Excellent non-touristy things to do in NYC next month?

[TheAlcott]

DH and I are off to NYC next month and meeting our 22-year-old DS there. We'll be there for 6 nights and already have tickets for an off-Broadway play and a late-night talk show taping.

We've all been to New York a couple of times before so have done a lot of the obvious tourist stuff. This time around (especially with DS being that bit older) we'd like ideas for different things to do, and ideally also some great restaurants or bars to hang out in. Local, neighbourhood recommendations or activities rather than tourist traps. We are all into music, food, art, and I will tolerate sport in small doses!

We're staying on the UWS but happy to travel and explore. Any suggestions very welcome.

Some of my favourite things to do are:

• the Mafia walking and dining tour in Little Italy - the guide is excellent and has so many first hand anecdotes as he grew up in the area and remembers some of the key players from when he was a child
• Harlem gospel choir (in a church in Harlem on Saturday mornings)
• Russian tea rooms for cocktails
• Tea in Grand Central station
• a sports game of some description even if you aren’t a fan there is so much more to see and do there with off pitch entertainment and concession stands
• Greenwich village is worth a mooch followed by dim sum in Chinatown
• no trip complete without Bloomingdales (that might just be me!)

See if your dates overlap with John Oliver and Seth Meyers doing one of their gigs at the Beacon Theatre (on the UWS at Broadway and 75th)

Have a cocktail at Bemelmans Bar
https://www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/the-carlyle-new-york/dining/bemelmans-bar

Pizza at John's Pizza on Bleeker and West 4th

I love going to urban hawker

www.urbanhawker.com

We’ve visited New York with older teenagers and had a great time on food tours of Chelsea Market and the lower east side. It’s a fantastic way to get to know an unfamiliar part of the city. Tenement Museum is also excellent, but book ahead.

Can also highly recommend an adventure tour on the New York Media Boat and a show at the Comedy Cellar - again, you’d need to book ahead.

Hope you have an amazing trip!

SO there's loads of things to do in Manhattan, as you know I'm sure, but I can tell you some absolute pillars of the UWS that are not that touristy, because I go exactly there several times a year.

Edgars is a neighbourhood standard for lunch; you could be in any movie from 1989; Carrie Fisher should by rights be sitting on the next table. Or there's Carmine's for dinner, which is a hallowed institution, a classic NYC-Italian restaurant. You have to go to Zabars, obv, and get their rugelach and coffee. The tat market at the weekend is good, the Grand Bazaar they call it, and, maybe this is touristy a bit but I love the phil at Lincoln Centre. The acoustics are INCREDIBLE. Over the park, east side, I like the little cafe in the Neue Galerie and then the Klimt room -- it's a small art gallery just with a couple of rooms and mostly it's Klimt. The cafe is sort of prewar Austrian, all wood panelling and smoked sausage. There are loads of massive, amazing museums and galleries all round there but maybe it's good to know about that little one.

This is the local paper: https://www.westsiderag.com/

Oh if you do go over the east side to that gallery, you can keep walking east to the ferry terminal and catch the river bus all the way down to Wall Street. It's the same as the boat tours but it's just a couple of bucks as it's public transport. At the other stop you can go have a drink in the pub they planned the revolution in. It's called Fraunces Tavern.

I assume you've been to The Tenement Museum? If not it's fab.

Arturios for pizza- recommended by a local and it really was amazing.

Some great suggestions, thank you! I'm very excited - last time we went ds was a younger teen and didn't really appreciate a) all the walking and b) doing the more 'cultural' stuff but I think this time we'll all be up for something a bit off the beaten track.

Oh I love Klimt, that's a great shout!

Go to Brooklyn.

Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and nose around Brooklyn Heights. Williamsburg is super trendy. Greenpoint is trendy but still up and coming.

Amazing pizza at Roberta's in Flatbush

Brunch at Chez Ma Tante in Brooklyn. You will never have a better stack of pancakes anywhere, ever.
https://files.cargocollective.com/c1840156/Brunch-08.24.25-.pdf

Comedy Cellar is great.

As someone born and raised in NYC, I agree with @Lundier about Lincoln Center and @Bulbsbulbsbulbs re the Tenement Museum. But (sorry @Lundier) Carmine's is an abomination. If you want old school Italian, go to the real deal and trudge up to Rao's.

Skating at Wollman Rink is touristy but fun.

Walk down the High Line (it will be crowded and touristy) to the Whitney.

Wander from Tribeca back to the Upper West Side

@user2255679541 Rao's isn't on the UWS 😂. I was specific in my location! If she wants Italian food she can just go to Italy. It's much closer!

Tribeca is amazing.

Just back from Christmas in NYC with my kids , loved the high line , sunrise walk on Brooklyn bridge , radio city music hall rockettes was a surprise hit with them all a . Tenement museum , we saw a film at MOMA, we all loved the Met
we did a self guided tour of central park - movies and tv show location and hot chocolate in the boathouse . Carmines was not good , if you hav the budget locanda verde in TriBeCa was the best meal we had . Also had hot dogs and dollars slice of pizza - get your FD to research whew is cool - we found some gems on Tik Tok -
half pint pub near Washington square has a great happy hour with $6 cocktails and beer and we also ate there

The New York City Fire Museum was lovely - quite small, but a very enthusiastic staff member had a lot of fun dressing me and my DH in full fire fighter uniform, and getting us to post with the hose pipe!

Also the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace was very interesting - a brownstone restored to its former glory.

Both are tourist attractions of course, but much quieter than the main sites, and very enjoyable.

I highly recommend looking up exhibitions in the NY Public Library - you might find something that interests you.

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