Now New York smells like it used to do

Every city has a smell of its own. Brussels, Saigon, Prague, Beirut, Perth, Santiago, Moscow, Rome and Barcelona – each have their own urban perfume. But few big cities have such an easily identifiable scent as New York (it is actually surprising that there isn’t a perfume named after the city).
The smell isn’t equally strong the whole year. It becomes especially insisting those warm, long autumn evenings when you stroll back home after eating out. But the smell is always the same, as New Yorkish as Empire State Building, once again the tallest building of this city, for the first time since 1972.
For a couple of months last autumn New York had a very different smell. When the wind blew from the south it turned Manhattan into something else, something strange, vile and unknown. But since Christmas and New Years the old New York smell is back. The city has recovered, the sun is shining and there is a hint of spring in the air; New York is as far south as Rome, albeit without the protection of any Alps against harsh, northern winds. In short – high time to go to New York!

It has been said before, but deserves to be said again: the first item to pack is a pair of well-worn, thick-soled shoes. New York should be seen on foot. If you get tired you hop on the subway. The tourist brochures are right: New York is very safe compared to other big cities. And the subway offers secure and hassle-free transportation, at least if you stay on Manhattan.
Depending on how long time you spend in the city (and what your special interests are) you plan your walks differently. Do not try to take in the whole city at once. On the net, for example at the Time Out-site, www.timeoutny.com/cityguide/, you can find concerts and other listings. Skip Midtown, it’s too boring. Try to visit the biggest tourist traps weekday mornings, and you’ll avoid the crowds.
There are certain rules to follow. Waiting to cross a street should be done in the street, not on the sidewalk (only Texans and Eurotrash stand still on sidewalks). Always carry a water bottle (a useful habit, the more so since it looks like New York will have to ration water). Don’t do shopping and sightseeing at the same time, and if you slip up, have the merchandise delivered to your hotel. Leave the camera at home. Do not buy your Styrofoam cup of coffee at Starbucks. And it’s perfectly all right to strike up a conversation with unknown people in the street: old-school New Yorkers love to talk, and are prepared to tell you their life’s story at the drop of a hat.

Another dear topic is the new mayor, Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire who never was into politics, but put his money on becoming the leader of the world’s most wellknown city. He bought his position, say the critics. But his honeymoon isn’t over just yet, and he has surprised many by appointing several important administrators from the opposite camp, the Democratic Party.
Mr Bloomberg has also met angry groups of citizens with an open door, invited to meetings and listened. When the decisions have to be taken he cannot satisfy everyone, but his style is a far cry from his predecessor Rudolph W. Giuliano’s autocratic and rigid way to handle criticism.

New York is best explored by foot. Like other big cities New York is a collection of very different neighbourhoods. Upper East Side (posh) has very little in common with Lower East Side (not posh). East River flows lazily along both districts, and the subway connect them, but they never meet. These are the parts of New York you shouldn’t miss:
NoLita, short for “North of Little Italy” between Kenmare Street in the south, East Houston in the north, Lafayette Street to the west and Bowery in the east. Young food and young design in an eclectic mix. Keep going east to Lower East Side, that got its first modern cinema a couple of weeks ago (Sunshine on East Houston behind Sara D Roosevelt Park). Here you’ll find the historic Jewish merchant district with Orchard Street, in full revival, and its parallel to the east, Ludlow Street.
Taste knish, a potato pie, made with different fillings. Many “New York-tastes” stem from the Jewish cuisine, like bagels with lox, or pretzels, big, hard and salty – and devoured with mustard. Stay away from gefillte fish.

Cross East Houston and walk north to East Village. Twenty years ago this would have involved some serious risk-taking, but today it is literally a stroll in the park. Take Avenue A up to Tompkins Square Park and look at all the dogs in the big yard.
In the 80’s Tompkins Square was the battlefield for a bitter fight between tenants and New York’s largest real estate mogul. Now it is a lush oasis summertime, with small restaurants of the “alternative” kind and shops lining the streets around the park (Alphabets, 115 Avenue A, sells postcards, t-shirts and lots of cool stuff you didn’t know you needed).
After these sometimes rather trashy blocks on Manhattan’s East Side it’s time to walk west along St Marks Place, or 8th Street. At Third Avenue you pass philanthropist Peter Cooper’s university Cooper Union, famous for its engineering school, and enter West Village. The streets are a maze, and pass old, nice four-storied brownstones, trees and beautiful stone stoops with wrought iron railings. People move with another rhythm. Many are walking the dog (yes, all of them pick up the turds, here people care about their city).
The Village has always been the home of bohemians and artists, but now many of the more avant-garde young artists can be found east of Manhattan, in Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Yet the peaceful, generous atmosphere still lingers. And through troubled times and crime-waves The Village has always been protected from both street violence and housebreaking. Some people say it’s due to the fact that many mob bosses (and their families) used to live here.
The Village is a neighbourhood to stroll in, to stop for a quick espresso or an extended lunch. Here you also find New York University, competing with Columbia on Upper West Side for attention, grouped around beautiful
Washington Square, where Edward Hooper used to have his studio. Weekends artists (and pickpockets) perform in the park for students and tourists.

