"As soon as I was old enough (1964), I got myself to New York. I learned the subway, went to (now long gone) little movie theaters, sketched in the Bleecker St. Café, and saw everything at the Museum of Modern Art. I was going to college in Brooklyn and found the best free thing to do in New York was to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, and it still is, although now I usually do it from Manhattan and then stroll along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. The two best movie theaters in NY are now the Film Forum on West Houston St. and the Paris on 58th St. just west of 5th Ave. (You'll understand why when you go.) If you're walking around Midtown, you'll appreciate the bathrooms at the fabulous Japanese department store, Takashimaya, on 5th Ave. between 54th & 55th. The best place for breakfast is the Dining Room at the Neue Gallery, 5th Ave. & 86th, home to the world's most ... [more]
Lloyd Ziff, Photographer
Fancy on the Cheap
If you are itching to try some of the city's fine dining, but are decidedly non-itching to pay fine dining prices, stop by for lunch instead of dinner. Many restaurants crammed for dinner will serve the same food to a nearly empty room at lunchtime. Prices are often more reasonable; for instance, Jean Georges, the well-starred restaurant right off Columbus Circle (at 1 Central Park West), has a lunch menu that features any two entrees for only $24. Afterwards, take a walk through the park and splurge on a ridiculously overpriced $4 ice cream from a cart.