Post-pandemic New York is booming. Here’s why it’s back on the travel bucket list

Some bars will deliver your cocktail with a complimentary bowl of nuts. At Nubeluz in Midtown Manhattan, your drink is served with a different sort of extra: an incomparable view of the Empire State Building. Take a seat on the eastern terrace of the bar, located on the 50th floor of the new Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad, and instead of being a distant needle spiking the sky, the Empire State Building is right beside you. You feel you could reach out and touch its elegant art deco façade.

It’s not just the Empire State. With much of Manhattan arrayed in front of you, there are plenty of landmarks to admire from a fresh angle. Look one way, there’s the Flatiron Building; look another, there’s the Chrysler Building. Over there you can spy the Hudson River. And that’s before we even talk about the bar’s sumptuous interiors, the rich velvet seating and the glowing onyx bar.

All this glamour comes at a cost, of course: cocktails and mocktails alike start at $US24, although it’s worth noting that the latter are every bit as appealing as the former. But a drink here is the perfect way to celebrate the fact that, after a pandemic that hit the city hard, New York is back – and nowhere is that more evident that in Midtown Manhattan.

Midtown has always been hard to define. Even its boundaries are unclear: depending on who you ask, it stretches south from 59th Street to either 34th Street, 23rd Street or 14th Street. Home to some of the city’s best-known landmarks, from the Broadway theatre district to Grand Central station, it is also the city’s main business district.

In these post-pandemic days, many offices remain empty as people dial in from home. But what is booming is the area’s dining scene. Once considered something of a wasteland when it came to fine food, Midtown is now home to some of the city’s most talked-about restaurants.

The epicentre for the dining boom is the Rockefeller Center, where you’ll find Le Rock, a chic art deco diner from the team behind downtown favourite Frenchette, with a menu full of French classics. Then there’s 5 Acres, the latest project from Michelin-starred chef Greg Baxtrom, whose Prospect Heights storefront restaurant, Olmsted, is among the most acclaimed in Brooklyn. Adding a personal touch, 5 Acres’ greenery-filled dining room was built using wood from Baxtrom’s family farm.

Another hot table in Midtown is 53, where Singaporean chef Akmal Anuar delivers killer dim sum, kung pao quail and lobster rice in lotus leaf. Equally sizzling is Iris, where the Aegean-influenced menu features classics such as eggplant moussaka, shrimp saganaki and homemade Turkish delight.

For post-dinner drinks, check out craft cocktail destination Albert’s Bar, near Grand Central station, or Bar Bastion. Jazz fans can nestle into the velvet booths at newcomer Baretto, tucked into the Fasano hotel, or revisit old favourite Birdland.