Best lobster roll outside of Maine. The brunch is a well kept secret. Chicken and waffles and shrimp & grits are my picks for brunch. 

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.

Best fried chicken ever, and the speakeasy downstairs is incredible. 

The Bronx Botanical Garden is a place my father and I have been going to since I was a child. Here's a photograph I took of him here. It has hundreds of species of trees and flowers. Sitting in the middle of the Bronx, it's most recognizable as a green oasis from the grays and concrete of city life. 

A legendary basketball court in the West Village that is a popular destination for basketball aficionados, deflated hoop-dreamers, and gawking tourists.