Coney Island is the best for everything - the beach, the rides, the beer - but mostly for the Skee Ball. It's incredibly addicting, affordable and satisfying (depending on your aim).

I had been living in Brooklyn Heights for some time and Long Island Restaurant has been closed for as long as I could remember. Then one day, the sign was lit up and not long after the new owners had resurrected the spot with the promise to the previous owners the name and sign never changes. Order "A Martini" from the menu. It's divine. As are the french fries. They're double fried.

Bluestockings Cooperative is a community-supported bookstore and activist space.

For art books, monographs and catalogs new and used at a discount. I can never manage to leave here without a bag full of books in tow.

Grand Central is big and beautiful and it also periodically hosts free cultural events - poets at typewriters custom-composing poems on demand - or Alvin Ailey dancers performing in Artist, Nick Cave's horse suits!