No, it's not a butcher shop. It's a destination sneaker spot with the best selection of Vans!

It’s photographer Jay Maisel’s studio building on the Bowery. The fact that he hasn’t sold out to the manic gentrification of everything in New York is even cooler. Makes me happy that the whole place is covered in piss stains and graffiti when everything around it is all polished and shiny and expensive. It’s like a giant middle finger raised to those disgusting, bloodthirsty, city-raping real-estate developers. Awesome.

Patisserie Tomoko is a French/Japanese bakery tucked away at the base of a condo building on Union Avenue. Patrons are seated at a U-shaped bar that overlooks their busy open kitchen, allowing you to feast on their sweet delights, while you sneak peeks at how pastry Chef Tomoko and her talented staff create. Known for their Prix Fixe menu that pairs wines, teas, or coffee with three courses of sweets as divinely delicious as they are beautiful, Tomoko also offers à la carte desserts like my favorite year-round pumpkin pie (unlike any you’ve tried before), or you might choose layered yuzu or green tea cakes, divine cream puffs, and a variety homemade ice creams and sorbets. Freshly baked yuzu doughnuts appear on the weekends. And no matter when you visit, Billie Holiday will likely be singing soulfully to you as you sup.

The Tenement Museum celebrates the enduring stories that define and strengthen what it means to be American. We share stories of the immigrant and migrant experience through guided tours of our two tenement buildings on Orchard Street and the surrounding neighborhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Visitors can take building tours of the recreated homes of our former residents between the 1860s and the 1980s as well as walking tours of the neighborhood they lived in.

The perfect pizza in my books. Felt like a sweet spot between New York style pizzas and the classic Neapolitan