1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (43 page)

Down below Canal Street, in the restaurant-heavy TriBeCa neighborhood, Nobu is one of the most copied sushi restaurants in the world, and deserves much of the credit for having initiated New Yorkers into the mysteries of raw fish. The master sushi chefs keep the celebrity-strewn dining room in thrall with fragrant, deftly prepared, and utterly fresh seafood. Next door is the aptly named Nobu Next Door, with a no-reservations policy and only slightly less extreme prices.

F
OUR
S
EASONS:
Tel 212-754-9494;
www.fourseasonsrestaurant.com
.
Cost:
dinner $85.
D
ANIEL:
Tel 212-288-0033;
www.danielnyc.com
.
Cost:
3-course tasting menu $96.
C
AFÉ
B
OULUD:
Tel 212-772-2600;
www.danielnyc.com
.
Cost:
dinner $65.
DB B
ISTRO:
Tel 212-391-2400;
www.danielnyc.com
.
Cost:
dinner $55.
L
E
B
ERNARDIN:
Tel 212-554-1515;
www.le-bernardin.com
.
Cost:
tasting menu $105.
U
NION
S
QUARE
C
AFÉ:
Tel 212-243-4020;
www.unionsquarecafe.com
.
Cost:
dinner $52.
G
RAMERCY
T
AVERN:
Tel 212-477-0777;
www.gramercytavern.com
.
Cost:
3-course prix fixe menu $76.
B
OULEY:
Tel 212-964-2525;
www.bouley.net
.
Cost:
dinner $75.
D
ANUBE:
Tel 212-791-3771;
www.thedanube.net
.
Cost:
dinner $85.
B
ABBO:
Tel 212-777-0303;
www.babbonyc.com
.
Cost:
dinner $50.
D
EL
P
OSTO:
Tel 212-497-8090;
www.delposto.com
.
Cost:
dinner $50.
B
EPPE:
Tel 212-982-8422;
www.beppenyc.com
.
Cost:
dinner $50.
M
AREMMA:
Tel 212-645-0200.
Cost:
dinner $50.
N
OBU:
Tel 212-219-0500;
www.myriadrestaurantgroup.com/nobu
.
Cost:
dinner $55.
N
OBU
N
EXT
D
OOR:
Tel 212-334-4445;
www.myriadrestaurantgroup.com/nextdoornobu
.
Cost:
dinner $43.

Puttin’ on the Ritz

New York, New York

There are hundreds of hotels and inns in New York, from grand European-style palaces to boutique gems, budget boxes, and even a few B&Bs scattered here and there. Many have charm, grandeur, glamour, and
style—but these are the best. Soaring 52 stories above one of the city’s priciest shopping areas, the I. M. Pei–designed Four Seasons Hotel is the destination for the recognizable and those who follow in their Manolo footsteps. Since its opening in 1993 it’s raked in just about every accolade in the business, being named the very best hotel in the U.S. Inside, the cool, sleek three-story lobby projects an almost templelike sense of quietude, with 33-foot columns rising between the geometrically patterned marble floor and the backlit onyx ceiling. Terraced lobby lounges lead past registration to several restaurants and bars: the 57 Restaurant for American regional cuisine, the TY lounge for cocktails and afternoon tea, and the new L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, the celebrated French chef’s first venture in New York. With spot-on service and seating for only 50, the restaurant offers a tranquil, casual—albeit elegant and expensive—setting for Robuchon’s haute French cuisine. Upstairs, the hotel offers 368 large, flawlessly decorated rooms and suites with 10-foot ceilings, huge marble bathrooms, and views out over the city.

The Four Seasons was the creation of I. M. Pei.

A more classic New York experience can be had two blocks south at the St. Regis Hotel, a grand beaux arts building constructed by John Jacob Astor IV in 1904 and still living up to that era’s gilded grandeur. Pull up to the curb and you’re greeted by top-hatted doormen who bow you up a red carpet and into the white marble lobby, full of Louis XV furnishings, trompe l’oeil ceilings, Waterford crystal chandeliers, and gilded detailing. Upstairs, the 256 spacious rooms and suites are done in dreamy whites and creams, with marble baths, and the services of a 24-hour butler. Downstairs, the King Cole Bar is one of the world’s greats, a small rectangle with leather chairs and a tiny bar where, sometime after Prohibition, bartender Fernand Petiot perfected a drink he’d been working on: the Bloody Mary, or as it’s still called here, the Red Snapper. On the wall, Maxfield Parrish’s mural of Old King Cole gave the place its name. The St. Regis is also home to a new
restaurant headed by renowned French chef Alain Ducasse.

For decades, the grande dame Plaza Hotel was the embodiment of the classic New York hotel at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Central Park South. In April 2005, however, it closed for a years-long renovation that will transform it into a mixed-use landmark, with 282 hotel rooms, a huge retail complex, and 152 millionaires-only residential condominiums. The lobby’s Palm Court (where high tea was served for decades) and the dark and clubby Oak Room bar overlooking Central Park are to be preserved in their original form and are scheduled to reopen in 2008.

