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Manhattan from above
New York
Neil Sowerby22/11/2008
THE gouged-out pumpkin eyes are blazing up on Hicks Street. Even the sophisticates of brownstone Brooklyn Heights are not immune to Halloween.
Russety Central Park is mobbed when Paula Radcliffe strolls her third New York Marathon and Times Square is more razzle dazzle than ever when Barack breasts the metaphorical tape after his own long race.
The Big Apple in autumn. Never a dull moment. Mislaying my missus on the New York subway was probably too much excitement. Now I know that, unlike the London tube, when the doors close that's it. We were reunited via the next Downtown train and made it to the (free) Staten ferry to finally, on the last day of our week's stay, see the Statue of Liberty.
That, and a first day gusty rubber-necking from the top of the Empire State Building nicely bookended my debut visit to New York. I was appropriately blown away!
This vista, with an audio tour, is the perfect way to acclimatise yourself to the city, sorting your Brooklyn out from your Bronx, your East Side from your West. It costs $25 to take the elevators up the observatory atop the quintessential 1,250ft high skyscraper, and it's worth it.
A recommended option is to purchase a CityPass ticket, a bargain way to see the city's attractions (citypass.com). For $65, instead of the normal combined price of $130, you can get into (jumping the queues, too) the Empire State, American Museum of Natural History, three key art galleries – Guggenheim, Metropolitan Museum and Museum of Modern Art – and take a Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise.
Incomparable
The Circle Line I don't recommend. We were turned away at Pier 83 as were about to board because the cruise was overbooked.
The rest was amazing. Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon and some of the most famous paintings in the world under one roof at the thrillingly enlarged MOMA and, sharing frontage onto the incomparable Central Park, Frank Lloyd Wright's sinuous and disconcerting Guggenheim and the monolithic Metropolitan.
The real joy of the Big Apple is just walking around and gawping. From the bright lights of Times Square to the comfortable scale of Greenwich Village to the edgy Lower East Side to the magnificent starry vault of Grand Central Station, it doesn't seem an effort compared with London sight-seeing. For those times when your feet begin to ache, a $25 Metrocard allows you seven days' unlimited travel on the subway and city centre bus services
New York as a movie backdrop means that you so often feel you have come back home. Just chancing on the notorious Chelsea Hotel when we were looking for our lunch spot and feeling the vibe of Sid Vicious and Leonard Cohen as steam rose evocatively from a grid in the sidewalk.
That particular lunch spot was affordable. A Voce on Madison Avenue, voted Time Out readers' choice restaurant of the year 2007. Cool décor and service, octopus terrine, designer tagliatelle with oxtail ragu, an Italian wine list that ticked all the boxes. Perfect.
Lower East Side Jewish deli Katz aside, Italian was the theme for our dining. Centro Vinoteca in the West Village, with its female chef and tiny Tuscan-style tasting dishes, was an eating place of the moment but surpassed by an English *pub' whose food influences were undeniably Italian, too.
The Spotted Pig, on the Village's West 11th Street, had been recommended by London'*nose to tail eating' guru Fergus Henderson when he guested at this year's CityLife.co.uk Manchester Food and Drink festival. No wonder. New York's top chefs hold a 'Fergusstock' tribute there for him when he's in town.
Resident cook is April Bloomfield, from River Café, the menu was chosen by local celebrity chef Mario Batoli (Gwyneth Paltrow toured Spain with him for his recent telly series) and regular Jay-z owns the building now! But don't let any of this put you off.
Perfect antidote
If fine American microbrewery beers (and Sam Smiths' lager), terrific burgers, a house speciality of gnocchi-like Gnudi weren't enough there are three excellent bookshops and the same amount of characterful bars minutes away.
This approachable area, with its tree-lined streets was in stark contrast to the midtown luxury hotels we stayed in. Of these the sleek, modern powerhouse Four Seasons, between Madison and Park Avenue, felt vaguely intimidating but was among the best-equipped and managed lodgings I have ever stayed in.
The Jumeirah Essex House, overlooking Central Park (our room unfortunately didn't), is a restored Art Deco marvel, again marked by excellent service, though the food in the achingly cool dining room didn't match its pretensions. The newly refurbished *W' on Lexington (opposite the stuffy old Waldorf Astoria) didn't feel quite as grand despite its $40m refurb, but it did upgrade us to a two-story penthouse suite with a Rear
Window outlook and a welcoming supper of Californian merlot and cheese. Add a buzzing bar and we felt like we were on the set of Sex And The City.
Expect great things, then, of the boutique Manchester 'W' that is to open on the corner of Princess Street and Whitworth Street in 2010.
Brooklyn, across the famous bridge (a must-do-walk), is the perfect antidote to hectic pace of Manhattan. The heights kind of less snooty Hampstead with better delis. We took friends with a small child base there to the newly re-vamped Brooklyn Children's Museum – on the evidence of a rainy Saturday afternoon a hugely- popular celebration of ethnic diversity and small animal and plant life.
It's plumb in the middle of still to become gentrified Bedford Stuyvesant, in whose mean streets Mike Tyson was raised.
Dinner – and Halloween preview – was followed by a damp stroll down the nearby promenade. Turn a corner and suddenly the whole of dazzling night-time Manhattan was laid out for us across the East River. Just breathtaking. Just like you knew it was going to be.
Factfile
> Accommodation at the W New York, on Lexington Avenue, starts from $429 plus tax per room per night (approx. £265). For further information and bookings visit
www.whotels.com/wnewyork or call 00800 325 25252.
> Four Seasons Hotel New York. Stay three nights from £1,515 per person. Based on two adults sharing a deluxe room on a room-only basis, including return economy class flights with British Airways from London Gatwick and private car transfers. Valid Jan 1-Mar 3.
> Jumeirah Essex House, New York. Stay three nights from £995 per person. Based on two adults sharing an Essex Queen on a room-only basis, including return economy class flights with British Airways from London Gatwick and private car transfers. Valid January 2-March 31.
> For further information on both hotels, contact Elegant Resorts Reservations on 01244 897515 or visit
www.elegantresorts.co.uk
.
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