Neighbourhood watch
The Brooklyn neighbourhood of Williamsburg rocks and nobody laughs at Queens anymore, but New York's hottest new neighbourhood is the Lower East Side which has managed to assimilate trendy new bars, restaurants and shops without turfing out its immigrant and arty core. Recent additions to the bar scene include the Stanton Social Club on Stanton St, and the Back Room, a hidden bar at 102 Norfolk St (its current facade is a Twenties-era toy shop). Check out the streets around Rivington, Ludlow, Orchard and Clinton for cool shops and impromptu galleries. The Blue Moon Hotel (www.bluemoon-nyc.com) has just opened, offering retro-style rooms in the neighbourhood.
Here today ...
The viewing platform on the 70th floor of the Rockefeller Centre (www.topoftherocknyc.com) has reopened, offering a great view of the Empire State Building. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (www.metmuseum.org) is hosting a retrospective of American collageist Robert Rauschenberg until 2 April. The Edvard Munch retrospective is at the Museum of Modern Art (www.moma.org) from 19 February until 8 May. Oprah Winfrey has added theatre impresario to her impressive CV by producing a musical version of The Color Purple at the Broadway Theatre (212 239 6200). In March, Disney's latest stage spectacular Tarzan opens, with music from Phil Collins. Then, in April, Elton John's musical adaptation of Anne Rice's vampire tale Lestat will make its Broadway debut.
The place to stay
The opening of a sister hotel to SoHo's super-sexy 60 Thompson in the Upper West Side this summer is bound to cause a stir. Six Columbus (www.thompsonhotels.com) will have a rooftop greenhouse lounge and rooms from $199 a night. André Balazs, owner of the eternally hip Mercer in SoHo, has scored another hit with the budget Hotel QT (125 W 45th St; www.hotelqt.com). Just off Times Square, the lobby doubles as a shop from where you stock your own mini-bar and a collection of takeaway menus substitute for room service, but breakfast is free (as is wireless internet access). There's a steam room, sauna and swimming pool (rather small, but still ...) by the bar where a DJ plays nightly. The rooms tend to be small but the pared-down style is highly urbane. You will need to book well ahead for the cheapest rooms, but the triples and quads where bunk beds are paired with Egyptian cotton sheets, plasma TVs and rainfall showers - possibly for the first time ever - are great fun. Doubles from $150. The Dream Hotel (210 W 55th St, www.dreamny.com), with its Zen-ish bedrooms, roof terrace with staggering views down Broadway and friendly, helpful staff recently opened a new-agey Deepak Chopra spa and gym - a peaceful antidote to the hotel's migraine-inducing lobby, where outsized Eastern sculptures meet a two-storey fish tank and exuberant wallpaper. Doubles from $325. A sister hotel, Night, will open next month. For the ultimate in slick urban style, The Hotel on Rivington (107 Rivington St; www.hotelonrivington.com) is hard to beat with its black loos, granite sinks and curtains that open when your alarm clock goes off (the glass is one-way). Since the opening of Thor, the hotel's Austrian-accented restaurant, last autumn, rates have started to go up. Doubles from $265.
Everyone's talking about ...
... Audrey Saunders. Manhattan's most talented bar tender (barchef if you must) - formerly at the Carlyle Hotel - has opened her own bar in SoHo. The Pegu Club (77 W Houston St, 212 473 7348) specialises in classic cocktails of the Twenties and Thirties.
... rising crime levels. After five years of complaining that the 'zero tolerance' policy had made Manhattan dull, local people changed their minds when someone got stabbed outside 'teany', Moby's Lower East Side teahouse. Could that be why teany shut down last week?
The big night out
Another hidden bar (look for the actress with tarot cards in the window and a sign saying 'psychic') Employees Only (510 Hudson St) is worth the search. You might want to skip the food (including pickled cauliflower), which seems to nod slightly too far towards Tito's Yugoslavia, but the bar is outstanding, thanks to the moustachioed bartenders and their cocktails. Drinks come in at $12, main courses $23. There are some sweet touches - if you're still there at closing time (around 3.30am), you'll be given a cup of chicken soup to see you into the night.
The hot table
Don't believe the rumour that nightclub queen Amy Sacco's new Chelsea restaurant Bette (461 W 23rd St; 212 366 0404) is booked solid until 2007. Sacco, right, knows that hype must be served hot and with a hibiscus-leaf garnish in this town. The downhome food isn't bad, but Bette is all about the scene and who you are sitting next to. LaEsquina (corner of Lafayette and Kenmare St) is another restaurant that's determined to keep the riff-raff at bay. Not only is it ex-directory (but here's the number: 212 646 613 8880) but it looks like a taco stand from outside. Talk your way past the doorwoman, go through a metal door marked 'Employees Only' to reach a vaulted brick-lined restaurant serving good Mexican food and 50 different kinds of tequila.
It's, like, so over
Still milking its moment in the Sex and the City sun, the only people who queue for cupcakes at the Magnolia Bakery now are tourists.
Essentials
Getting there:
Virgin Holidays (0871 222 0306; www.virgin.co.uk/holidays) has three nights at the two-star Days Hotel, Broadway, from £599 including flights.
For information on what's on:
Go to www.dailycandy.com for the latest on shopping and bars, www.gawker.com for gossip. Buy Time Out New York for listings.
