Well made Sushi run by a nice Japanese family. It's inexpensive, high quality - not fancy! Authentic I use it for a quick informal lunch!

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.

When I first moved to New York, enamoured by its parks and museums and design firms and restaurants and bars, I never imagined that there could be much more to its geography than that. How wrong I was. My first drive across the George Washington Bridge was jaw-dropping - the cliffs of New Jersey are astonishingly tall, covered in a dense thicket of trees. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Drive up 87 to the Catskills or the Adirondacks and you'll witness the Hudson River winding its way through spectacular scenery and unforgiving seasons. Now I can't get enough; just two hours up the road, it's like the city never existed. Perfect recuperation after a long week.

Coming Soon knows exactly what furniture and objects you need to make your apartment cooler than you are. The store’s (female) owners’ backgrounds in fine art and high design are clear, and they work directly with designers to bring in a carefully curated selection of pieces new and old.

One of my lunch favorites - start with the crab toast lemon aioli, then roast carrot avocado salad, Kasha and Bowtie pasta with Meatballs - and their homemade sodas and green juice are awesome!