When you tire of the show, continue south to SoHo, meaning “South of Houston Street”. Here the trendy boutiques have chased away many of the experimental galleries that used to be the hallmark of SoHo. The galleries fled to Chelsea and Williamsburg together with the artists, who were evicted to give room to expensive condominium apartments. But the restaurants are nice, and the shopping the best in the world – if you can afford it.
Keep going south and you’ll end up in TriBeCa, “Triangle Below Canal” south of Canal Street. Here cars are more present, the streets wider and the houses higher, many former warehouses, showrooms or offices. Now it is the most exclusive housing area in New York, with some of the best restaurants in the city. It is also the home of the film- and restaurant empire of Robert de Niro, “Bobby” to the locals. Every other person you see is a celebrity and this is where the Swedish crown princess Victoria plays when she is in town.
Staying the weekend? Buy New York Times and look in the Real Estate-supplement. The Open Houses are all over Manhattan, but in TriBeCa you’ll be able to look at the most impressive lofts. A free-of-charge entertainment that many New Yorker likes to indulge in after a satisfying brunch, Bloody Marys included.
Trotting north on the West Side of Manhattan takes you to Chelsea, a very popular part of the city filled with newly renovated buildings, galleries and new hangouts. Chelsea has also inherited the No 1 position as gay-district from The Village.
If you have any energy left, we recommend a rollerblade tour in Central Park, or for the ambitious a bike trip along Hudson River. On the West Side of Manhattan you’ll find a bike road, separated from cars and pedestrians, all the way from TriBeCa in the south to George Washington Bridge in the north. The bike you can rent – or bring your own on the plane.

Exhibitions not to be missed: A series of films about New York is shown at the Museum of the Moving Image beginning February 23 at 13.00 hours. Andy Warhol's cult classic “Empire” about the highest building of New York is screened… for eight hours!
See Irving Penn’s opulent nudes exposed at both Metropolitan Museum of Art (1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, tel. 212-535-7710) until April 21 as well as at Whitney Museum of American Art (945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street, tel. 212-570-3633). Metropolitan Museum is still showing Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed, until March 17. Everything you wanted to know from 14th century iron corsets to the J.P. Gaulthier’s (un-) dressing of Madonna.
German Gerhard Richter has been called the most important European painter of our times. February 14 MoMa (11 West 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenue) opens a large exhibition with his paintings, including his Baader-Meinhof portraits. Count on long lines to get in, since MoMa is renovating, and a large part of the museum is closed. The Richter exhibition, including 180 paintings, will continue through May 21.
Would you like to show your talent at MoMa? Now you can! Send your photos of New York to the exhibition “Life in the City”, showing from February 28. More info here: www.moma.org.
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (2 East 91st Street at Fifth Avenue) is showing work by the influential American industrial designer Russell Wright. His work beautified many American homes from the 30’s to the 50’s. Can be seen through September 15.

More than just hamburgers. You’ll find food from all over the world in New York, and you can spend any amount of money to satisfy your hunger. Some basic rules: if you want to get into the hot new restaurants, book before you leave home. Have the fixed-price lunch (20–35 USD) at the expensive places and dinner at smaller, ethnic restaurants. And take a deep breath and realise you can order wine and feel the taste: smoking is illegal in restaurants in New York! These are well-known and not-so-known nice places to eat:

