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.
- Pull Up a Chair
Apothéke on Doyers Street, the Chinatown Speakeasy in a Former Opium Den
9 Doyers Street was a 19th-century opium den and the corner of one of the bloodiest gang turf wars in American history. Today it's a low-lit cocktail room...
- Pull Up a Chair
Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle — The Madeline Murals Are Worth $30 a Drink
The Carlyle Hotel's ground-floor bar has 1947 hand-painted murals by Ludwig Bemelmans, the Madeline children's book author who painted the room in exchange...
- Pull Up a Chair
Please Don't Tell — The East Village Speakeasy You Enter Through a Phone Booth Inside a Hot Dog Joint
A red vintage phone booth sits in the back of a 24-hour Crif Dogs on St. Mark's Place. Pick up the receiver, dial 1, give your name to the hostess on the...
- Nice but Free
Marina Barrage at Sunrise — Singapore's Rooftop Field Where Locals Fly Kites Before Work
A national reservoir built on top of a public utility, with a rooftop the size of a football pitch and a 360-degree view of Marina Bay. Sunrise here is a...
- 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...
