Getting Around New York City

Walk. Everywhere. It's the best way to understand New York City. The people, stores, architecture and shifts between neighbourhoods are a big part of the experience (so wear comfortable (chic) shoes).

Cabs. Still part of the NY experience and often the easiest way to get around.
Generally harder to catch between 4-5 pm when there's a shift change.

Uber. Welcome to the birthplace, 'nuf said.

Subway. An efficient and colourful way to navigate New York

DOWNTOWN

New York is best experienced on foot and downtown is where I inevitably spend much of my time. There is something about wandering without too much of a plan — coffee in hand, moving between the West Village, Meatpacking, SoHo and Nolita — that still feels quintessentially New York.

Start around the Meatpacking District and walk the High Line towards Chelsea and back. Then stop at the Whitney, wander through Chelsea Market for Los Tacos No.1, and head south through the West Village towards Washington Square Park.

EAT

Balthazar
Yes, it is famous. Yes, we still go. Some institutions earn their reputation and Balthazar is one of them. Go for breakfast, lunch, dinner or simply a coffee at the bar. It still delivers that particular New York energy exceptionally well.

Via Carota
One of our enduring favourites. Rita Sodi and Jody Williams' tiny West Village restaurant is exactly what we want from a neighbourhood restaurant: beautiful, uncomplicated Italian food and a room that always feels alive. Prepare to wait to get in.

Cafe Gitane
My all-time old favourite, heartbroken the Nolita institution suddenly closed. They still have their Brooklyn outpost.

Sant Ambroeus
There are now several, but that hasn't diminished our affection for it. The West Village and SoHo locations remain particularly good for breakfast, coffee or lunch and during Fashion Week you are almost guaranteed to spot half the industry doing the same.

Torrisi
One of the hardest tables to secure in New York, but we think worth the effort. Housed in the iconic Puck Building in Nolita, Torrisi is a New York take on Italian-American dining: glamorous, energetic and rooted in the city's culinary history. The food is exceptional, but it's the combination of food, room and crowd that makes this such a great New York night. Book well ahead, or try your luck at the bar.

Carbone
Carbone is always a good idea. This famously difficult reservation has become an institution for good reason. If you can secure a table, go, even at 5pm.

Sadelle's
A New York breakfast done properly. Bagels, smoked fish, eggs and coffee in a beautiful room. Particularly good for a Sunday brunch before spending the day in SoHo.

John's Food and Wine
One of the newer additions to our address book and one that feels worthy of staying there. Unfussy, clever cooking, a serious wine list and a distinctly downtown energy without feeling like it is trying too hard.

Shmoné
Eyal Shani's intimate 8th Street restaurant is vibrant, noisy and fun, focusing on exceptional seasonal produce. Michelin starred but not fussy.

And sometimes you simply want Shake Shack, SUGARFISH or Los Tacos No.1. We remain devotees of all three.

ALSO SEE:

Tenement Museum - Insightful tour of the old LES

Russ & Daughter's - Jewish comfort food, timeless appeal in a refurb'ed shop

Moscot - NY institution renowned for its iconic frames, LES born & bred

Yonah Shimmel Knish Bakery - Just because it has the coolest name...& yummy knishes

Economy Candy - old school, nostalgic and sweet

Tour Wall Street area & 9/11 Memorial

SOHO + NOLITA SHOPPING

For me, SoHo isn't really about making a list of stores and marching between them. Give yourself a few hours and wander.

Mercer, Greene, Crosby, Howard and the surrounding streets are still some of the best places in the city to watch New York style happening in real time. Pop into whatever catches your eye, have a coffee, look up at the architecture and allow yourself to get distracted.

KHAITE
A must for us. KHAITE is both an important part of the GRACE curation and one of the brands that best captures modern New York style. Its Mercer Street flagship is dark, architectural and restrained — a physical manifestation of Catherine Holstein's world and well worth experiencing.

John Derian
Not fashion, but one of my favourite places to browse. Beautiful, eccentric and filled with objects you didn't know you needed until you walked in. An original GRACE favourite.

