This quaint shop boasts an artfully arranged and tastefully curated selection of jewelry, pottery, books and art. I have to keep myself from going there too often, because I have trouble leaving without making a purchase.

This place is very good. Korean inspired diner food. Get the Breakfast Burrito with Sausage, Honey Butter Pancakes, Chicken Katsu. The mushroom burger is very good too.

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.

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

You've heard about the reading room at the New York Public Library, haven't you? Then I need not go on. Just look at it. And you're allowed to hang around in there!