Handmade pasta in a former garage.

The operators of the Peter Pan bakery make the best donuts I've ever tasted. This place is charming to its core. Decor and presentation: circa 1971 & virtually unchanged since.

Webster Hall is a solid venue, and a frequent stop for many great bands on their rise to glory. If you've only got a few nights in the city, chances are a great act will be playing here.

What's not to like with a place that has a Sandwich named after Jonah Hill and hand-drawn signs in the window?

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.