For a boutique hotel experience, the Inn at Irving Place is a jewel, a little-known refuge of no pomp but great charm. Set just a few blocks from the genteel 19th-century enclave of Gramercy Park, the 12-room inn was created in the early 1990s by combining two adjacent brownstone town houses dating to 1834. A three-year renovation brought back the atmosphere of the 19th century, with period furnishings, Persian rugs, fireplaces, and flowers, all old-style New York grace, dignity, and charm.

T
HE
F
OUR
S
EASONS
: Tel 800-819-5053 or 212-758-5700;
www.fourseasons.com/newyorkfs
.
Cost:
from $675 (off-peak), from $815 (peak).
T
HE
S
T
. R
EGIS
: Tel 877-787-3447 or 212-753-4500;
www.stregis.com
.
Cost:
from $895.
T
HE
P
LAZA
: Tel 212-759-3000.
T
HE
I
NN AT
I
RVING PLACE:
Tel 800-685-1447 or 212-533-4600;
www.innatirving.com
.
Cost:
from $415 (off-peak), from $485 (peak).
B
EST TIMES
: fall, when New York is at its peak of beauty; during Dec holidays.

I Lift My Lamp Beside the Golden Door

New York, New York

People think of the Statue of Liberty as an all-American symbol, but she’s not, really. Born and bred in France, she was intended to symbolize not one country but rather an abstract, revolutionary idea: liberty
, for everyone, everywhere. The idea for Lady Liberty, whose proper given name is
Liberty Enlightening the World,
was allegedly born at a dinner party in 1865, when the host, French Senator Edouard-Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye suggested presenting a gift to America in celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Within a few years, sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi had received an official commission, but funding and planning difficulties delayed the statue’s completion until 1884, long past the U.S. centennial.

It wasn’t until 1886 that the 151-foot-tall copper-clad statue finally took her place atop a 27,000-ton stone-and-concrete pedestal. Enclosed by the star-shaped walls of Fort Wood on Bedloe’s Island (now Liberty Island), the statue sits just over a mile from lower Manhattan. Lady Liberty’s timing couldn’t have been better: Beginning in 1892, the U.S. saw the largest wave of immigrants in its history. For many of the newcomers arriving at the port of New York, the Statue of Liberty became the first and most perfect glimpse of their new land.

Today, you can reach the island by tour boat from Battery Park (see p. 173). Ranger-guided tours take visitors onto the lower promenade of Fort Wood and then up to the pedestal’s observation platform for a view of the statue’s interior framework, designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower fame). Liberty’s crown is no longer open to visitors, and her torch has been off-limits since 1916 after it was damaged when German saboteurs blew up a munitions dump on nearby Black Tom Island. The torch was replaced during the 1980s and the original now sits in the lobby museum.

Slightly to the north, and accessible by the same tour boats, Ellis Island was the processing station for roughly 12 million immigrants between 1892 and 1954. A six-year renovation in the 1980s rescued Ellis Island from disuse, turning it into a moving memorial and interpretive center where an intricate computer database allows Americans to research their heritage and retrace their ancestors’ arrival.

A good view of Lady Liberty and the Manhattan skyline can also be found on the Staten Island Ferry, which runs to and from New York’s outermost borough—and it’s free too. For a longer ride, the Circle Line offers sightseeing around the harbor or all the way around Manhattan Island—it’s a New York classic.

Lady’s Liberty’s tablet reads (in Roman numerals) “July 4, 1776,” the date of American Independence.

S
TATUE OF
L
IBERTY:
www.nps.gov/stli
.
F
ERRY TO
L
IBERTY
& E
LLIS
I
SLAND:
Tel 212-269-5755;
www.circlelinedowntown.com
.
E
LLIS
I
SLAND
:
www.nps.gov/elis
.
S
TATEN
I
SLAND
F
ERRY
:
www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/masstran/ferries/statfery.html
.
C
IRCLE
L
INE
T
OURS
: Tel 212-563-3200;
www.circleline42.com
.
B
EST TIMES
: weekdays, when the lines can be shorter.

Crossroads of the World

New York, New York

Times Square is the most recognizable intersection in the world, a six-block stretch where Broadway and Seventh Avenue cross, creating a heady vortex of light and energy. Over the years it’s been a stage for some of the most
enduring images in American history, from Alfred Eisenstaedt’s 1945
Life
magazine photo of a sailor and nurse kissing to celebrate WWII’s end to the annual New Year’s Eve ball-drop. This is the place where Damon Runyon’s guys and dolls earned their lettuce in the 1930s,
and where peepshows and drug addicts forged New York’s apocalyptic reputation in the 1970s. That all started to change in the early ’90s, when the city invited Disney and a number of other business giants to collaborate in the area’s revitalization, and today the place is once again the Great White Way, a family-entertainment and business district where the old movie palaces have been restored and the sidewalks are paved with tourists, TV crews, multinational retail, and some of the brightest and most visible advertisements on earth.