Maria Tash
If the mood strikes, get a piercing. This was in our original guide and I'm keeping it because New York should always leave you with at least one slightly impulsive decision.

AIME LEON DORE
A beautiful setting, complete with cafe and take out bar, for great quality menswear including unisex tees and collectibles.

Then wander east into NoHo, the East Village and Lower East Side. Stop at Economy Candy, browse the smaller stores and galleries and resist the urge to plan every minute.

THE WEST VILLAGE

The West Village deserves time of its own. Beautiful streets, wonderful people-watching and some of the city's best places to eat are compressed into a few very walkable blocks.

Come hungry and without too much of an agenda.

Lunch at Via Carota, walk Bleecker and the surrounding streets, stop for a drink, then stay downtown for dinner.

Zimmi's is a more recent addition worth knowing: small, intimate and Southern French in spirit, with the feeling of a restaurant that belongs to its neighbourhood rather than one created for a moment.

For something completely different, walk up towards Flatiron for S&P Lunch. The former Eisenberg's luncheonette is old-school New York in the best possible way: counter stools, pastrami, tuna melts, egg creams and matzo ball soup. This is precisely the kind of place we hope New York never loses.

UPTOWN

Downtown may have my heart, but an uptown day remains one of my favourite New York rituals.

Dress a little more polished, start on Madison Avenue and take your time.

The Row
Hidden inside a townhouse on East 71st Street, The Row's New York store feels more like entering someone's extraordinarily beautiful private world than conventional luxury retail. Even if you're only looking, it is worth visiting for the environment, the furniture, the proportions and the clothes themselves.

Continue along Madison, then choose your art.

The Met never requires justification. You could visit a hundred times and never exhaust it.

The Neue Galerie is considerably smaller and one of my favourites when I don't want to commit half a day to a museum. See the Klimts, then stop downstairs at Café Sabarsky for coffee and something sweet.

There is also a compelling new reason to revisit one of New York's great buildings. The former Whitney building designed by Marcel Breuer is now home to Sotheby's, bringing art back into one of the city's most significant modernist spaces.

Downstairs you'll find Marcel, the new restaurant from Roman and Williams. The interiors alone are worth seeing: walnut, velvet, extraordinary art and that magnificent Brutalist architecture. I would combine it with a visit to Sotheby's and treat Marcel as much as an experience of the room and the scene as a restaurant destination — lunch, brunch or a drink would be my pick.

For something more established, go to Le Veau d'Or.

Originally opened in 1937, this tiny Upper East Side French restaurant has been sensitively revived by Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson of Frenchette and Le Rock. This is exactly the kind of "new" New York I love: something with nearly a century of history given another life, rather than something created to become an overnight sensation. Book lunch if you can.

DRINK

Bemelmans Bar
Non-negotiable. Inside The Carlyle, surrounded by Ludwig Bemelmans' wonderful murals, it remains one of the great New York rooms. Dress up, order a martini and settle in.

The Mark Bar
Another excellent Fashion Week address. Chic, discreet and particularly good for a drink when you're already uptown.


EAT

The Polo Bar
Another of my absolute musts, and a notoriously difficult reservation that remains worth making. Ralph Lauren's particular vision of New York is on full display and the room is always fun. The food is generous and delicious and never gets old.

Dowling's at The Carlyle
Elegant without needing to prove it. Particularly good when you want to stay uptown for the evening.

And, forever: RIP Fred's.


SHOPPING

Everything is up here along Madison, but worth the detour on the way back downtown is Dover Street Market.

ART + CULTURE

One of the things I love most about New York is how easily fashion, art, food and design coexist. You don't need to dedicate an entire "museum day" to culture — build it into the way you move through the city.

Downtown, visit The Whitney before walking the High Line.

Uptown, choose between The Met, Neue Galerie and Sotheby's at the Breuer depending on your mood.

And make the trip to Harlem for the Studio Museum, now in its new purpose-built home. The museum has long been one of America's most important institutions for artists of African descent, and its return to 125th Street gives another compelling reason to head further uptown.

