Grand Central Station

The Grand Central Holiday Fair is currently happening in the main hall of the station. (These particularly lovely bracelets, knitted with wire and pearls and gemstones, can be found at the stall of Juli Ra Design.) Most of the stalls at the fair seem to be selling jewelry—in all sorts of styles, however (see also the geometric, colorful work of Victoria Varga). But there are some other items as well: hand-painted lampshades, hats and scarves, glass trays, that sort of thing. Certainly worth a walk through if you’re shopping for Christmas presents.

Fifth Avenue and 34th Street

The Empire State Building in its Thanksgiving colors (it will be the same tonight). Check out the site called What Color Is the Empire State Building to see what its colors mean at other times.

West Broadway and Duane Street

Happy Thanksgiving! (Detail of the door at the Balloon Saloon.)

Lafayette Street and Astor Place

In the lobby of the Public Theater. I always like the Public, which can be hit-or-miss (in my opinion) but always interesting. Here’s what’s on this season. (Show I’ve enjoyed so far from this lineup: Fela. Show that left me cold: Idiot Savant, although The New Yorker loved it.) And just out: a new book about Joseph Papp (an oral history, actually), which I haven’t read, although it sounds good, doesn’t it?

South Street and Peck Slip

Oysters at the New Amsterdam Market, which happens once a month near South Street Seaport. A few of the vendors that I enjoyed visiting this past weekend were Mast Brothers Chocolate (whose beautifully wrapped trio of chocolate bars would make a lovely small Christmas present), Porchetta (for their aromatic pork sandwiches), and the various New York vintners giving out tastes of cider and wine (I especially liked the late harvest Riesling—sweet but not heavy—from the King Ferry Winery).

37th Street and Fifth Avenue

Tinsel Trading Company is the place to find both new and vintage trimmings, paper decorations, threads, and ribbons. Most things are reasonably priced, though there are spools of intricate, gold-laced, rare trimmings behind glass. I never understood the name of this store (read the history here for an explanation), but it’s pretty easy to believe the line printed on their business cards: “A resource for the imagination.” (That is, this is a great place for Christmas gift-wrapping decorations.)

Fulton Street and Rockwell Place (Brooklyn)

Urban Glass is “a leading resource for both aspiring and established artists wishing to create with glass.” It is a wonderful place, especially in the winter (it’s always hot inside). The class list is extensive, and the staff is friendly. I’ve taken a variety of workshops here and always have fun—and then leave with a handful of odd beads or some other lovely misshapen piece to prove where I’ve been. (Beginner’s luck rarely happens with glass work, in my experience.)

Tudor City Place and 43rd Street

If you find yourself near Tudor City (as I did recently, stuck in traffic) and you’re craving Italian food (as everyone in our car was), you can try to grab a table at Convivio (if you’re wearing casually elegant clothes, which we weren’t). Even so, they squeezed us in, after a bit of pleading. I remember cool red wine, hot olive bread, crisp baccala fritters, and mezzaluna stuffed with rabbit and slicked with butter (delicious). I would go back, especially the next time I find myself stuck in traffic near Tudor City.

City Hall Park

City Hall Park is a nice patch of downtown greenery (here, changing colors with the seasons). In winter, the gaslights around the fountain seem especially pretty. (And here’s what’s underneath it.)

Fifth Avenue and 88th Street

It’s the 50th anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum, and the celebration includes a comprehensive Kandinsky exhibit, which is worth seeing up close, ramp by ramp, but if you’re not in town, try the online experience.

River Terrace and Murray Street

Poets House, located in a serene space by the river, has a vast collection of poetry books that are yours for the browsing. What a friendly place to discover a new voice. They even let you bring in coffee from down the street. (There are also exhibits, talks, and classes.) Grab a free poetry fortune cookie on your way out. Mine said: “I carried you home, / a river shaking in the sun.” —Louise Erdrich, Windigo

Seventh Avenue and 21st Street

One reason to love New York: the density of imagery and typography. Here are some others.

