BEST NYC FOOD TREND THAT WAS TOTALLY RUINED BY COPYCAT RESTAURATEURS AND FOLKS LIKE US WRITING ABOUT IT WAY TOO MUCH: Banh Mi

BEST PLACE TO CATCH A SHOW WHILE ALSO BOWLING AND EATING KITCHIFIED BAR FOOD FROM BLUE RIBBON: Brooklyn Bowl

BEST HIGH-END SAUSAGE DEALER CAPITALIZING ON A BYGONE DOWNTOWN PUNK INSTITUTION: DBGBs

BEST PLACE TO ENJOY TINY ARTISANAL COCKTAILS WHICH MAY OR MAY NOT TASTE LIKE SMOKED MEAT: Mayahuel

BEST NEW COFFEE SHOP SERVING TRENDY BADGE OF COFFEE CREDIBILITY, STUMPTOWN: Café Pedlar

BEST NEW COFFEE SHOP NOT SERVING TRENDY BADGE OF COFFEE CREDIBILITY, STUMPTOWN: Café Grumpy

BEST KEG SERVICE: Superdive

BEST PLACE TO FEEL LIKE A TOTAL CREEP: Second Floor Bar at the Cooper Square Hotel

BEST OLD-SCHOOL-IS-NEW-SCHOOL TREND: Bitters

BEST REASON TO BE EVEN SURLIER ON MONDAY MORNING: “Sunday Funday” at Peggy O’Neill’s

BEST PLACE FOR YOUR MAD MEN-THEMED BIRTHDAY PARTY: Grand Central Oyster Bar

BEST CLASSIC DIVE BAR WITH FREE HOT DOGS IN DANGER OF SHUTTING DOWN: Rudy’s

BEST LATE-NIGHT NORTHERN ITALIAN: Atlas Café

WORST THING TO EVER HAPPEN TO THE STAFF OF THE L MAGAZINE: 120 Days of Nothing

BEST PLACE TO GET BRUNCH AT NIGHT WITHOUT HAVING TO GO TO A DINER WHERE ONLY UGLY PEOPLE HANG OUT: Permanent Brunch

BEST (OK, PROBABLY WORST) DRINK ONLY NEW YORKERS HAVE ACCESS TO: Carbonated Milk

BEST TORTILLERIA: Nixtamal

politics media music art letters theater film people & places

BEST NEW AUTHENTIC TACO SPOT RUN BY WHITE GUYS: Calexico, 122 Union St.
Finally some decent Mexican food in the Carroll Gardens-Red Hook corridor. Ask for extra “Crack Sauce” — it’s probably just chili-spiked Thousand Island dressing, but we’re fine with that.

BEST OF NYC HOME

BEST NYC FOOD TREND THAT WAS TOTALLY RUINED BY COPYCAT RESTAURATEURS AND FOLKS LIKE US WRITING ABOUT IT WAY TOO MUCH: Banh Mi
Really too bad, cuz these are the best sandwiches to come along since grilled cheeses got renamed panini.

click to enlarge

BEST OF NYC HOME

BEST PLACE TO CATCH A SHOW WHILE ALSO BOWLING AND EATING KITCHIFIED BAR FOOD FROM BLUE RIBBON: Brooklyn Bowl, 61 Wythe Ave.
North Brooklyn gets 16 more much-needed bowling lanes, which hopefully means no more waiting at the Gutter or driving to that place in Sunset Park. Instead we’ll have to wait at Brooklyn Bowl, and then drive to that place in Sunset Park.

BEST OF NYC HOME

BEST HIGH-END SAUSAGE DEALER CAPITALIZING ON A BYGONE DOWNTOWN PUNK INSTITUTION: DBGBs, 299 Bowery
Big name Frenchy chef Daniel Boulud heads to a land where his usual UES devotees seldom venture: the Bowery. Burgers and bangers reign and it’s definitely the Ramones of fine-dining.

BEST OF NYC HOME

BEST PLACE TO ENJOY TINY ARTISANAL COCKTAILS WHICH MAY OR MAY NOT TASTE LIKE SMOKED MEAT: Mayahuel, 304 E 6th St.
Now that good bourbon and gin flow like Smirnoff, the cocktailian crew at Death and Co turns its attention to Mexico. Sip from over 70 tequilas and its smoky — at times bacon-y — cousin, mezcal.

click to enlarge

BEST OF NYC HOME

BEST NEW COFFEE SHOP SERVING TRENDY BADGE OF COFFEE CREDIBILITY, STUMPTOWN: Café Pedlar, 210 Court St.
This joint effort by the Frankies folk and Portland’s coffee darling might serve New York’s finest cup — when the ragged staff isn’t hungover. Also, the crowd will remind you how many young Brooklynites don’t seem to have jobs.

BEST OF NYC HOME

BEST NEW COFFEE SHOP NOT SERVING TRENDY BADGE OF COFFEE CREDIBILITY, STUMPTOWN: Café Grumpy
With a brand new location is Park Slope, Grumpy was brewing with an $11,000 Clover machine well before Starbucks threw a fit, bought the company that makes the intricate appliance and barred all other coffee shops from purchasing them. Starbucks coffee still mostly sucks, but thankfully Grumpy continues to expand and maybe one day they will become the next Starbucks, buying any future coffee-related inventions and keeping them from the measly hands of small-time independent coffee shops.

BEST OF NYC HOME

BEST KEG SERVICE: Superdive, 200 Ave A
A genial bar staff, a relaxed-and-happy atmosphere, and an institutional commitment to getting you shitfaced for cheap make this Alphabet City spot a mecca for anyone looking to have a sloppy good time. Plus they’ll wheel a kegerator over to your table and tap a barrel for you and your 40 closest friends — a major new frontier in New York nightlife.

