That is a typical midtown “cafe” style deli. There are lots of them, but few are open 24-hours.
Oh no it does not move me.
The food is great and I’ve genuinely found that what it’s famous for (pizza, pastrami, whatever…) is really the best there.
Aside from that, it’s NYC. Ditch the rental car people who will spend half their time in traffic and walk around Brooklyn… sit in a park, take a boat to the Statue of Liberty and just chill or something.
It’s harder to be negative about something than to just let the situation play out.
The food alone is worth a day trip. And you can’t think of a single thing you’d like to see on Broadway? I had the best sushi in my life in NYC. And I ate *Ethiopian *food. I’d never even heard of an Ethiopian restaurant before.
It’s hard to spend time in Manhattan without eating good, inexpensive food.
Ethiopian restaurants are a specialty of the Washington, D.C., area, along with Salvadorean, Vietnamese, and Korean.
Standard advice: Go to Top of the Rock instead. It is (I think?) cheaper, and arguably has a better view (i.e., you can see the Empire State Building from there).
I’ve been to NYC. Once. The puddle on the subway stairs landing isn’t rain. Don’t walk right through it.
There’s a reasonable number in the Chicago area, too. Ethiopian was already faily well known when I went to college here in the mid-90s, but I think it’s in the last year or two that it’s becoming more of a nation-wide trend.
NYC is a filthy, smelly, dangerous place. There are a few decent restaurants, that charge way, way, way too much for the food and snotty service they provide. There’s really no reason why anybody would want to go there, and everybody who lives there knows it, as well as all the people who have visited and insist you go also.
So why do people insist you should go there also? Read about the Duke and the Dauphin in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The explanation is found there.
Again, what exactly is it that I can get there that I can’t get anywhere else? I’ve heard the bagels are better because of the water, but I really don’t think I would notice a difference. Maybe I’ll follow Michael Scott’s advise and try his favorite pizza place and get a slice from Sbarro.
We’ve got a good one here in town… at least according to my friend from Ethiopia.
Honestly… not really. There isn’t anything that I’d feel I was missing out on in life if I didn’t see it live on Broadway. Not really an option though since I’ll only be there for a few hours during the day.
Like.
And before anyone comes back with “Actually, NYC has one of the lowest crime rates”: yeah, it may be a low per capita crime rate, but the population is so incredibly dense that that’s still a ton of crime in a very small geographic area.
Okay, so just be a miserable pill about the whole thing. I’m sure your friends will like you so much more for it.
Maybe you wouldn’t care then, but for me, food just tastes different wherever I go. For me, that’s the funnest part of traveling. I love NYC street food: have yourself a knish, an Italian sausage, some Chinese kebobs. Wander over to Gray’s Papaya or Papaya King for a papaya juice and hot dog (honestly, it’s a bit overrated, but fun to check out.) Stumble into a NYC pizza joint for a slice. I don’t necessarily think NY-style pizza is the best in the world, but it just tastes exactly right in NYC and I’ve never had a pizza quite just like it outside there. Check out a Chinese-Cuban restaurant, a Japanase Izakaya joint, a Hungarian pastry shop, a Jewish deli, etc. Have a taste of Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray (celery) soda. Think of a cuisine, pick a direction, and you’re likely to find it.
It’s just a fascinating place to let go, wander around, and follow your nose. Relax, take in the sights and sounds, and just enjoy the experience. You’re only going to be there for a couple of hours, so if you totally hate it, it will all be over soon enough, anyway. Just don’t go in with an attitude ready to hate it.
Who said I’ll be a miserable pill about it? I actually said up thread that I’ll be a good sport.
I’m just trying to understand what it is about this one city that gets everyone so excited and convinced that the experience of what ever will be so much better there. To me it seems like designer brand items… people are so impressed with the brand that they will pay more for an inferior product (not always, but sometimes) just so they can brag about it and tell others they just don’t get it until you have experienced it.
Maybe I’ll come back enlightened… maybe not.
I’ve spent a lot of time in and around Midtown, the west village, Hell’s Kitchen, NoHo and Chelsea, and it’s no dirtier or smellier than any other city I’ve seen. In fact the streets are cleaner than some neighborhoods in my own town. I’m a card-carrying nervous Nellie and I’ve never felt the least bit unsafe (except crossing streets because people drive like maniacs.)
I’ve eaten in a lot of damn good restaurants (little hole in the wall places, not celebrity chef places) and the prices tend to average out $60-70 for two people, including appetizers and couple drinks each. Same or a wee bit higher than around here. The service is usually ok, occasionally outstanding or sucky, same as everywhere else.
Out of the gazillion people who live/work there, I feel safe assuming some do like it and want to go there. I wouldn’t want to live there but I enjoy spending a day or weekend.
