Housing European Romanesque and Gothic collections, the building itself sits high on a hill offering far reaching views over the Hudson River and Upper Manhattan. A place to bookmark for after the Spring equinox when you can ramble amongst the fragrant herb gardens of Fort Tryon Park and drink in the air of the season.

I'm a huge Japanophile: if there's one other place I'd like to live, it's Tokyo. I must have been there seven or eight times, most recently just after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Anyway, EN is a gem on Hudson Street, serving real Japanese cuisine. It turns out that EN is a chain in Japan; there are a lot of branches making lovely bosky food in cosy neighbourhood locations. But their New York incarnation is grand in scale and ambition, with solid, warm interiors (not unlike if the Whitney were a Japanese restaurant, oddly) - a remarkable hybrid of this city, and the other one that I'd love to live in.

Neighborhood lunch place / Japanese supermarket. Love it for its authenticity and affordable Japanese food menu. Although its located in SOHO, it’s not hip, not fancy, not designed, not styled, not outstanding. Feels like a honest, family run business that makes the most out of this location for sure. Come here for Ramen, soba, sushi, and more. Try some fries with a choice of chili or wasabi mayonnaise. There’s something about them.

This is the place where I ate my first burger just 2 hours after I arrived in 'tha hood' I loved the place immediately because of the supersweet employees. And the fact that they have al this vintage machines in the place: like an old COKE machine and a cigarette machine as well as a jukebox from the sixties. The fact that they serve ALL DAY LONG BREAKFAST really made me happy, probably because I lived in Berlin before I moved here and there people are endlessly chilling and having breakfast the whole day long anyway! On wednesdays Wally organizes film evenings with funny nineties classics and on thursday evening you can eat a 5 dollar burger menu. While eating your inexpensive burger think of Wall.E.

I’m a big fan of libraries (tons of books, free to take out, I mean what’s not to love?) and even though you can’t actually take out any books at the big beautiful library in Midtown – it’s still worth a visit. I love walking around in the big halls, the architecture is so beautiful and there’s always small exhibitions or things to see. Don’t forget to look up when entering the main reading-hall. Feels like book-heaven!