For first-time visitors, there are of course some New York experiences worth doing simply because they are New York experiences. Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge at least once. See Grand Central Station — still breathtaking no matter how many times I have walked through it. Walk through Central Park, maybe have a picnic or ice skate, depending on the season. Take the Circle Line around Manhattan on a beautiful day. Go to Yankee Stadium and enjoy a baseball game (of course eat a hot dog).

BROOKLYN, WHEN YOU HAVE TIME

If you have more than a few days, cross the river.

Walking the Brooklyn Bridge is still one of the best ways to see Manhattan from another perspective. Spend some time in DUMBO before heading further into Brooklyn.

Williamsburg is worth wandering without too much structure, and Oxomoco remains a great dinner destination if you plan to stay on that side of the river into the evening.

The point isn't to "do Brooklyn" in an afternoon. Choose an area and spend some time there.

THE INSTITUTIONS WE NEVER SKIP

New York loves what's new, but some places become part of your relationship with the city.

Ours include Balthazar, (RIP Cafe Gitane), Via Carota, Sant Ambroeus, Los Tacos #1, SUGARFISH, Carbone, Bemelmans Bar, The Polo Bar, The Met, The Whitney, Grand Central Station, Central Park and walking the streets of SoHo and the West Village.

We've been returning to many of them for years, for good reason.

NEW TO OUR ADDRESS BOOK

We are discerning about this category.

New York opens restaurants and stores at a dizzying pace, but novelty alone isn't particularly interesting. These are the newer places that have caught our attention because there is something more behind them — provenance, exceptional food, beautiful design, cultural significance or simply that elusive feeling that they may still matter five years from now.

Le Veau d'Or — technically anything but new; a 1937 New York institution beautifully revived.

Marcel at Sotheby's — Roman and Williams, the Breuer, art and an extraordinarily glamorous room.

John's Food and Wine — contemporary downtown New York done intelligently.

S&P Lunch — an old New York luncheonette given the future it deserved.

Zimmi's — intimate, neighbourhood-focused and somewhere we actually want to eat.

The Studio Museum in Harlem — a New York institution entering an important new chapter.

WHAT TO WEAR IN NEW YORK

Getting dressed in New York is part of the pleasure.

Our style leans towards offhand edginess for day and sophisticated cool for night. The weather can be variable, particularly in spring and autumn, so I rely heavily on separates that can be layered, mixed and dressed up or down.

And above everything else: comfortable shoes. You will walk considerably further than you think.

Downtown, I like relaxed tailoring, denim, a great tank or T-shirt and something that adds character — an interesting shoe, beautiful bag or unexpected piece of jewellery.

A flattering cotton rib tank underpins almost any New York outfit. Add a lightweight knit, chic, comfortable pants or jeans and a flat sandal or sneaker you can genuinely walk in. A versatile bag completes the look.

Uptown, I tend to become slightly more polished. A matching set, beautifully cut trouser with a vest or knit, or an easy dress feels right without being overly dressed. Pair with tonal sneakers or flats during the day, then change the shoes and accessories for dinner.

For warmer nights, a mini dress or crisp cotton shirtdress with the cuffs pushed up is perfect. Worn with either a heel or flat sandal, it hits that New York balance of polished and cool.

KHAITE, Tibi, Proenza Schouler and Kallmeyer all understand this instinctively and are go-tos for both inspiration and wardrobe essentials.

Our New York Packing Essentials

— A great wide or straight-leg jean for day-to-night dressing
— A pair of chic, comfortable tailored pants
— Tailored shorts in warmer months
— A couple of excellent tanks and sleeveless tops
— A shirtdress and an easy day dress
— A matching shirt-and-short or vest-and-trouser set
— A lightweight knit
— An oversized shirt or cropped jacket for layering
— Comfortable sneakers
— Flat sandals in summer
— One evening shoe, not too high
— Sunglasses
— A day bag that leaves your hands free
— A smaller evening bag or pouch
— Jewellery that makes simple clothes feel considered

The objective is not to pack an outfit for every occasion. Try everything on before you pack to make sure you feel great in them, and that you can create lots of outfits. Pack only the pieces that work hard together and leave some room in your suitcase — this is New York, after all. You may find something.