Visiting New York City, tell me about the good shops!

cdneger

This year, our summer holiday brings us to the good old US of A and we will be staying in Manhattan for the first two weeks of August! Of course a visit to Broadway is on the agenda as well as all the tourist traps.

I would like to take full advantage of the strong Euro / weak Dollar situation and stock up on some cheap CD's, DVD's, games and maybe comics (looking for about 100 backissues of Spawn, or the same in a few TPB's). So, I would like to know what the best places to shop-for-less are!
Also I would appreciate it greatly if you could point me in the direction of cheap-but-good restaurants, keeping in mind that one of us is a vegetarian who does eat seafood.
Lastly, I am hoping there are some jazz-lovers around here who could tell me about some places that offer live jazz music.

You have about a week to come up with as much as you can!

Deebaser

pre-welcome to our fair city.

There's a great comic book shop a few blocks south of Union Square (on broadway, i believe) I think it's 11th and broadway. CDs and DVDs are probably cheaper used on amazon.

As for restaurants:
Verlaine is a must do. It's on Rivington between Essix and Ludlow. They have a happy hour all day until 10PM featuring $3 Yeunglings and $5 Lychee martinis/Sangria/simple cocktails. The menu is asian tapas and they have delicious coconut sticky rice. all are reasonably priced and city cheap.
Pro-tip:

Chocolate by the bald man is another favorite. It's on 12th and broadway (by the comic book shop in union square) They've got fondue and shit.

Also do yourself a favor and grab a round at 230 Fifth. It's expensive as fuck, but it's a 50th story rooftop bar with a panaramic view of Manhattan. In the long run, it's cheaper than the Empire State Building or Rockafeller Center, and you get a drink out of it. Slacks and a Polo/button down will get you in on a weekday and there is no cover.

Finally, consider a helicopter ride. It's a bit pricey (approx $160 per person), but holy shit it's worth it.

Let me know if you have any other questions, Im local. =D

Reckless

Walk the Brooklyn Bridge. You don't have to do it both ways, I recommend taking the subway into Brooklyn, grabbing a slice of pizza, then walking the bridge back to Manhattan. Excellent view and experience.

I don't know if you're into indie music but M.Ward is playing a free show on the 1st at Central Park.

Hit some museums while you're in town. My favorites include the Intrepid, the Met, and the Rose Planetarium. The U.N. headquarters on FDR Drive also does pretty excellent guided tours that clock in under an hour.

Reckless

Oh and for good seafood, South Street Seaport is a must.

cdneger

Thanks guys, I'm defininitely going to be checking out some of the things you suggested. Walking the Brooklyn Bridge was already on the agenda but it's good to have a local suggest it as well. Is there anything particularly interesting to see or do while in Brooklyn?

JaysonFour

On video games:

Make sure any you buy are region-compatible. Pretty sure that European consoles won't play American games.

There is a place called "Nintendo World" in New York. They have a lot of nice little souvenier things *hoists his Link coffee mug*, but most of the shirts are for younger gamers.

Stop at the major studios- hit Rockefeller Center and try to get on TV with some kind of sign on one of the early morning shows on CBS, NBC, or ABC.

Had lots of fun at the Hershey store- lots of colors of M&M's you never thought existed.

Hit up the Museum of Modern Art and take in the culture.

Take a ferry out to the Statue of Liberty, go poke around there.

Zacharde

JaysonFour wrote: »

There is a place called "Nintendo World" in New York. They have a lot of nice little souvenir things *hoists his Link coffee mug*, but most of the shirts are for younger gamers.

Yep, that one is just around the corner from the Rockefeller Center, so odds are good you will be in the area. The view from the top of the Rockefeller is MUCH better than the view from the Empire State, in my opinion.

JaysonFour wrote: »

Hit up the Museum of Modern Art and take in the culture.

One thousand times yes - I love MOMA. Lots of stuff in that place just makes me happy. For example, I present the worlds worst handbag for flying.

