Cafe Mogador has been serving modern takes on traditional Moroccan dishes for breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner in the East Village since 1983.

Great spot in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Modern, low-key spot for coffee, updated comfort food, draft beer, cocktails & an artsy patio.

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.

Yossi Milo is, in my opinion, the most dynamic and eclectic of the photography galleries in NYC. From portaiture to architecture to experimental digital sculptural giant animals to street photography, they show an endlessly exciting range of work. Some of my favorite recent shows include Simen Johan's mythical beasts, Ezra Stoller's architectural photographs of the TWA terminal, and Sze Tsung Leong's huge cityscapes.

The oldest still-operating restaurant in New York City, still in the family of the original founders. At Christmastime, it's decorated to the nines. Go with a big group: portions are large and the wine flows liberally. Look for the little buttons on the walls: in the old days, the mafia would hang out in the back room, and if diners saw the cops come in, they'd press the buttons so the mafia guys could run out the back.