Once the home of hippies, beats and punks it’s an area ripe for increasing gentrification. So, don’t wait, see it while it’s spirit is still alive and kicking.
Here are some not to be missed sights and experiences.
- 96-98 St Marks Place. These tenements were used for the cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Physical Graffiti’. St Marks Place is the ‘face’ of the East Village and a good place to start to gain a feel for the place and its history.
- Two Michelin-starred restaurant Mamofuku Ko is located here when you’re in the mood for a culinary treat.
- The Merchant’s House Museum built in 1832 offers a view of life in the 19th century for the well-heeled.
- McSorkey’s Old Ale House has been in business for more than 150 years and served the likes of Abraham Lincoln and John Lennon. You’ll need a taste for house-brewed light or dark ale as this is all they serve.
- For something more stylish head to Angel’s Share, a speakeasy style parlour tucked away behind an unmarked door inside Japanese restaurant Village Yokocho and serving some of the city’s best cocktails.
- Interested in vintage fashion then wander down to 9th street between Avenue A and 2nd Avenue where you’ll find several small but well-stocked boutiques.
- Can’t resist a good ice-cream then you’ll want to try the some of the unique soft-serve offerings from the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop. Sea salt and toasted curry coconut anyone?
- A seven-storey stack of off-kilter ethereal white boxes houses the New Museum of Contemporary Art with a mission to showcase new art and new ideas.
- Don’t miss the Lower East Side Tenement Museum re-creating life in the tenements at the turn of the 20th century. The tenements provided a home and workplace to waves of immigrants all pursuing the dream of life in the new world.