And since you asked about shops, there is some fantastic stuff in the museum shop. You may also enjoy the Guggenheim. If you are into modern art, it's brilliant. If you aren't, it's fun to mock. I have a healthy sense of my own pretentiousness, so I frequently do both. For example, I present the sound of ice melting.

You want to see Times Square at night, and especially just after rain. I don't know about your interests, but I spent entirely too much money at the Toys R Us in that area too - mostly on Nerf weapons.

cdneger

Ah, but I have in fact seen Times Square at night! This is actually my second visit to NYC, the first one was around new year's eve a number of years ago. That was one hell of a crowd; I had to use binoculars to see the ball. Fun times.

Sadly we didn't have time back then to fully explore everything the city has to offer so we're making up for that this time. We did see the Police Museum or whatever it's called, I remember it was somewhere close to water.

On region protected gaming; I am mostly looking for PS2 RPGs that haven't been released in Europe, and my PS2 is regionfree. Also it seems that many Xbox360 (and PS3?) games are in fact region free or region compatible, so that should be ok.

Art, music, film, yes. Anything goes basically.

Reckless

I've been living in or near the city my entire 20 years, and I still haven't explored everything the area has to offer, so don't worry about missing anything - just take in what you can while you're here.

Another suggestion is to take a full day and bum around the Village. There's all sorts of record shops, bookstores, etc for the finding there. Washington Square Park is also really nice to hang around in, lots of NYU students hang around there and if you play chess, you can find a game no problem. Last time I played there I got my ass completely handed to me by a gentleman who has probably seen more in his 80 years than I could ever possibly imagine.

Chases Street Demons

www.jr.com

Park Row, downtown, about a 5 min walk from the Brooklyn Bridge entrance. It's not a "boutique" type store, but they do have very good prices for the DVD type stuff you're looking for. I wouldn't buy any electronics from them though, they have a miserable return policy.

Good store if you can take the time to search for deals, but Caveat Emptor for anything more than 40$.

Improvolone

Neutral Grounds is a huuuuge nerd store.

LoveIsUnity

I also want to say, on the veg*n food front, you can get some awesome food from Red Bamboo and their partner Restaurant VP2. Red Bamboo is located at 140 West 4th Street, which is right across the street from the West 4th stop on the blue line (A, C, and E local trains). It's also a couple of blocks from Washington Square Park, which is finally open again.

There is also a good veg*n restaurant in Chinatown, but the name eludes me at the moment. I will look it up tomorrow.

Midtown comics has a lot of back issues, and you can search their back issues online: http://www.midtowncomics.com/

Lawndart

Improvolone wrote: »

Neutral Grounds is a huuuuge nerd store.

Was. It closed down at the end of 2008.

For the comic nerd 2-for-1 shopping trip, head down to Union Square (14th & Broadway) and stroll 2 blocks south to 12th and Broadway to first check out Strand Books.

If you like books without pictures you'll have a field day, but if you're only looking for comics, head up to the 2nd floor to check out their disorganized but cheap graphic novel section.

Once you've loaded up at the Strand, walk one block north to Forbidden Planet. The reason to stop their second is that they have a much larger selection than the Strand, but don't discount as heavily.

If you're in that neighborhood on a Saturday, you can also check out the huge-ass farmer's market that takes place in Union Square as well.

Deebaser

Lawndart wrote: »

If you're in that neighborhood on a Saturday, you can also check out the huge-ass farmer's market that takes place in Union Square as well.

The farmer's market is also there Monday / Wednesday / Friday and yes, it is awesome.

