Favorite Places | Lower East Side
When I moved to New York’s Lower East Side in the winter of 2000, the gentrification process was just underway. Hip new restaurants and bars were popping up on a daily basis, but the area retained a reputation for grittiness and danger - even if that was mostly perceptual leftover from a time when Tompkins Square Park was heroin central. The reality is that, even then, the area was mostly safe and a burgeoning nightlife center - home to some of Manhattan’s best live music joints, divey lounges and intimate restaurants (particularly of the Italian variety).
By the time I left in 2009, the Lower East Side and Alphabet City had become among the city’s primary local destinations. It proved the hipster nightlife alternative to the Meat Packing District’s adult Disneyland. The boutique shops that once had made SoHo a draw had relocated there, and many of the city’s finest chefs had opened cutting-edge restaurants - particularly on Clinton Street and Avenue C - to rival anything in Midtown, Chelsea, or the West Village.
But for me, what makes the Lower East Side stand out is that even as its rough exterior has been covered over with a more glossy sheen, it retains a noticeably neighborhood vibe. The restaurants are small and welcoming. The bars and clubs are similarly cozy and more focused on cultivating conversation and showcasing live music than they are on dance beats and sweat. That isn’t to say that the area isn’t without its pretensions - velvet ropes are more common and places like the Hotel on Rivington feel out of place. But unlike the Meat Packing District, which seems manufactured to provide a “New York” entertainment experience, the Lower East Side still feels like the actual New York.
I love the Lower East Side and miss it dearly. It is and will always be one of my Favorite Places.
4 Notes/ Hide
-
miscpic liked this
-
ysvoice reblogged this from thewanderingchicken
-
ysvoice liked this
-
raptoravatar liked this
-
thewanderingchicken posted this
