Neighborhood Guide | Downtown New York Culture Guide

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One of New York City’s oldest neighborhoods, and standing for “Triangle Below Canal Street,” TriBeCa is all cobblestone streets and converted warehouses spliced among stratospheric modern architecture. Local restaurants tend toward upscale, though cozy neighborhood eateries still abound.

New York’s nexus of coveted fashion flagships and upscale boutiques, SoHo (South of Houston Street) is also a wonderland of lofts and cast-iron architecture where sleek hotels, bars, and restaurants cater to the global elite.

Deriving from “North of Little Italy,” this brick and cast-iron bedecked neighborhood is small but big-hearted. Offering a myriad of places to grab a craft coffee, cupcake or pair of boots by a cool-kid label you wouldn’t find anywhere else, Nolita has that independent, locals-only spirit in spades.

Known for its picturesque brownstones and leafy, cobblestone streets, the West Village has historically been home to many literary and artistic legends. Tiny and intimate West Village restaurants with jewel box-like details sit well alongside decades-old dive bars and an iconic cigar shop.

The center of the folk music scene in the ’60s, Greenwich Village still feels as authentic and gritty as a Bob Dylan song (the Nobel-winning bard is a former resident). Come for a picturesque stroll through the brownstone-lined streets, and stay for the underground jazz clubs and neighborhood taverns.

Known for its blue-chip art galleries and soaring above-ground park, Chelsea is also home to a bustling indoor shopping and dining market, and a thriving, all-inclusive nightlife scene.

This vivid, boisterous neighborhood in Lower Manhattan is a jumble of fishmongers and fruit markets, souvenir shops and some of the city's best restaurants, dim sum palaces, and Peking duck houses.

Primarily residential with stunning rowhouses, this bohemian enclave is full of art house theaters, rustic Italian restaurants, and avant-garde retailers.

Historically gritty and home to a close-knit immigrant community, the Lower East Side still oozes with soul but has tipped upscale in recent years with a proliferation of cocktail bars, streetwear shops, and boutique hotels.

Once the epicenter of Manhattan’s ’70s punk scene, the East Village preserves a soulful vibe with its dive bars, vintage boutiques, books, and record shops. A new gloss has arrived with chef-driven restaurants, while the neighborhood’s centerpiece, Tompkins Square Park, is where the locals meet and play.

A hub for artists and entrepreneurs, Brooklyn has countless diverse neighborhoods from ethnic enclaves to hipster havens. Brooklyn restaurants are known for their rusticity and cool factor, whether it’s an iconic $5 pizza slice or an eight-course tasting menu at an under-the-radar sushi spot.

Find stunning pre-war buildings, quiet, tree-lined avenues, and exclusive boutiques on both the Upper East and Upper West Sides of Manhattan, which straddle Central Park. Grand, storied hotels and some of the best art collections in the world also reside here.