The glorious orange gates in Central Park in 2005.

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).

7 months before moving to New York I visited for the first time. I was immediately enraptured and felt a deep connection to the city that I had never experi- enced. It was in this massive hall at The Met that I decided I would be leaving Los Angeles and coming to NYC as soon as I possibly could.

Brooklyn tattoo shop specializing in American traditional style work. Everyone is super nice and cool.

Recommended by my friend and talented illustrator, Isabel Castillo Guijarro, this spot makes incredible cappuccinos and is in one of my favorite NYC buildings, the WoolWorth Building