New York is simply, a city of superlatives and immensity. And thus to take in even a fraction of what she offers, sleep really becomes a non-starter issue. In the arts realm alone, visitors and New Yorkers alike are spoilt to a level of rotten that can only be befitting of the epicentre of the art world. From world-class, venerable public institutions like The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum to top-of-their-game commercial galleries like David Zwirner, Gagosian and Levy Gorvy, and finally to avant garde and more experimental spaces showing the best of fledgling talents across multiple disciplines, the challenge is indeed finding sanity from the insane amount of art to gawk at.
Maybe there is something to do with the fact that her name has a 'New' in it because the capital of the world is always on a process of reinvention, rejuvenation and reexamination, never settling for less.
wee black book : NEW YORK CITY EDITION
TOKYO WEE BLACK BOOK
D I S C O V E R
WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART
Get schooled properly in modern and contemporary American art here at "The Whitney". The Renzo Piano glass behemoth is a major upgrade from its previous Upper East Side location and is a well-deserved home for this esteemed institution housing important art from Jasper Johns, Georgia O'Keeffe to Jean-Michel Basquiat.
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (MOMA)
This predictable listing is probably a little shameful but we cannot not include the MOMA of all MOMAs when it is this seminally important an arts, or indeed any cultural, institution. Perhaps the most important art shows and retrospectives have had their time here, and walking through the permanent collection is like paying prilgrimage to the art masters that came before us. The recent expansion, led by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (with a Jean Nouvel tower to boot), of adding 47,000 square feet of floor space means new artworks- and new perspectives to view them from. So spend a full day here, and we bet shame is the last emotion you would feel.
FRICK MADISON
The most current reincarnation of what was the brutalist home of Met Breuer and the Whitney, is now the home of the Frick collection. Don't get too comfortable though since this is only a 2-year arrangement while this small but preeminent museum finds a new home. Come oogle at Frick's eclectic taste from the Old Masters to European fine and decorative arts, right up to the early 20th century, in an ever-expanding collection.
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D I S H
ATOMIX
It speaks volumes about the diversity of NY's food scene that its top restaurant is a ultra-modern Korean degustation restaurant. Having all of 14-seats dotted round a U-shaped counter, its Korean pride is deeply entrenched in the introduction of its dishes always in Korean first, and also in the showcasing of traditional cooking methods elevated to stratospheric levels.
atomixnyc.com
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SERRA BY BIRRERIA
Meaning "greenhouse" in Italian, this gorgeous space by the Flatiron Building lives by to its name (more in spring and summer) when its trees turn a respledent verdant green drooping over the tables. Its menu also changes seasonally but stays true to its honest, rustic roots.
UNA PIZZA NAPOLETANA
Lower East Side's newest resident comes in the form of the "Best Pizzeria In The World" and boy should the other neighbourhoods be amply jealous. A minimal menu with just beans and olives as appetisers is Anthony Mangieri telling you that they mean serious business with making Naples's most famous culinary export. This is properly NYC's shrine to pizza and we should all go running to worship.
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S N O O Z E
PUBLIC HOTEL
It seems Ian Schrager can do no wrong. After the successful collaboration with Marriott with Edition, his new venture PUBLIC, sits oh-so-comfortably in the upscale neighbourhood of Nolita. The jaw-dropping Japanese copper, Donald Judd–inspired escalator that greets you almost certainly promises a painfully chic experience. And then you find out that each of the 367 rooms is designed by Herzog & de Meuron and each includes an Italian-made, wire-brushed- oak bed that is inspired by Thomas Jefferson’s at Monticello, among other high-end amenities. To top it off, there’s that Jean-Georges restaurant as its anchor dining outlet. That promise is now entirely fulfilled.
ROYALTON PARK AVENUE
There is no shortage of hip and trendy hotels in the ever-cool neighoubourhood that is NoMad. But a lot of things set Royalton Park Avenue apart: that Upper West Side sensibility three-story atrium lobby, the luscious layouts of the rooms by Andi Pepper with Edison bulb chandeliers and dark leather couches, and definitely, that heated indoor-outdoor pool. In the summers, imbibe on a seasonal cocktail in the shadow of the majestic Empire State and ogle at the ridiculously beautiful crowd.
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AMAN NEW YORK
What is not said by the quiet opulence that an Aman property offers, is probably because we lack the vernacular for it. And this is probably a little bit more true for only Aman's second urban property. For New York, it really did go all out to quell any talk that it has not properly landed. From the rarefied tranquility exuding from the iconic Beaux-Arts Crown Building that is so rare in never-sleeping New York to the carvenous suites designed by Jean Michel-Gathy that screams Japanese minimalism that flirts with Southeast Asian detailing, NYC's most expensive hotel may well be worth every pretty dime you splurge on it.
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