Amazing curation by a passionate knowledgeable staff. Art, Design, Photo, Architecture, books etc.

Been going here a long time. Solid Italian spot with freshly made pasta. Get the cavatelli with Sausage.

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.

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

Great barber shop. Been there for years. Used to be upstairs, moved downstairs. A New York City staple. Need a haircut? Go here... Oh yeah, and they have karaoke. Enough said.