New York City Walk: Downtown

An airy, minimalist window-lined store that started as a Hamptons staple, it carries designers for men (Rag & Bone, Rogues Gallery) and women (Zac Posen, Jill Stuart), and attracts a wide array of buyers, including celebrities. This hip Bowery location features oft-changing exhibits of contemporary art and photography that are mixed in with the clothes, and hosts show openings several times a month.

Address:
1 E. 1st St.
New York, New York
United States

Phone:
(212) 533-3088

Hoteliers Sean MacPherson and Eric Goode—the team behind New York’s Maritime Hotel—are breathing new life into Manhattan’s once-desolate Bowery with their 135-room Bowery Hotel. Entering the lobby is like stepping into a pre-Raphaelite painting: a Gothic fireplace, Oriental rugs over a Moroccan-tiled floor. Rooms are pure vintage-repro, down to the beadboard ceilings; toiletries from the storied Bigelow & Co. Apothecary line marble washstands. Those expecting a dose of New York attitude will be disappointed by the friendly staff. There’s plenty of native flavor, however, at the Italian restaurant, Gemma, where focaccia-bread pizzas are drizzled with truffle oil, and the bar is reliably thronged by those city denizens known as Beautiful People. Work it off with a bike ride on one of the hotel’s four lipstick-red Earth Cruisers, equipped with wire baskets to hold your shopping finds.

Address:
335 Bowery
New York, New York
United States

Phone:
(212) 505-9100

London’s Firmdale Group brings the spirit of Soho to a cobblestoned lane in the other SoHo. The new 86-room Crosby Street Hotel feels very much a part of its vibrant, intimately scaled neighborhood: the restaurant-bar has become a local favorite, and the salon-like lobby is filled from morning to midnight. Kit Kemp’s bold interiors manage to challenge and soothe the eye all at once: austere charcoal-gray wall coverings set off pastel headboards; soft silk curtains frame steel warehouse windows; gritty brick façades background a lush rooftop garden. Check out the tongue-in-cheek flourishes from an oversize white steel Jaume Plensa sculpture in the lobby to portraits of local dogs in the elevators. But it’s the service that will win you over: an umbrella at the ready for impending rain, coffee and a newspaper delivered within minutes of your request, and a proper hot toddy at the bar.

Address:
79 Crosby St.
New York, New York
United States

Phone:
(800) 553-6674

Inspired by the 1920’s speakeasy motif, this New York bar is sequestered behind a large, wooden door. The interior provides the perfect chic atmosphere for enjoying the cocktail creations of Thomas Waugh, with dark banquettes and tables dimly lit by small chandeliers and candles. Waugh’s cocktails include the Rita Hayworth (made with pineapple- and sage-infused tequila) and Pelee’s Blood, a concoction of rum, lime juice, grenadine, and absinthe. Wine, whiskey, and brandy are also served, as are a number of small plates, including goat cheese profiteroles and truffle macaroni.

Address:
433 E. 6th St., between Ave. A and 1st Ave.
New York, New York
United States

Phone:
(212) 388-0882

Combining effortlessly unencumbered minimalism with the subtle beauty of a polished concrete floor and curving acrylic walls, the Derek Lam boutique in downtown New York City is a signature sanaa design. The clothes are stars here, set off by the gallery-like space’s hyper-meticulous, luxurious ambience—and yet there is surprising warmth, too, a feeling of lightness, fun, and sparkle that’s a new addition to the Japanese duo’s repertoire.

Address:
12 Crosby St.
New York, New York
United States

Phone:
(212) 966-1616

Actor-entrepreneur Robert De Niro’s newest addition to his mini TriBeCa empire is his most inviting yet. Opened in the former warehouse neighborhood in 2008, The Greenwich is a masterful trompe l’oeil: the corner building, erected on an empty parking lot, looks as if it’s been there since the turn of the century—the truth hidden by its hand-distressed brick façade. Inside, a hushed gentleman’s lair awaits; tufted leather sofas, stately potted palms, and exotic objets fill the lobby and Drawing Room, whose centerpiece is a positively baronial wood-burning fireplace. Adjacent is a lush enclosed courtyard. The hotel’s most distinctive feature, however, may be the lofty level of craftsmanship—fine hand-loomed Tibetan rugs, reclaimed oak floors, ceramic Moroccan tiled baths—that ribbons throughout the public spaces and the 88 individually decorated rooms and 13 suites. A visit to the guests-only Shibui Spa, with its traditional tatami mats, shoji screens, soaking tub, and showstopping pool canopied by 250-year-old beams from a Japanese farmhouse, will make you feel like you’ve escaped to an exclusive Kyoto onsen.

