New York neighbourhoods: An upmarket experience in Manhattan's Lower East Side

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This was published 9 years ago

New York neighbourhoods: An upmarket experience in Manhattan's Lower East Side

Manhattan’s Lower East Side is no longer the wild side of the city, writes Lee Tulloch.

By Lee Tulloch
Boho style: Manhattan’s Lower East Side street mural.

Boho style: Manhattan’s Lower East Side street mural.Credit: Alamy

It's known as "LES" and it's the up-and-coming New York neighbourhood. Or should I say "up and came"? Because the gentrification of Manhattan's Lower East Side has been so rapid in the past few years that it would be unrecognisable to the European immigrants who colonised its tenements in the 19th Century. Or even to Stefi Germanotta, aka Lady Gaga, who was a go-go dancer in a dive bar on Rivington Street in the 2000s.

In fact it's unrecognisable to me. I lived north of the neighbourhood in the East Village in the 1980s, which has undergone its own transformation, mostly due to the area being taken over by students from New York University. The East Village was edgy enough in the crack era, but the Lower East Side was dodgier - only my most impoverished artist friends found lodgings there.

And yet, by day, it was full of life, a bustling district of tailors, fabric wholesalers, delis and small bakeries selling knishes, bialys and pickles. Yiddish was spoken widely and there was still a linear connection with the original Jewish immigrants who found employment in the clothing industry doing piecework from their crowded tenement apartments. Nowadays, there are only a few holdouts, such as Katz's Delicatessen, Russ & Daughters speciality foods on East Houston Street and Kossar's Bialys and Bagels on Grand Street. Most of the fabric stores on Orchard Street are gone, replaced by art galleries, craft brewers, fashion boutiques and even the (inevitable) Australian owned cafe, Dudley's. On Broome Street there's a chocolaterie that has posted a sign of the times, "We sell Hipster chocolate".

On the rise: Manhattan's Lower East Side.

On the rise: Manhattan's Lower East Side. Credit: iStock

Among the artfully grungy bars and diners, you can find purveyors selling cupcakes, bubble tea and lobster sandwiches. The boutiques have names like Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics and Moo Shoes (Cruelty Free.) There's an extremely hip salon called Blunt decorated with old barber's chairs and cabinets. The Roasting Plant cafe has a Javabot, a robot that measures, weighs and roasts the green beans you select and brews a bespoke cup just for you. Opposite Katz's Deli, famous for its pastrami and rude counter attendants, there's the pretentiously named, pristine Il Laboratorio del Gelato. Strictly speaking, LES, also known by its Latino name "Loisada", is bounded by East Houston Street to the north, Canal Street to the south, the Bowery on the west and the river on the east. At its perimeters it blends into Chinatown, Nolita and the East Village, making the entire lower part of Manhattan a throbbing mass of bars, galleries, cafes and boutiques.

During the day, LES is quieter than neighbouring Nolita and Soho but at night, when the students wake up, it's like a big party spilling onto the streets (in warmer weather), populated, or so it seems, mostly by Millennials - students, Trust Fund kids, social media "influencers". John Cale and Lou Reed shared an apartment in the LES in the 1960s and formed The Velvet Underground. These days, the musos and artists have to look elsewhere for cheap digs.

Where once there were only fleabags, now there are hotels. The Hotel on Rivington, occupying a glitzy Tokyo-like glass tower, was the first new hotel in the LES when it opened in 2005 but it's getting some company.

Visionary hotelier New Zealand-born Sean MacPherson, who successfully launched the Maritime Hotel, one of the pioneering establishments in the Meat Packing District, as well as The Jane in the West Village and The Marlton on once down-at-heel 8th Street, turned his attention to LES in 2007, when he opened The Bowery Hotel on the Lower East Side's infamous Bowery, where the homeless once lived rough.

Many thought the swank new hotel in a grungy neighbourhood wouldn't work, but MacPherson and partner Eric Goode got the mood right. A Wholefoods mega store soon moved into East Houston Street and the new New Museum of Contemporary Art opened on the Bowery at the end of 2007.

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Now Sean Macpherson has just opened another hotel, this time on Ludlow Street, across the street from Katz's Delicatessen. The Ludlow Hotel follows MacPherson's successful formula of introducing glammed-up Boho style to emerging neighbourhoods that have their own kind of seedy glamour.

