The reputation of Mission Chinese Food is for being cool, weird, and extremely eccentric, which tends to mean that you either love it or hate it (an assessment that is at least somewhat correlated to your personal tolerance for spice).

In a landscape of clubs that all play virtually the same EDM or hip hop music, The Pyramid Club is unique in its choice of soundtrack. Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, The Pyramid is open from 8pm-4am for an 80s Dance Party on their main floor that is totally punk rock. Downstairs on the lower level, they switch it up with themes ranging from “Back to the 90s” to “Let’s Dance David Bowie.” It’s also way kinder to your budget than most clubs—the drink specials are pretty much the best you can do in New York.

I love how I walk around the city and bump into so many musicians. It's nice to see them rocking in the street and stopping busy New Yorkers from walking.

When I first moved to New York, enamoured by its parks and museums and design firms and restaurants and bars, I never imagined that there could be much more to its geography than that. How wrong I was. My first drive across the George Washington Bridge was jaw-dropping - the cliffs of New Jersey are astonishingly tall, covered in a dense thicket of trees. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Drive up 87 to the Catskills or the Adirondacks and you'll witness the Hudson River winding its way through spectacular scenery and unforgiving seasons. Now I can't get enough; just two hours up the road, it's like the city never existed. Perfect recuperation after a long week.

This botanical garden is massive. If you like to be surrounded by foliage, bring a picnic on a nice day.