Lovely Italian restaurant with a beautiful backyard. I usually have the Orecchiette Salsiccia Broccoli or the spaghetti Vongole.

The smell when you step in says it all.

Offering 20% off on current “indie bestsellers” (and 10% off picks from their well-read staff), you can still get a good deal while supporting one of the city’s last independent bookstores. They also carry an impressive selection of magazines and literary journals that you can flip through in their café. McNally’s event calendar is packed with appearances and readings by authors like Zadie Smith and Chris Kraus, but they're perhaps best known for their in-store printing press and self-publishing services.

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

My favorite place on Bedford Avenue, this bookstore has both new and used titles. If you're patient and look close enough, you can usually find a book that's worth more than they're asking. Not to mention their stellar selection of magazine titles. Good for design, art, photography, sociology, fiction, and everything in between.