The 184-room Ludlow Hotel is recognisably the little sister of The Bowery, with a similarly raffish lobby lounge and fireplace opening onto a garden terrace and MacPherson's trademark Left Bank Paris – inspired decor. The hotel occupies a modern 20-storey building but the narrow corridors, featuring a distressed-patterned carpet, feel like the interior of an old SRO, or Single Room Occupancy, the boarding houses that once filled the Lower East Side. When I stayed there, there was even the scent of cooked Chinese food in my hallway – I wondered if they'd sprayed it deliberately to set the mood.

Pitched as ``Trustafarian meets Miss Haversham", The Ludlow is a bit posh and a bit gritty and very rock 'n' roll. Pretty young things in floppy hats louche about in the lobby. The bar is so popular at night, you have to shoehorn yourself in. By day, guests type away on their laptops on comfy sofas or sit in the courtyard with a paper cup of coffee.

I stay in a cleverly designed Skybox Loft – a bedroom with an adjoining sitting room that has floor to ceiling windows on three sides, so the guest is suspended above the LES with views across the rooftops of the district's tenements and warehouses. I suppose you would call the style Tough Luxe. It's certainly luxurious in many aspects, including the deep tub with its own picturesque view of the neighbourhood and bathrobes by ultra-cool Paris-based designer Martin Margiela.

Another legendary hotelier, Ian Schrager (The Gramercy Park Hotel, PUBLIC Chicago, EDITION London) has his eyes on LES: he'll be opening a hotel in a glittering new tower on Chrystie street in 2016. An outpost of the Soho House group of luxury hotels will also open in the next year or two.

If you need a context for the gentrification of LES, a short walking distance from The Ludlow is the marvellous Lower East Side Tenement Museum, an essential start to any visit to the neighbourhood. The museum includes a building, 97 Orchard Street, which has been restored to show the lives of the real families that lived and worked there. Different floors of the building are dedicated to different experiences, from the clothing workers to the Irish families that were ``outsiders" among the mostly-Jewish residents.

The museum also offers a series of daily neighbourhood walks, taking in the varied aspects of LES from food to the stories behind the storefronts.

Further along Orchard Street, a sign outside Shut Professional Skateboard Mechanics laments the changes: ``New York's first skateboard company. Local since 1986, back when New York was bad and dangerous".

TRIP NOTES

MORE INFORMATION

tenement.org

WHERE TO STAY

The Ludlow Hotel is brilliantly located for all LES adventures on revitalised Ludlow Street, offering 184 guestrooms, including 20 spectacular suites in nine configurations. Rooms vary in size, but each has sweeping views of the district and many have a private terrace. Rooms from $US325. Three stars. See ludlowhotel.com

GETTING THERE

In 2015, Qantas will increase its frequency of direct flights to Los Angeles from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, connecting to New York. For details visit: qantas.com

Where to eat in LES

Katz's Delicatessen

This huge barn of a place with laminate tables and cheesy faux wood panelling is New York's oldest surviving deli and one of the last few. Less touristy than uptown's Carnegie Deli, it's justifiably famous for its hand-sliced pastrami and corned beef sandwiches. A thick pastrami and rye sandwich will set you back $19.75. 205 East Houston St. See katzsdelicatessen.com

Russ & Daughters Café

For 100 years, Russ & Daughters has sold speciality food from its East Houston Street store. There's a beautiful new cafe around the corner, fitted out with stylish retro decor, where you can try some of their offerings, from lox, eggs and onions ($15) to challah bread pudding ($9). Be a mensch and try them out. Open daily except Tuesdays. 127 Orchard Street. See russanddaughterscafe.com

Freeman's

Tucked away in a quaint alley off Chrystie Street, this great bar and restaurant is a popular spot for brunch on weekends. Don't be put off by the queue - waiting at the bar for a table while watching the LES crowd is fun. Dishes range from the sophisticated to the homey, including Devils on Horseback ($9) and a really delicious Five Cheese macaroni ($14) 191 Chrystie Street. See freemansrestaurant.com

The Fat Radish

This old sausage factory has been converted into a beautiful, airy space and serves farm-to-table dishes in English Gastropub style. The light, flavourful, mostly organic food includes Scotch Eggs ($10) and Devilled Brussels Sprouts ($10) or Roasted Pekin Duck Breast with squash ($30). Even the desserts (Banoffee Pie is heavenly) are lighter than you might expect. 17 Orchard Street. See thefatradishnyc.com

The writer was the guest of The Ludlow Hotel and Qantas.

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