Broadway and 48th Street

Times Square at night: here’s how Max Frisch (in I'm Not Stiller) described the city’s confusion, color, and light:

One is astounded that…in this labyrinth of rectangular windows threaded by gleaming canals, which is repeated over and over again with no change, a person does not get lost every minute; that this never-ending movement from one place to another does not stop for a moment, or pile up into a hopeless chaos. Here and there it is dammed up into a pond filled with a white-hot glow—Times Square, for instance…. Later, everything became more colorful; the skyscrapers no longer rose like black towers before the yellow dusk, now it was as though the night had swallowed up their bodies, and what remained were the lights in them, the hundreds of thousands of electric light bulbs, a screen of whitish and yellowish windows, nothing else, thus they hovered above the bright haze that was roughly the colour of apricots, and in the streets, as though in canyons, ran streams of glittering quicksilver.

19th Street and Seventh Avenue

Tebaya is the place for a quick, cheap, tasty plate of Japanese chicken wings and a cup of cold oolong tea, where you can flip through a free copy of Chopsticks magazine.

Prince Street and Greene Street

A moment of calm inside the Apple Store (while looking out). Something I learned when I was there last: you can attend special evenings of music and talks and such in the store (I knew they had classes but wasn’t aware of the events calendar). Take a look. Tomorrow, there’s a discussion with Wes Anderson, Meryl Streep, and Jason Schwartzman (which will make this place more of a madhouse than normal, no doubt).

Madison Avenue and 75th Street

There are a couple of nice exhibits currently going on at the Whitney Museum: Georgia O’Keeffe’s early abstract work (including pieces from when she lived in Columbia, SC, and New York) and two floors devoted to Roni Horn (who has some really thrilling pieces, such as the paired photographs of the back of birds’ heads and the photographs of water with footnotes embedded, and some really boring pieces, such as the steel ball on the floor).

22nd Street and Sixth Avenue

The New York Cake and Baking supply company has some new items in stock (new to me), such as the laser-cut cupcake wrappers and the tiny vials of glittering powder to sprinkle over something (but what?). Instead of the metallic teal disco dust, however, I bought regular old peppermint extract (and coconut) in anticipation of the holidays—maybe I’ll make these chocolate sandwich cookies with a dash of peppermint (or coconut) in the filling.

Broadway and 21st Street

Cannoli for sale from Fortunato Brothers at a street fair. (I like the vanilla version with the tiny chocolate chips stuck in the filling.)

Chambers Street subway stop

These eyes that follow me to the exit when I get out of the A train at Chambers Street remind me every time of the eyes on the cover of the first edition of The Great Gatsby. And here’s what Hemingway had to say about that:

It had a garish dust jacket and I remember being embarrassed by the violence, bad taste and slippery look of it. It looked the book jacket for a book of bad science fiction. Scott told me not to be put off by it, that it had to do with a billboard along a highway in Long Island that was important to the story. He said he had liked the jacket and now didn’t like it. I took it off to read the book.

[from the restored edition of A Moveable Feast]

Duane Street and West Broadway

This is my new favorite food, the ikura mini-don (salmon roe over a bowl of rice) at Takahachi. (The roe are marinated in-house, for this dish, but the recipe, I’m told, is a secret. Here’s one from the food blog Blue Lotus that sounds pretty good.) Takahachi also serves up a delicious agedashi tofu, inventive rolls (king crab with gold leaf, lotus root tempura, soba noodles with salmon skin), and classic, consistent sushi. Ceramics for sale by the front door somehow make the place feel low-key and welcoming.

28th Street and Seventh Avenue

Branches with red leaves or hanging with autumnal pods are lining the sidewalks of the flower district this time of year, but there are also (always) orchids as well. And they may be a cliché, but I love them. And I love how if you know what you want in this city—lightbulbs, buttons, industrial cooking equipment, orchids—there’s a neighborhood for it.