Address:
377 Greenwich St.
New York, New York
United States

Phone:
(212) 941-8900

While the Jane, designed by Sean MacPherson (the Bowery Hotel, the Maritime Hotel), is romantic in theory—an old riverfront building with tiny rooms modeled after European train sleeper cars—keep in mind that a New York hotel with starting rates in the double digits comes with drawbacks. Our room during a recent stay had a 27-inch flat-screen TV, an iPod dock, and complimentary water bottled on-site, but the room was too hot, and opening the window wasn’t an option because the property is next to the roaring West Side Highway. Bathrooms are shared and coed, which won’t appeal to all travelers.

Address:
113 Jane St.
New York, New York
United States

Phone:
(212) 924-6700

Chef-owner Andrew Carmellini brings robust Italian cooking to Locanda Verde, located in TriBeCa. Like an Italian taverna, the décor is simple and energetic, with a granite-topped bar, cafe tables, large French windows, and accents of dark wood. A delicious beginning is the crostini—small bites of prosciutto bread, spicy corn, puréed chicken liver, and blue-crab flavored with jalapeño. For a taste of the Old Country, enjoy the aptly named My Grandmother's Ravioli dish. And this is one place to be sure to save room for dessert, as pastry queen Karen DeMasco serves up delicacies like the lemon tart with buttermilk gelato.

Address:
377 Greenwich St.
New York, New York
United States

Phone:
(212) 925-3797

Greenwich Village’s historic Minetta Tavern originally opened in 1937 and was a haunt for such cultural icons as Ernest Hemingway and Ezra Pound. In 2008, the tavern was renovated by restaurateur Keith McNally and his partners Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr, the team behind Balthazar. Now, this Parisian-style steakhouse serves a menu of French-American dishes, including roasted bone marrow with baguette soldiers and the signature Black Label Burger, a prime beef patty topped with caramelized onions. The dining room combines a black and white tiled floor and red leather banquettes with the tavern’s original fresco of the Village.

Address:
113 MacDougal St.
New York, New York
United States

Phone:
(212) 475-3850

With a mile-long list of accolades and awards—and even longer waits for stools at his East Village dining bars—the Korean-American cook David Chang is New York’s favorite chef du jour. First he grabbed headlines with Momofuku Noodle Bar, turning New Yorkers into a bunch of “rameniacs.” The equally streamlined and passion-inducing Momofuku Ssäm Bar serves lunch boxes with steamed pork buns or Bib Bim Bap and dazzles diners at night with boldly flavorful dishes composed from the best American heirloom produce zapped with Asian accents of kimchi, ginger, and chiles. It shines with its degustation of cured American hams; oysters in kimchi consommé; and grilled lemongrass pork sausage. You eat all this squeezed between fellow diners behind a crowded counter, watching steaming plates emerge from the kitchen.

Address:
207 2nd Ave.
New York, New York
United States

Phone:
(212) 254-3500

This striking home for downtown’s contemporary art hub—led by savvy director Lisa Phillips—made a splashy debut in December 2007, thanks to its extraordinary lopsided, six-story building designed by Japanese duo Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa from acclaimed architectural firm SANAA. The space’s boxy interior may appear less awe-inspiring than the exterior’s sophisticated riff on a child’s set of unbalanced building blocks, but the upside is that it won’t detract from the raft of temporary shows that will cycle through here every four months. (Expect highly conceptual, head-scratching installations from unheard-of artists, as is the museum’s mission.) Admission: $12 adults, $8 seniors, free for guests 18 and under; free admission Thursdays 7 p.m.-10 p.m. Closed Mon. and Tues.

