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Lower East Side |
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This is New York's landmark historic Jewish neighborhood, which was once the world's largest Jewish
community. It was here that the New York garment industry began. Today it is one of New York's favorite bargain beats,
where serious shoppers find fantastic bargains (especially along Orchard Street on a Sunday afternoon), cutting-edge new
designers, and hot bars and music venues - and possibly the best place to get a great pastrami sandwich, pickles out of a
barrel, and the world's best bialys. Try Katz's Delicatessen (205 East Houston St.), the oldest and largest real NY deli,
founded in 1888.
Bounded by Houston Street, Canal Street, and the FDR Drive, the neighborhood's center is
Orchard Street. Once a Jewish wholesale enclave, this street is a true multicultural blend, with trendy boutiques, French cafés,
and velvet-roped nightspots sprinkled among dry-goods discounters, Spanish bodegas, and mom-and-pop shops selling
everything from T-shirts to designer fashions to menorahs. Orchard is lined with small shops purveying clothing and shoes
at great prices. Grand, Orchard, and Delancey Streets are treasure troves for linens, towels, and other housewares, and
the traditional Sunday street vendors (Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, is observed by many shopkeepers as a day of rest)
offer great opportunities to hone your bargaining skills! At Shapiro's Winery visitors can taste one of their 32 flavors of
wine, and at Streit's bakery, matzoh mavens can sample the freshly baked unleavened bread as it rolls off the conveyor
belts behind the counter.
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum interprets the area's immigrant and migrant
experiences through tours of a landmark 19th century tenement, living history programs, neighborhood walking tours, plays,
and special programs. The first synagogue built by Eastern European Jews in America (1887) is the Eldridge Street Project,
now a cultural center and gift shop.
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Soho |
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Within only a quarter of a square mile, SoHo has an estimated 250 art galleries, four museums, nearly 200 restaurants, and
100 stores.
The blocks south of Houston (pronounced HOW-ston) and north of Canal streets are home to the city's
largest concentration of the cast-iron fronted buildings, built as warehouses and manufacturing spaces, but converted to living
spaces, called "lofts," for artists and sculptors who appreciated the larger spaces. These huge, 19th-century architectural
gems (Victorian Gothic, Italianiate, and neo-Grecian among them) are prized by preservationists and the well-heeled
bohemians of SoHo who call the neighborhood home.
The Museum for African Art, New Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Alternative Museum are all in SoHo.
The New York Fire Museum on Spring Street displays a nostalgic and inspirational collection of hand-pulled and horse-drawn
apparatus, engines, sliding poles, uniforms and fireboat equipment from the 18th through the 20th centuries - a good place
to pay respects to our heroes from 9-11.
Robert Lee Morris sells jewelry that is wearable art; Canal Jean Company
sells authentic Levi's, cutting-edge shoes, and sportswear at discount prices; Vintage New York features only wines and
food from New York State; The Scholastic Store sells Scholastic brands including Clifford the Big Red Dog and Harry Potter -
in an interactive, multimedia environment; and the Ward-Nasse Gallery has the largest selection of original art in SoHo.
If you work up an appetite after all the shopping, head to the Cub Room or Zoë for dinner, and afterwards to NV/289 Bar
Lounge, S.O.B.'s (Sounds of Brazil) for a little samba, or the SoHo Grand Hotel for a drink in an international and sophisticated
environment.
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Chinatown |
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South of Canal Street lies bustling Chinatown, which has over the years expanded into the Lower East
Side and Little Italy. The largest Asian community in North America can be found among the narrow streets between Worth
and Hester and East Broadway and West Broadway; its main street is Canal Street.
Within these boundaries, you'll
find traditional Chinese herbal-medicine shops, acupuncturists, food markets filled with amazing varieties of fish and exotic
vegetables, funky pagoda-style buildings, stores selling all manner of items from beautiful jewelry and silk robes to hair
accessories and plumbing parts, and hundreds of restaurants serving every imaginable type of Chinese cuisine, from dim sum
to fried noodles to extravagant Cantonese, Hunan, Mandarin, or Szechuan banquets.
The many signs in Chinese, the music pouring into the streets from open windows, the delicious smells from the restaurants,
noodle shops and tea houses packed side by side, and the sound of the language swirling around you make it easy to feel
ike you've flown half way around the world in the short time it took to get downtown.
Although the neighborhood is known for its excellent Chinese cuisine, perhaps one of its more secret highlights is the Eastern
States Buddhist Temple on Mott Street. Step inside - your spirit will be refreshed and your eyes will be delighted by the sight
of 100 golden Buddha’s shimmering in the candlelight. Frequent festivals and parades (especially during the January and
February Chinese New Year celebrations, when paper puppet dragons, firecrackers, and beating drums rule the streets!),
as well as the galleries and curio shops create a glorious celebration of Chinese culture.
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