Firmly in touch with its past but peppered with bars and restaurants setting a tone for the future, a stay in the Lower East Side gives an invigorating, 360-degree view of this city. Traditionally the first point of settlement for immigrants arriving via the city’s Ellis Island, it was once known for cramped tenement apartments and the small family businesses that sprang up around them.
In more recent years, it’s become a byword for cutting-edge dining and nightlife, mixed up with indie bookshops and white-box galleries. You’ll find it sleepy each morning, shutters closed on graffiti-streaked streets; but from afternoon into late night, it hums with locals letting off steam. But the LES hasn’t lost touch with its roots: legendary Jewish delis still see queues around the block, while a tradition for pickling vegetables (there was once a “Pickle Alley” here) lives on in several quirky shops.