Address:
235 Bowery
New York, New York
United States

Phone:
(212) 219-1222

Opening Ceremony in SoHo offers a unique, creative approach to the fashion market—a ménage of showrooms, galleries, and retail space based on the interlocking rings of the Olympics. The result is an international shopping experience unlike most others, with established and emerging designers from the featured country of the year (such as Argentina in 2011) as well as one-of-a-kind vintage pieces and the best of open-air markets. American high-fashion clothes and accessories are also sold, making it easy for Open Ceremony shoppers to follow the latest local and international trends.

Address:
35 Howard St.
New York, New York
United States

Phone:
(212) 219-2688

Short for Please Don’t Tell, this East Village bar’s name reflects its speakeasy vibe. The bar is only accessible through the phone booth at the back of Crif Dogs, a St. Marks Place restaurant serving hot dogs. The small, retro-inspired space is dimly lit and has exposed brick walls adorned with an assortment of taxidermied animals. Inside, patrons sip on traditional cocktails, such as the old fashioned, made with bacon-flavored bourbon. The bar offers a small menu, and customers are permitted to order food from the Crif Dogs kitchen.

Address:
113 St. Marks Pl., between Ave. A & 1st Ave.
New York, New York
United States

Phone:
(212) 614-0386

Tony, candlelit, and elevated one story above traffic, this refined SoHo lounge feels like the sort of place where two lovers conducting an illicit affair might rendezvous. Named after an actual British officers’ club in Rangoon, it has an appropriate interior—all dark woods, velvet seats, and Asian accents. The Eastern-influenced snack menu by Gavin Citron changes seasonally and according to the owners’ inspiration, though the namesake cocktail—a tangy mix of London dry gin, orange curaçao, bitters, and lime juice—is always a safe option, as is the heavily alcoholic, aromatic Fitty-Fitty (gin, vermouth, bitters, lemon) or the delicious Old Cuban (rum, champagne, bitters, muddled mint). On each table, there’s a carousel of pipettes filled with bitters, sugar water, and other cocktail “seasonings” so that drinkers can customize their pro bartender’s mix to their own preferred tastes. Expect to pay around $15 a drink.

Address:
77 W. Houston St.
New York, New York
United States

Phone:
(212) 473-7348

At the south end of the High Line, an abandoned 1930’s elevated freight rail track turned 21st-century park, a new Standard Hotel is going up on massive concrete piers, boldly straddling this most extraordinary public space. All along its 11/2-mile path (the first third is scheduled to open by the end of 2008), the High Line has become a magnet for innovative architecture; the Standard will soon be joined by a branch of the Whitney Museum designed by Renzo Piano, and experimental architect Neil Denari’s gravity-defying apartment tower is rising a few blocks north. Between the speckled concrete walkways and benches by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Field Operations, Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf is inserting a somewhat aestheticized version of the urban meadow that had previously grown undisturbed on the tracks, with clusters of flowering perennials, wetland grasses, and occasional wooded patches. “To walk on the High Line,” says Friends of the High Line cofounder Joshua David, “is to experience New York from a vantage point that can’t be touched anywhere else.”

Address:
Entrances on Gansevoort St., 14th St., 16th St., 18th St., and 20th St., along Washington St. and 10th Ave.
New York, New York
United States

Phone:
(212) 206-9922

André Balazs understands that stellar views in New York City have less to do with the height of a building than with its context. The perennial hotelier to the hip—and in this case, hip and budget-conscious—has opened his fourth Standard hotel, on a Meatpacking District site surrounded by low-lying warehouses. The result: practically every room has stunning skyline or Hudson River vistas. Vast swaths of glass work to that end. At full operation later this year, the hotel will have two restaurants and five bars (don’t miss the sunset views from the one on the 18th floor), and the building straddles the High Line, the freight railway that’s being turned into a much-hyped city park.

Address:
848 Washington St.
New York, New York
United States

Phone:
(877) 550-4646