If you don’t like it fair enough, and I’d never force anyone to go who didn’t want to, but it’s not like the 9th circle of hell or something.
Maybe I need to clarify since several seem to be reading this as I already HATE NYC and I’m going to be pissy and ruin everyone’s time while there. This is not at all the case.
We’re flying in for an event that will run Sat-Mon. Due to the pricing, there was a great deal on a flight that arrives at 8am so we have a day to kill. It is rare and far between that I have a day with nothing to do. I was out there last year and drove and remember how nice the area looked… after all, it is the Garden State. My first thought was great, lets find a park/wilderness area or such and spend the day hiking. The others in my group assumed the exact opposite and seemed to be totally shocked and awed that going into the city wasn’t my assumption as well. These same people are extending their stay for a couple of extra days at the end to stay in the city as well, so it isn’t like they won’t ever see it again.
I’ll have fun seeing some of the architecture etc. but if I had my “drothers” I’d rather look at nature. I just don’t get why so many people seem to think that it is just the coolest thing in the world, since it goes totally against most of the things I enjoy the most.
I’ve already been told that we’ll hit a good deli… I always love new food experiences. Again though so many people just assume it must be so much better since it is in NYC.
New York is a world center for finance, trade, fashion, media, entertainment, and numerous other industries. Its commerce and culture has attracted 19 million people from around the world. Whatever’s good in the world is available somewhere in New York. It has the premiere venues for live musical theater. It has good quality food (and not necessarily expensive either) every way you turn. Every next face you see on the street is from a different place who has arrived for different reasons. It has some of the world’s best educational and research institutions. It has some of the world’s best museums. It is home to some of the world’s most vibrant artist communities. It has some of the most storied athletic clubs. Its history is a key to America’s commercial and political power.
I mean, what else does a place need for people to be excited to see it?
And do you even need that much? If I’m in an airport in any major city I’ve never seen before, I’d have some degree of enthusiasm to see it, just to see what it looks like, what kind of environment people live in, how they walk the streets. Different people do different things, and in a big city, there is a tremendous diversity of how people are doing things. And New York, given its commercial and cultural importance over a couple of centuries has a lot more of that diversity than most places.
So, you don’t care to ever see a live show? Bah, it’s just singing and dancing.
You don’t care about looking at paintings in a museum? Bah, it’s just grease on a bedsheet.
You don’t think that any place can possibly offer something new or interesting in terms of food? Bah, bagels are bagels wherever you go.
You don’t think you’d enjoy the simple pleasure of spending some time with friends in a beautiful little park like Washington Square while watching street performers?
You’re so jaded and world-weary?
Nah, you’re not going to come back enlightened. Not when you stride into town daring it not to bore you to death.
The moment you have that one cup of coffee, that one hot dog, or that one bagel that’s nothing special, you’ll declare the entirety of New York a big sham. And god help New York if it rains.
I was in New York for two days in April. I saw a fantastic art show, the Affordable Air Fair, I went to two fantastic book stores (theStrand andSt. Mark’s. I went to anart supply store that has rare papers from around the world. I had a nice bagel and lox. I had a nice Indian vegetarian meal. I had a fantastic cup of coffee and a cookie. I had a Japanese breakfast for $10, a selection of foods most of which I had never seen before.
None of these things were things I had ever heard of on TV, except the bagel I suppose, so I don’t know how I was being blinded by hype.
With your attitude I’d guess you are a native New Yorker :rolleyes:
I’ve been to many live shows… I’ve enjoyed most of them, but I can see them anywhere.
I’ve been to many museums and enjoy looking at paintings for some time but it isn’t my cup of tea. I can watch soccer for hours on end which I fully understand would bore some people to death. Again, there are museums with paintings outside of NYC.
I do enjoy new food experiences. I just don’t get the attitude of “you’ve never tasted real corned beef until you have had it in NYC”. A food critic from the New York times once ranked a place about a mile from me as the best corned beef sandwich in the country. I’m sure I’ll enjoy the food while I’m there.
I’m positive I’ll enjoy the time I spend with my friends… I would also have enjoyed spending time with them elsewhere without the hustle and bustle of the city. If this seems to make them happy though I’ll probably enjoy it more.
Jaded and world weary… read into things much. I don’t care for cities… shoot me.
This would bore the heck out of me. Different strokes you know.
I’ve worked in London for the past 14 years (and lived there for much of that time) and even to a city jaded person like me, NYC has something indefinably exciting. It’s just interesting to be there, even if you’re not actually “doing” anything. Doing nothing in New York is a billion times more exciting than doing nothing in Buttplug, Indiana.