We noticed a few things this week.
A few theaters, some roasteries, that cute florist you didn’t know existed, and more cozy spots from the cities we live in.
- Nice but Free
Belvedere Castle at Sunrise — Central Park's Highest Point Before the City Gets Loud
The Victorian-Gothic mini-castle perched on Vista Rock has been Central Park's official high point since 1869. At sunrise the tower has more birdwatchers...
- Nice but Free
Domino Park at Dawn — Williamsburg's Sugar-Refinery Skyline View When the Joggers Have It Alone
The waterfront park built on the bones of the Domino Sugar Refinery is quiet at 5:30 a.m. in a way it never is at noon. The Manhattan skyline across the...
- Nice but Free
Top of the Rock at Sunrise — The Empire State Window That Costs Less and Has No Crowd
Rockefeller Center's 70th-floor observation deck opens at 6:30 a.m. in summer, an hour before most of New York commits to its day. The line is under ten...
- The Odd Edit
God's Own Junkyard, the Walthamstow Warehouse Where Soho's Old Neon Signs Go to Glow
A converted industrial warehouse in East London holds the late Chris Bracey's life work — hundreds of vintage neon signs from Soho strip clubs, Hollywood...
- The Odd Edit
Obscura Antiques on East 10th Street, the Curiosity Cabinet That Birthed a Discovery Channel Show
The East Village storefront that turned mourning jewelry, medical tools, and Victorian taxidermy into prime-time television. Obscura ran for three seasons...
- The Odd Edit
Inside Evolution Store, the SoHo Shop That Sells Real Skeletons, Fossils, and Insects in Glass
Lower Broadway has a storefront, opened in 1993, where you can buy a real human skeleton, a 200-million-year-old fossil, or a butterfly mounted under museum...
- The Odd Edit
The Mossman Lock Collection — A 370-Lock Museum Hidden Inside a Manhattan Tradesmen's Library
West 44th Street has a 1820 reading room called the General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen, and on its second floor sits one of the world's largest...
- The Long Way Home
Botanic Gardens to Dempsey Hill — A Sunday Morning Walk Singaporeans Take for the Coffee, Not the Trees
Singapore's only UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 2015) at the north end. The colonial-barracks-turned-restaurant district at the south. Two and a half…
- The Long Way Home
Greenpoint Ferry to the Williamsburg Bridge — A Brooklyn Waterfront Walk That Ends in Manhattan
Catch the East River Ferry to India Street. Walk south through Greenpoint and Williamsburg's industrial waterfront. Cross the 1903 Williamsburg Bridge on…
- The Long Way Home
City Hall to South Street Seaport — A Mile and a Half Through Three Centuries
Walk from City Hall down Park Row, cut through Stone Street (the first cobbled street in New Amsterdam, 1658), pass the 1719 Fraunces Tavern, end at the…
