential block of 3rd Street between 1st and 2nd avenues, surrounded by a bevy of showstopping bikes.
The architectural “joke” on New York City atop the Red Square building on Houston Street at Norfolk, where a statue of Lenin points to the sky and a clock has lost its notion of time.
The shingled Cape Cod–style house perched on the apartment building at the northwest corner of Houston and 1st Avenue, one of the city’s many unique rooftop retreats. It’s best viewed from the east.
Two privately owned, nearly hidden but airy “marble” cemeteries (New York Marble Cemetery and the New York City Marble Cemetery) established in the 1830s on Second Avenue between 2nd and 3rd streets hold the remains of thousands in underground, marble-lined vaults thought to prevent the spread of disease in a time marked by cholera epidemics. The gardens are surrounded by 12-foot walls made of Tuckahoe marble and entered through wrought-iron gates. Although rarely open to the public they can be visited by appointment.
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TOP ATTRACTIONS IN THE EAST VILLAGE
Alphabet City.
The north–south avenues east of 1st Avenue, from Houston Street to 14th Street, are all labeled with letters, not numbers, which gives this area its nickname. While Avenues A, B, and C are mostly gentrified, Avenue D is still a bit rough around the edges.
Avenues A and B along the park have a wide variety of cafés, bars, and a steadily growing restaurant scene. A close-knit Puerto Rican community makes its home around Avenue C, also called Loisaida Avenue (a Spanglish creation meaning “Lower East Side”), with predominantly Latino shops and bodegas. Avenue C also has plenty of fun spots for booze and food, ranging from a Bavarian indoor beer garden to local joints serving up tacos to eclectic Australian and Brazilian eateries. | East Village | 10009 | Subway: 6 to Astor Pl.; L to 1st Ave.; F to 2nd Ave.
McSorley’s Old Ale House.
Joseph Mitchell immortalized this spot, which claims to be one of the city’s oldest, in The New Yorker. Opened in 1854, it didn’t admit women until 1970. Fortunately, it now offers separate restrooms. The mahogany bar, gas lamps, potbellied stove, and yellowing newspaper clips are originals.
Try to visit on a weekday before 7 pm to enjoy one of the two McSorley’s ales and a cheese plate with onions in relative peace. Be warned: on weekends this place is a zoo, and there can be a line to get in day or night. | 15 E. 7th St., between 2nd and 3rd Aves., East Village | 10003 | 212/473–9148 | Subway: 6 to Astor Pl.
St. Marks Place.
The longtime hub of the edgy East