Now in its tenth year, the Division Street restaurant has proven its staying power in a city of amazing eateries. Bacaro’s wine bar and small plates (“cichetti”) are modeled after the “bacaros” of Venice—workingmen’s pubs that serve snacks and small glasses of wine.

Brooklyn's only black-owned Jazz Club and musician-run nonprofit supporting the arts and community since 1981.

My favorite restaurant to pop in spontaneously on a weeknight. Get the lamb burger with sardines and a mezcal negroni. It also has my favorite looking bathroom in NYC.

City Island is a seaside town in the Bronx. Known for its fishing, seafood, and main street it is a self-contained working-class haven. The buildings range from late 1800's houses to 1960's storefronts, and you can smell the ocean everywhere on the island. Restaurants and local pubs dot City Island Ave, and even the few empty storefronts stay vibrant. 

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.