ooo ooo ooo! just remembered,
Fat Cat is a bar with live jazz (actually a massive revolving sit-in situation that I've been too much of a wimp to get involved with)
AND BOARDGAMES! they have billiards and scrabble and shuffle board and ping pong and... oooo the fun you would have. Unfortunately it's a bar, no kids allowed.
Pourhouse on 3rd Ave and E 11th St is a personal favorite of mine, pretty good food and $1 buds during happy hour (gets bumped to $2 during dinner). But the long and short of it is that you can bring the kids for lunch and they have an AWESOME beer menu (not SUPER awesome, but good for the fact that it's mostly populated by people that don't know any better. Don't go on the weekends after 8, it gets packed.
Union Sq is cool, during the day (M, W, Thr, F) they have a farmer's market where a lot of the food network types get their produce. Also in the area is the Strand Book Store (8 miles of books, a personal favorite) and
Max Brenner, which is like a willy wonka of chocolate as far as I can tell. Pipes of chocolate running everywhere. Chicks dig it. OOO and a big GC down the block from that.
There's a boxing exhibit in the seaport museum now that I think about it, and at Jeremy's Alehouse (also in the seaport...toldja, I lived down there) they have great, great, not expensive at all fried and grilled seafood. oh, and 32 oz beer in styrofoam cups. It used to be the "happy hour" hang out for the fish guys when fulton was still open. Happy hour for them is like 10 AM, so...yeah they still have that early happy hour. DOn't go on friday. Remember that brewfest I told you about in post 2? Chances are that me and every other drunken ******* is gonna end up there when the thing lets out at ten.
If you hit up little italy:
Check out DiPalo's cheese, I think they're opening a wine store too. This is the greatest store in. the. world. The guys are kickass, will let you try EVERYTHING. get olive oil from them, they fly to sicily every few weeks to restock. I used to live around the corner from them on broome st (if you can say anything about NYU's housing program, it's that it creates very interesting living conditions), about 2 blocks east from where heath ledger died and across the street (at 201 broome) from where Leonardo dicaprio lives.
Don't buy anything from anyone on canal street. it's not worth it. I promise. check out mud cup coffee truck in astor place right by st. marks. and if you decide you and your wife want to drink a bunch (though I don't really get that vibe) check out McSorely's on 2nd and 7th st. 130 years old, and they've been letting women in since 1970. You really need to respect that. Brandon is the waiter. He's good people. expect to make friends. don't fear the mustard.
30th st Guitars, by penn station (right by where you're staying) is the coolest guitar store in the city. they have a bunch of rare stuff, cool guys, and an awesome repair shop. They'll let you play forever. Send the wife to macy's on 6th and 37th and take the boys to play guitar. Everyone's happy.
Wogie's Cheesesteak on Charles and Greenwich Ave. Awesome cheesesteak no matter where you're from, more than reasonably priced beer (for new york, get ready for that btw), great wings, take the kids.
If you go to the statue of liberty, you won't be able to go up, that takes like 30 days notice to get clearance, but the tour is cool nonetheless. Ellis island is really gut wrenching if you're the kid of an immigrant. Walk the brooklyn bridge at sunset and get pizza at grimaldi's on the other side, or ice cream directly under the bridge while it's still open (it's only open seasonally). Note the inscription of Walt Whitman's poem on the Ferry Landing.
Don't bother with the empire state building. Expensive, crowded, just a really tall building. Call me and I'll get you into one for free.
Some advice to not piss off locals:
When in times square, do NOT stop to look up at sky scrapers. As an intern running around that area (I used to work at 4 Times Sq) for 4 years, I used to freak out on people who stopped in their tracks to just look at the sky, causing me to crash into them with envelopes, clothes, or my boss' lunch. I've literally yelled at people. I made sure they got their "NY experience"
Don't wear a fanny pack or shorts and hiking boots. Not the way to blend in.
If you see someone yelling at your tour bus or drunkenly saying "Hey, how's your stay going?" it's probably me. Especially if it's friday.
I'll post more as I think of it. This is absolutely my pleasure. One day I'm going to put together some sort of awesome bar crawl with historical landmarks thrown in. I wonder who would go to that?
-chris
