We all have paths that take us through our commutes and daily lives, and I’m particularly fond of the path that took me home from my retail store in Chelsea Market every evening for a year. Leaving the store, I would walk down Ninth Avenue which becomes Hudson and turn left on Bleecker Street, following it until I turned right on Mercer. It cuts through the south of Chelsea, through the Meatpacking District and down to the West Village into Soho. I became enamored with the variety these neighborhoods offer.
As I leave the Eleni’s store and Chelsea Market, the first visible business is a lumberyard, which begins the walk that is charmingly full of so many different sides of New York. Looking west, you can see the High Line running for several blocks, the defunct and beautifully rusted elevated train tracks. There is evidence of the recent transition of the Meatpacking ... [more]
Eleni Gianopulos, Eleni's.
Lower East Side
The East Village is home to immigrant families who have lived in the affordable housing here for generations (paid tribute to in the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and Katz’s Delicatessen, both on Delancey Street). The newly upscale profile of the East Village is headquartered on Rivington Street and embodied by the Rivington Hotel and restaurants like teany. An exploration of the East Village should be done on foot: walk east on First Street at mealtime where you’ll stumble upon Prune. East Village landmarks are Washington Square Park, New York University, and the Strand Bookstore; Tompkins Square Park and Chinatown (visit Pearl River Mart, a Chinese department store) are nearby.