EggyToast

There's a bunch of good jazz clubs in the city; last time I was in NYC, I went to Smoke, which is up closer to Columbia. But the prices were more reasonable and the show was high quality, as it was a small club with seating and the acoustics were fantastic (not too loud, not too quiet).

cdneger

Okay, I'm back and I had a great time. Buy good lord was it hot on some days... So, what did we do... We stayed at the hotel On the Ave, on w77th and Broadway. This I can recommed to anyone, it's a great place. As for eating, we tried the Manhattan Diner, which was meh, we tried the restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel itself, which was 'would not eat again' and we tried Fatty Crab, which was rather nice. Then on day four we noticed a rather shady looking burger joint right across the avenue called Big Nick's. We tried it that night and never looked back. We ate there for the rest of our trip, both breakfast and dinner. They have a 25 page menu. You could literally eat there for a month and not eat the same thing twice. And good lord, the food is so good there... They have everything from burgers to pizza to vegetarian and vegan, seafood, breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner... Everything. Go there. Now.

We visited five Boradway shows, took in a few movies and walked and walked and then walked some more. I think there was a day I walked over 100 blocks in total. God what a place.

Bought myself ten PS2 RPGs, some cheap used cd's, a few books (among which a good portion of the Spawn stuff I wanted)... Oh yes and clothes, since the airline decided it would be a great idea to send my suitcase to Minneapolis. Thanks Delta.

If any of you work at Gamestop, I visited quite a few of those. The Southstreet Seaport one, one on Fulton Street in Brooklyn, a few random ones in Manhattan, one of which was right around 115 street if I remember correctly... So if any of you saw a rather tall European guy with black-rimmed glasses buying used PS2 RPGs, hiya!

So yes, we had a great time. And we'll be coming back.

cooljammer00

Are those games gonna work back home?

cdneger

cooljammer00 wrote: »

Are those games gonna work back home?

Ve haf vays of making shit work. :winky:

Shazkar Shadowstorm

alas, i do say you miss out when going to nyc and not trying various ethnic cuisines which are in abundance and are of all different kinds

so when you come back, go wild with that stuff

go get dim sum in chinatown or 1 dollar for 5 dumplings or some good halal food from the 53rd and 6th street cart or indian food from murray hill or some dominican food from somewhere uptown (i highly doubt you get dominican back home) or even mexican though nyc is not that great for mexican compared to texas/socal etc there are some good places, and all kinds of random stuff

fooooooooood

Durandal Infinity

Dim sum in Chinatown or flushing is quite well, Also for fantastic Chinese food consider Joe's Shanghai on Mott st, or in flushing. Best shanghainese soup dumplings ever. If you wanna go buck wild also Keens steakhouse, or Peter Lugers

Shazkar Shadowstorm

mmm soup dumplings, they are quite good indeed

also theres this one thai place i went to in queens, near woodside i think. fantastic

worth the time it takes to get out there if you have the time to kill

well, glad your trip was good anyway

Durandal Infinity

Also stay under 110th street and out of northern brooklyn.

Shazkar Shadowstorm

man i stayed on 109th this summer
and i go to school at columbia which goes from 114-120

and i go to 125th plenty

that shits all been gentrified mostly these days anywho

cooljammer00

Hey, I live here. Why have we all not hung out?

Is it because I smell?

Deebaser

Shazkar Shadowstorm wrote: »

man i stayed on 109th this summer
and i go to school at columbia which goes from 114-120

and i go to 125th plenty

that shits all been gentrified mostly these days anywho

Blasphemy. 92nd street is the end of the world. mmmmmmm....pitchers at Big Sleazys on 2nd....

Durandal Infinity

some parts of harlem are gentrified most is not. same with brooklyn, and the bronx

http://projects.nytimes.com/crime/homicides/map

gentrified my ass

Shazkar Shadowstorm

most are not, that is true

i dont go east
or above 130

and when i had to help my friends stuff to his grandfathers place in SoBro, we made sure we left before dark

but anyway nyc is overall one of the safer big cities

anyway why am i still posting in this thread

Shazkar Shadowstorm

but thats a nifty map

cooljammer00

They need to kill less people here in Brooklyn. Or at least keep it in Canarsie.