BEST OF NYC HOME

BEST PLACE TO FEEL LIKE A TOTAL CREEP: Second Floor Bar at the Cooper Square Hotel, 25 Cooper Sq.
The sleek Second Floor Bar at the Cooper Square Hotel offers patrons a cool atmosphere in which to enjoy delicious cocktails and unparalleled views of the insides of the apartments next door. Disgruntled East Village neighbors have protested by stringing up clothes lines full of giant drawers from their windows, but it hasn’t stopped bar-goers from getting all Jimmy-Stewart-in-Rear Window.

BEST OF NYC HOME

BEST OLD-SCHOOL-IS-NEW-SCHOOL TREND: Bitters
Bitters are back and they are big. Sazeracs and Pisco Sours are flooding menus, old bottles of Carpano Antica are emerging from dusty back shelves, and mixologists like Adam Robinson at Momofuku Ssam are brewing small batches of bitters at home. Bitters infuse heady brown cocktails with complex layers of flavor and scent — the reign of the Cosmo has officially ended.

BEST OF NYC HOME

BEST REASON TO BE EVEN SURLIER ON MONDAY MORNING: “Sunday Funday” at Peggy O’Neill’s, 1904 Surf Ave.
So the 4pm Cyclones game is over and it’s time to ride the train back — but note that the provisional-seeming bar underneath Keyspan Park has the Sunday Night Game of the Week playing — and what’s this? Plastic cups of domestic beers for a dollar apiece from 6-11pm on Sundays? Time to stretch this weekend to the breaking point. (Be sure to remind the bartender that yes, Brooklyn Lager is “domestic.”)

BEST OF NYC HOME

BEST PLACE FOR YOUR MAD MEN-THEMED BIRTHDAY PARTY: Grand Central Oyster Bar, 89 E 42nd St.
Ideally, before hanging up your fedora for shellfish and cocktails, you could arrange for a home-cooked meal in Westchester, then keep saying “I’ll catch the next train” as you order another round of Old Fashioneds, before finally stumbling back into your pitch-dark dining room and a poofy-dressed, stone-faced housewife smoking over two plates of cold steak.

click to enlarge

BEST OF NYC HOME

BEST CLASSIC DIVE BAR WITH FREE HOT DOGS IN DANGER OF SHUTTING DOWN: Rudy’s, 627 Ninth Ave.
Oh no! Because of some asinine Department of Building red tape, Hell’s Kitchen institution Rudy’s (which has been around since the 30s) has had to keep their garden closed over the summer, and they’re coming dangerously close to financial insolvency because of it. If you are concerned (and you should be, damn it), go to livingliberally.org/rudys to sign a petition to sort this shit out.

BEST OF NYC HOME

BEST LATE-NIGHT NORTHERN ITALIAN: Atlas Café
Williamsburg’s Atlas Café (116 Havemeyer St.) has always been a great place to spend hours drinking very good coffee while finishing the last chapter of your third novel. But the night would come and you’d want an amazing slow-food experience for little to no money prepared for you by an Alain Ducasse-trained chef, and you’d ask yourself, “Shit, what should I do?” Well, now you can stay and enjoy the incredible work of Chef Andrea Milazzo, who is our new favorite magician of the fava bean. (Seriously, the best $9 plate of pasta in the city, bar none.)

BEST OF NYC HOME

WORST THING TO EVER HAPPEN TO THE STAFF OF THE L MAGAZINE: 120 Days of Nothing
For a thousand years, some beautiful if somewhat rundown sidewalk seating made the people of DUMBO as happy as any other group on Earth. For there, at the place called Pedro’s (73 Jay St), they would drink margaritas from plastic glasses and peel the Presidente labels from their sweating bottles, and yea it was good. And then a darkness swept over the land, and the city forbade this patio for 120 days (oh terrible number of Sodom), and it was as if the city had struck down the very essence of Summer in one cruel sword blow. And yea, it still blows.

click to enlarge

BEST OF NYC HOME

BEST PLACE TO GET BRUNCH AT NIGHT WITHOUT HAVING TO GO TO A DINER WHERE ONLY UGLY PEOPLE HANG OUT: Permanent Brunch, 95 First Ave.
It’s always a bummer when you wake up hungover at 5pm only to realize that — GASP! — restaurants stopped serving brunch two hours ago. Enter Permanent Brunch, your new best friend in the East Village. With five types of Bloody Marys and an artisanal bacon bar, you may have to dispense with dinner altogether.

BEST OF NYC HOME

BEST (OK, PROBABLY WORST) DRINK ONLY NEW YORKERS HAVE ACCESS TO: Carbonated Milk
Maybe you thought you’d never live to see the day when companies would start selling carbonated milk, having exhausted all other still beverage resources. Well, you thought wrong. New York is lucky enough to be the first testing ground for Coca-Cola’s unprecedented revolutionarily evil new product, Vio. The effervescent, sweetened milk and fruit drink may not have many uses, but it’ll sure make for an interesting White Russian.

BEST OF NYC HOME

BEST TORTILLERIA: Nixtamal
This tiny restaurant in Queens is the Krispy Kreme of tortillerias. It’s the only place in New York where you can eat tortillas and tamales made from masa, a dough that uses fresh corn instead of dried harina. While you munch on your tortillas, watch hundreds more get flattened into round, delicious discs on a conveyor belt in the restaurant’s front window.

BEST OF NYC HOME