I love this excellent independent arthouse theater in the Lower East side. Metrograph projects archive quality 35mm and independent films. Tastefully decorated, there is also a candy store, bookstore and restaurant.

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

Giant dinosaurs. And the rest of the museum is great if you also like giant whales and outer space and especially the life size dioramas of animals and cave people, which might be the very best Art in all of the city. Sigh.

I have old friends in San Francisco who grudgingly tell me that the High Line is everything that's wrong with New York. Well, too bad. To me, it embodies a culture that's constantly reinventing itself: a defunct elevated railway that was becoming a burden to the city ("we used to climb up there to throw garbage bags full of rotting Korean food at the Hasids!", noted a successful photographer's assistant) becoming a startling example of urban greening for the public good. The expert landscaping makes it feel like walking on a Montauk beach - but a stone's throw from some of New York's most progressive galleries and hotels.

Great mid-eastern food in Chelsea/Flatiron/NoMad/whatever you call that area.