New York, New York

Recently, whilst at the ECMO conference, I met some people who were interested in my thoughts on what to do in New York. Now, New York is a fantastic place, somewhere I've spent quite a bit of time, have family and friends, have worked (in various ways, although none of them paid), and generally enjoyed myself. I thought I'd be able to help them....

Well, first off, I'm listening to Heap, a rock 'n' roll band of some friends of mine. We often meet to drink in a bar called >Milanos, a cool little Irish number with a long thin room and a bar extending two thirds of the way, juke box and a few tables at the back, good beers and excellent shots - my experience being limited to Captain Morgan's, and buying rounds of Jamiesons for my friends. Next door, on one side, is Time's Up, a radical political gathering place, although there is a heavy emphasis on getting involved, do it yourself, cycle workshops and bicycling. There are frequently parties here, either after Critical Mass rides, or to raise money for the ongoing defense campaign necessitated by the ongoing City Police Department repression: a wonderful film was made and premiered just under a year ago, in May 2005, during the (city sponsored) "Bicycle Month" (culminating in the Critical Mass ride, heavily advertised by the festival!).

Of course, there are plenty of other bars. DBAs is another favourite: the west side of 1st Ave just near the northern corner of 2nd Street. There's free wireless in here, and a huge garden out the back which provides a nice escape from the city no smoking laws. Of course, this is something that's being phased in around the world, influenced by a World Health Organisation directive that smoking indoors should be banned by the year 2008. Or was it 12? Anyway, the sentiment has arrived here already, but is frequently broken.. One bar I was in, I had some bizarre exchange with the barman, unclear if he was trying to bust me for something or other, when in fact he was just trying to assess if I was a cop or not! Now there's a turnaround for the books. That's another good bar, actually, but it's somewhere in Brooklyn (jump at the opportunity to visit some of the hipster places in Brooklyn, you'll enjoy it) and I can't remember the streets, although I'd certainly find it again.

Plenty of other bars, and I mention two! Pretty much anywhere in the East Village is good: make sure you get deep into the village, though, and not just St Marks. Most of the bars there are passed their heyday: The Continental now costs a fortune and lost it all when the smoking ban came into place. Coney Island High is no more. Nor is that other one, opposite, where you used to drink pitchers and shoot pool all night long with outgetting pushed off the table. Or I'm good enough I just don't lose - ha! Some of the others are gone, too - 9C particularly, and a number of other dives.

Getting hungry, I like to nibble sushi. Sapporra on about 3rd and 10th street is worth the wait - well, there's a complex equation involving beers drunk, hunger levels, time of night, lenght of wait, pressure of other attractions, and so on... but you get the picture - and aside from that I don't really know about Japanese downtown, although China Town is probably not a bad place to try. Worth checking it out for the Chinese, anyway: I like dimsum which, in the larger restaurants, is server off trolleys and then they add up the number of dishes and multiply by some random number plus pi. After that, you add tax and tip - but that's the way of the states today.

Mexican: there's only one good place, it's a small chain of about four stores and there's one in the Village around 8th and 3rd Avenue. Pizza - try the bigger chains for better, fresher pizza, something like Rays or Famiglia's which are throughout the city. A more unusual, spicy (southern?) style pizza can be got at the place who's name now eludes me but is situated on the south side of Bleecker between Broadway adn La Fayette. It's good!