Naughty New York

 This is the skeleton of a post I really need to do some work on, but its a start....

Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York...


Hotels

The Crosby Street Hotel

 UTTERLY FABULOUS!

Food

Breakfast

Its fun to go crazy for at least one breakfast as its such a fabulous experience in New York, top tips include:

• Balthazar (in Soho, slightly over the top French Brasserie style, very sceney, bit like the Wolseley)
• Bubby's (very New York, in Tribeca, featured in Sex and the City)
• or for something a bit different, the small but rather lovely Jack's Wife Freda (owned by an Israeli, with matzoh ball soup on the menu, sweet and unpretentious)

Lunch/Brunch

• If you want the very very best sushi go to Blue Ribbon.  It’s been open for years and is small and underground and of course not that cheap but it really is as good as sushi gets if you want really fabulous quality authentic fish.
• Best hamburger is a fiercely fought title in NYC.  If you're uptown and don’t mind a fast-food set-up for a famously great burger, try Shake Shack (queue in Madison Park for the original and best) or if you want legendary rude service in a pub but with the payoff of another burger-legend go to Corner Bistro in Greenwich Village.
• If you go to Brooklyn, be certain to have lunch at the incredible Frankie's 457 Spuntino.  Its small but amazing.  Incredible reputation and justified.  Cool, great food, cosy, garden out back, we had Sunday brunch there and loved every minute of it.
• If you're in Soho, Kelly and Ping is always reliable for hot steaming asian, can be touristy because of the location but the food is good.  No need to book
• For Delis go to Katz (touristy but still astonishingly authentic) or uptown to 2nd Avenue Deli
• Momofuku Noodle - probably the best noodles in New York, very cool and check out Momofuku Milk Bar for cookies and cake after
• Stanton Social - slightly over-the-top crazy place, hip and big for brunch

Dinner - this is where it gets interesting

• Locanda Verde - Owned by Robert de Niro, in Tribeca and just utterly brilliant in every way.  You need to book and it’s really tough to get a table but go for breakfast, lunch or dinner or maybe all three.  It’s sceney but not pretentious.  We love love love it (and it's famous for its sheep's milk ricotta)
• Little Owl - a very different kind of recommendation.  Not a big sceney place at all but on a quiet and beautiful streetcorner in Greenwich that looks straight out of a movie.  Romantic, small, intimate, great great food, Philip Seymour Hoffman walked in as we were leaving.
• Red Rooster - a complete switch for something entirely different.  Up in Harlem (get a cab) and make sure you hang out at the bar for at least 15 minutes before you eat.  Live music, insane crowd; more gentrified and middle class in the core restaurant but they must have paid the characters who sit at the bar to be there.  You will never have seen anything like it.
• Morandi - in Greenwich, we had a wonderful meal a few years ago.  Awesome Italian food, great atmosphere, lovely lovely place

Cafe's

• For the beautiful people check out Cafe Habana or Cafe Gitane in Soho
• People love Angelique in the Village, but I think it’s a bit touristy and not all that
• Magnolia Bakery
• Abraco, teeny tiny, no seats, East Village, Perry and Marc's favourite for a coffee
• Clinton Street Bakery, cosy and great for brunch 
•  If you're in Tribeca, all the following have been recomended: All Good Things, Grandaisy Bakery, Cafe Clementine 
• In Williamsburg?  Check out the awesome Toby's Estate Coffee - a concept that started in Australia, and now resides in a former meatpacking warehouse.  Fabulous food, people, atmos and of course a roaster with wonderful "cawfeee"

Other places to check out:

• Dylan Prime for steak, or Strip House though the food at the former is allegedly better
• Fatty Crab (crowded, spicy Malasian, noisy, buzzy, use your hands kind of place) 
• Boat Basin Cafe (lousy food but stunning view and after work scene when the weather's good)
• Mary's Fish Camp (great reputation for seafood)
• Pastis (Balthazar’s sister in the ever-hip Meatpacking District).  French Bras food, sceney etc.
• Spice Market (big, glam, Asian food, women wearing sunglasses at night)
• Buddakan and Sushi Samba (see above)
• The Spotted Pig (run by Brits, loved by New Yorkers)
• Freemans (down an alley in the Lower East Side, but quite a scene.  Buzzy, busy...)
• La Esquina (if you like Mexican, go - underground, air of mystery, def used to be part of the scene)
• For upmarket food check out Minetta Tavern, Gramercy Tavern, or the extraordinarily named One If By Land, Two If By Sea

Areas to check out

• Soho obviously though extend around it - North into Noho, East into Nolita and the Lower East Side and up towards the East Village 
• The Village – ever cool, start in Chelsea (Chelsea Market) or the Meatpacking district (walk the highline if the weather is nice) then down through the Village to Soho
• Uptown - I'm much less of a fan.  Often touristy and a bit thrashy especially in the run-up to Christmas
• Go to Brooklyn - it's where it’s really all happening right now.  People rave about Williamsburg but it can be a bit grungy at times (though there are some unbelievable gems).  For more of a yummy mummy/hip crowd who have moved across from Manhattan go to Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens (BOCOCA) and Park Slope.  Go on a Sunday if possible, and if the weather's good take the East River Ferry from Williamsburg down to DUMBO