Gramercy Tavern, 42 East 20th Street, tel. 212-477-0777, is a favourite. Everything is professional, waiters know what they serve and are happy to give advice without being snobs, the food is perfect and the setting (an old converted stable) is beautiful and unpretentious at the same time. Expensive? You bet. Worth the investment? Without a shadow of a doubt. Omen, 113 Thompson Street (between Prince and Spring Sts), tel. 212-925-8923. Japanese, and rather on the expensive side. Droves of SoHo celebrities (if you’re lucky you’ll see Uma Thurman play with her food).
Shanghai Cuisine, 89 Bayard Street at Mulberry Street, tel. 212-732-8988. Nibble the Tiny Buns – small dough bundles filled with yummy stuff that get you addicted in no time. Read instruction before the first bite or you’ll get gravy all over you. General Tso’s chicken burns deliciously. Have a Tsingtao beer. Prices are low, cash only. Yes, you get a fortune cookie. Dim Sum Go Go, 5 East Broadway in Chinatown, tel. 212-732-0797. New and popular dim sum-place in trendy “Asian Futuristic Style” (think Blade Runner). Dim sum means lots of small dishes, the Eastern answer to Swedish Smorgasbord, and is typical brunch food. In the same category (transparent plastic wallcovers and colourful neon in minimalist mix) is Funky Broome, 176 Mott Street at the corner of Broome, tel. 212-941-8628.

Zutto, 77 Hudson Street (between Harrison and Jay), tel. 212-233-3287. Good inexpensive Japanese food. TriBeCa locals fill the place. Sosa Borella, 460 Greenwich Street (between Desbrosses and Watts), tel. 212-431-4093. Italian place own by an Argentinean. Pico, 349 Greenwich Street (between Harrison and Jay) tel. 212-343-0700. Excellent Portuguese cuisine (yes, they have other fare than grilled sardines), rather expensive.
Robert de Niro’s Japanese flagship restaurant Nobu is on 105 Hudson Street. Tel. 212-219-0500. Expensive and almost impossible to get a table. Go instead to Next Door Nobu (105 Hudson Street, tel. 212-334-4445). No reservations.
Chanterelle, 2 Harrison Street (at Hudson Street), tel. 212-966-6960) is French, very good and very expensive. Say hello to Kevin Spacey, who just bought the two upper floors in the small house on the other side of the street. Close by you find the tremendously popular The Harrison, 355 Greenwich Street, tel. 212-274-9310, serving modern American food.

Oysters, anyone? Shaffer City Oyster Bar & Grill, 5 West 21st Street (between Fifth and Sixth Avenues), tel. 212-255-9827), serves the biggest selection of oysters in Manhattan. The shellfish is gorgeous, and the risotto heavenly.
The best pizza is to be found at Lombardi’s, 32 Spring Street (between Mott and Mulberry Sts), tel. 212-941-7994. Cash only.
Nha Trang, 87 Baxter south of Canal Street. Vietnamese, cheap, cash only, you stand in line to get a table. Worth the wait. Good looking, well-trained young Vietnamese men take your order. Try the salt-and-pepper shrimp and the crispy squid. Soups come in enormous bowls.
Piccolo Angolo, 621 Hudson Street. A dining experience out of the ordinary, with an owner that has personality. Italian cuisine, rich flavours. Tel. 229-9177.
Union Square Café, 21 E 16th Street close to Union Square. Year after year voted one of the best restaurants in New York. Book! Lots of celebrities, and expensive – but worth it. Tel 212-243-4020.
Rocking Horse Cafe Mexicano in Chelsea (suddenly lots of nice places there) 182 Eight Ave between 19 and 20th Street. Tel. 212-463-9511. Try the pork chops cooked in beer – divine! Cheap meals, young and noisy crowd.
Gascogne has a real, outdoor garden (a treat in New York) at Eighth Avenue between 18 and 19th Street. Tel. 212-675-6564. Packed with fois gras-lovers, expensive, nice. Don’t forget the Armagnac.

If you are into stargazing the best spots are in TriBeCa. I saw Scott Glenn there not long ago (he was surprisingly short, but looked as tough as he did in Silverado and The Right Stuff). Harvey Keitel has brunch at Bubby’s on 120 Hudson Street, tel. 212-219-0666.
Go to food market Dean and Delucca on Broadway/Prince Street. Check out the food (and the prices!), have a cappuccino and hang out at the standing tables beside the entrance. Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Cher are just a few of the celebs that buy their organic food here.
Michael Imperioli (who plays Christopher Moltisanti, the nephew in the violent television soap Sopranos) can be found at the cocktail lounge Ciel Rouge, on Seventh Avenue in Chelsea close to West 21st Street. There is no sign on the door. Otherwise Mr Imperioli lives on West Broadway in star-studded TriBeCa, and recently got a new neighbour: his TV-uncle Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini).
Got a kitchen? Cook! Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays the Farmers Market in Union Square is open from 8 until 6 in the evening. It is the largest Farmers Market in New York, filled with fruit, vegetables, apple pies and cider, homebaked cookies, cheese and fish, flowers and spices. The rest you buy at Gourmet Garage at the corner of Broome and Mercer Street in SoHo. Bon Appetite!