Everything Old Is New Again: New York’s Lower East Side by Judith Ritter
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Turbo-driven by gentrification, New York’s Lower East Side, once a neighbourhood of immigrant peddlers and pushcarts, is now called LES and is the apex of hip. Immigrant history and low-rent boho ambience still abound, but popping up everywhere are sleek new restaurants and glam nightspots. From skateboard royalty to uptown posh, in LES, variety is all.
As flashy new buildings replace old tenements, the burgeoning neighborhood is attracting celebrity architects and designers. Most provocative is Bernard Tschumi’s glittering Blue, towering over its humble historic surroundings. Clad in reflective blue panels, Blue is otherworldly. Anchoring LES firmly on earth and in the present is The New Museum of Contemporary Art. This silver tower, designed by the Japanese firm SANAA, has no permanent collection but hosts a variety of shows exploring trends in contemporary art.
Wedged between old neighborhood pizza joints and bodegas, a profusion of new galleries is giving exposure to an up-and-coming roster of artists. Deborah Fries’ Fusion once stood alone on the street; it is now joined by the likes of Smith-Stewart, a venue for international artists and non-commercial performance art. Just around the corner is Half Gallery, a spin-off of RxArt, a group dedicated to donating fine art to hospitals and boasting a ledger of big-name and new American artists of conscience.
Savvy Shopping
In a neighbourhood of avant-garde art and architecture, it is not surprising that the shops are edgy and fashion-forward. Shop hopping takes visitors past un-hip, hole-in-the-wall stores selling everything from work boots to pickles, but in between there are fashionista finds like Project 8. This gallery of wearable art features the work of conceptual designers Bless, Devandervar, and former Helmut assistant Kostas Murkadis. And for the guys, hard-to-find Freeman’s Sporting Club is worth the hunt. This men’s fashion haunt, more like a clubhouse than a store, carries new suits made from vintage tweeds — mostly from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s — found in old neighbourhood fabric stores.
Those hip wearables and their owners are all on display at night when the neighbourhood, which is lively all the time, practically vibrates. Early evening finds locals and tourists in pubs, both homey and hipster. Designer beer is the trend on tap in LES. A typical pub in an untypical neighbourhood is the barebones Essex Street Alehouse.It offers no food and no music (unless you bring your own). But it does deliver dozens of microbrews and a chance to friendly up to the locals.
For beer immersion extraordinaire, there’s Spitzer’s Corner with its long communal tables, zinc bar, and huge windows overlooking a prime people-watching corner. Beer is the star of the show with more than one hundred including the US state of Maine’s Seadog Blueberry Wheat, Japan’s Hitachino Ginger Brew, and Belgium’s complex St. Bernardus 12. “We treat beer more like wine here,” explains manager Scott Reed who is happy to pair customers’ choices with small delicacies, including warm duck confit or chef Sung Park’s most American Hickory Short Rib Burger.
Bijou Bars
LES, while still a base for tat-kids and grubby dives, is now home to stylish haunts for uptown denizens. The scene’s centre of gravity is 105 Riv. Black leather banquettes, scarlet carpets, and a retro disco ball give the D.J. lounge a 70’s vibe. A magnet for international tourists, The Riv’s velvet rope may as well be made of kevlar the place is so exclusive (though being French, rich, and photogenic — or all three — helps). D.J’s from Europe and Asia provide house beats for beautiful boys and girls who would be much at home in Ibiza or St. Trope.
Nothing moves at The Riv before midnight, so best be seen at locations like the elegant and airy Rayuela with its linen curtains around each table and Estilo Libre music and menu. The year-old Rayuela is the only restaurant in New York with a ceviche bar (12 types) and the right to boast that a visiting Amy Winehouse “behaved beautifully”. From “Sex in the City’s” Mr. Big to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Rayuela is tastemaker central.
And for a glance at the hand of one of North America’s most vaunted interior designers, AvroKO, and an opportunity to join the ranks of scenesters, a visit to A-lister restaurant and lounge, Stanton Social is in order. Rather than shocking the visual history of the neighbourhood as does Blue, Stanton Social is inspired by it. The soaring interior with its backlit herringbone wine rack, lizard-skin banquettes, and references to period fabrics honours the needletrade whose workers once filled the area. Even Stanton Social’s food riffs on immigrant history. From empanadas to perogies, as manager Anthony Serignese says, “Everything in Stanton Social pops for America”
After a late dinner, the night is still young in LES. As uptown and upmarket as LES is, there is still a funky music scene. Not quite as alt as earlier times, spots like Pianos are the places to catch indie band celebrities. Live acts rock out at pop singer Gavin DeGraw’s unpretentious new bar National Underground and go boho at Darinka where visitors to this semi-private club’s live eclectic shows will find everything from avant-rock to bluegrass.
Controversial Cabaret
What is reputedly New York’s stay-up-late hottest ticket, however, is The Box, a year and a half-old controversial cabaret-nouveau, that is not for the prudish. This cross between Moulin Rouge and Marilyn Manson spawns post-midnight ribaldry that features troupes of burlesque queens, tap dancers, glittery transsexuals, a variety of side show artists and the androgynous and half naked MC Raven O who exhorts his audience of socialites, trustafarians, and celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher and Jude Law to join in the naughtiness. If the five or six thousand dollars (HK) for a table and champagne is off-putting, try catching the lesser known, up-and-comers Dame Darcy & Jessica Delfino’s Variety Show at The Slipper Room.
Despite the neighborhood’s relatively recent rise in hipsterism and all that is edgy, raunchy and raucous, there is little chance it will, like many nouveau hip neighborhoods, become generic and precious. LES still embraces its history and vanished population and not just as a sentimental bit of nostalgia.
A most interesting, and relatively new museum that honours Lower East Side’s roots as the heart of America’s immigration history is The Tenement Museum. The meticulously restored 19th-century building, recreates apartments of residents who lived there from 1863 to 1935. A worn quilt, a child’s marbles, and faded floral wallpaper take you back to that time. And there is still just enough in LES that is unhip and gritty that the allure of this newly sassy and venerable neighborhood might just be that the old and odd are still woven throughout its fabric.
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