Eating
and Drinking
Cafes, snacks and light meals
New York's cafes and bakeries run the gamut of
its population's ethnic and cultural influences. They can be found in every
neighborhood, with the usual French, Italian and American favorites probably
most visible. The city also has a number of coffeehouses and tearooms ,
which outside of the obvious also might offer fruit juices, pastries, light
snacks and, on occasion, full meals. Most places more suitable for sit-down
dinners we've listed under "Restaurants".
Restaurants
New York is a rich port city that can get the best foodstuffs from
anywhere in the world, and, as a major immigration gateway, it attracts
chefs who know how to cook the world's cuisines properly, even exceptionally.
As you stroll through the streets of New York, heavenly odors seem
to emanate from every corner; it's not hard to work up an appetite.
Outside of American and continental cuisines (more or less
including New American, which can either dazzle with its inventive fusions or
fail miserably and pretentiously), be prepared to confront a startling variety
of ethnic food . In New York, none has had so dominant an effect as
Jewish food , to the extent that many Jewish specialties - bagels,
pastrami, lox and cream cheese - are now considered archetypal New York. Others
retain more specific identities. Chinese food includes the familiar
Cantonese, as well as spicier Szechuan and Hunan dishes - most restaurants
specialize in one or the other. Japanese food is widely available and
very good; other Asian cuisines include Indian and a broad sprinkling of
Thai, Korean, Vietnamese and Indonesian restaurants.
Italian cooking is widespread and not terribly expensive, and
typically a fairly safe bet. French restaurants tend to be pricier,
although there are an increasing number of bistros and brasseries turning out
authentic and reliable French nosh for attractive prices. Somewhat similar in
spirit are Belgian brasseries and steak frites joints, a surprising
number of which opened in the last half-decade (and many of which subsequently
closed).
There is also a whole range of Eastern European restaurants - Russian,
Ukrainian, Polish and Hungarian - that serve well-priced, filling fare.
Caribbean, Central and South American restaurants are on the rise
in New York, and often offer a good deal and a large, satisfying and often spicy
meal. Other places include weird hybrids like Chinese-Peruvian,
Japanese-Brazilian, and any number of vegetarian and wholefood
eateries to cater to any taste or fad.
As for where you'll be going for these foods, we've divided our selections by
neighborhood (and then cuisine), and have given very brief descriptions
for what you might expect to find in those areas. For the most part you won't
have to walk very far to find a good place in almost any district, but many of
the ones listed here are worth a trip on the subway or in a cab.
Drinking
You can't walk a block along most Manhattan avenues (and many of the
side streets) without passing one or two bars. The bar scene
in New York City is a varied one, with a broader range of places to
drink than in most American cities, and prices to suit most pockets.
Bars generally open from mid-morning (around 10am) to the early hours
- 4am at the latest, when they have to close by law. Bar kitchens
usually stop operating around midnight or a little before.
The best spots are below 14th Street, where the West Village takes in
a wide range of taste, budget and purpose, and equally good hunting grounds can
be found in the East Village, NoLita, SoHo and the more western reaches
of the Lower East Side . There's a decent choice of midtown bars,
though bars here tend to be geared to an after-hours office crowd and (with a
few notable exceptions) can consequently be pricey and rather dull. The Upper
West Side has a small array of bars, some interesting, although most tend to
cater to more of a clean-cut and dully yuppie crowd; and the bars of
Harlem , while not numerous, offer some of the city's most affordable
jazz in a relaxed environment.
While most visitors to New York may not have time or occasion to check out
the bar scenes in the outer boroughs, those that venture to Williamsburg,
Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights and Fort Greene in Brooklyn or to
Astoria in Queens will find both some of the hippest and also most
neighborly spots around.
Whether you wind up sipping a martini in a swank lounge or a downing a pint
in a seedy dive, you'll be expected to tip; figure about a buck a drink.
Remember too that the legal drinking age is 21.
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