Screw the Weather: Eat Outside!

Buckets of beer and a killer view! An Upper West Side summer secret and laid back local hangout between late March to the end of October. The large open space riverside on the Hudson overlooks docked boats, busy boardwalk and views across to Jersey. The sunset and the sprawling views are the drawcard, taking you away from the NYC rat race. More giant picnic than café, with a basic menu and everything served in plastic. Choose you time wisely to enjoy your afternoon drinks and avoid a crowded college crowd and baby carriages.

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Restaurants • Upper West Side (Lower)

The Italian Stallion

If you care about service more than food, stop reading right now. At Celeste the maître d' (or whatever it's called in Italian) is king. And he will make you wait. He'll chat up the pretty ladies. He'll pass you over for locals that show up 15 minutes after you did. But for tasty homemade pasta dishes under ten bucks, a little attitude is a small price to pay in this city. Stick it out and here's your reward: angel hair pasta with big plump clams in a powerful garlic sauce, tagliatelle loaded with shrimp, cabbage, and pecorino cheese, grilled eggplant stuffed with prosciutto on top of a tangy tomato sauce, and ravioli packed with raddicchio and speck then drowned in a sage butter sauce. It's all delicious and incredibly cheap. Just bring your patience and your cash (they don't take cards). And if you really need special service, your best shot is to bring an Italian supermodel who lives on the Upper West Side.

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Restaurants • Upper West Side (Lower)

Heavenly Kingdom of Cookies

How could I be so ignorant? So unaware? How could I think myself truly alive for (mumble) years before I experienced the chocogasmic ecstasy of a Levain Bakery cookie? Haggard and hungry from a multi-borough bike ride, a wise man scooped me up from Central Park West and led me on the final leg of my pilgrimage to the holy land. Down the steps of the subterranean temple, white and silver framing the gleaming gold of sanctified pastries, I smelled the incense of butter and chocolate. I felt the warmth and weight of the parcel bestowed upon me by the aproned shaman at the altar piled high with sweet sacraments. Finally, I tasted: rich, sweet, doughy, nutty goodness oozing cocoa as dark and primal as the moment of our creation. I am renewed, restored, enlightened. The sun shone brighter, the wind blew softer, and I floated high above the passersby, sucking the last morsels of chocolate nirvana from my fingers.

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Shopping • Upper West Side (Lower)

Grand Daisy Goes Uptown

The name is odd, and except for the lovely flower on the awning, the first impression is austere; the baked goods are well back from the door, not pressed up against the window. Perhaps the owner's grandmother Daisy was a neatnik—the type who cleans the kitchen even as she's cooking—but the results will make you swoon. I love the tartlike wild lingonberry crostata, the grape-dotted Tuscan flatbread (schiacciata d'uva), and especially the funghi pizza. It may look like a park ranger's sample from the forest floor, but those crimini mushrooms, onions, extra virgin olive oil, and fresh thyme paint an earthy, salty, dense layer on a firm but not overbaked thin crust. A square costs about three bucks, and in defiance of standard bakery rules, Grandaisy's version isn't necessarily better earlier in the day: I loved it at room temperature, just the way it was served.

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Shopping • Upper West Side (Lower)

Cheap Met Opera: Part II

You’ve got popcorn, soda pop, and feet up. But fortunately, you don’t have packaged music that kills organist jobs at ball parks. Instead, you have the Metropolitan Opera live in High Definition at movie theaters for only $18. Feels sort of like a sports game, except the audience is quiet. You can even place illegal bets: will the singers conquer the most difficult arias or lose their sense of pitch? Locations, including Regal Cinemas Union Square, are available at the Met website. Also cheap–actually free–are opening night broadcasts at Times Square and Lincoln Center. Check the Met website for summer updates. Opening night is lots of fun because of the glamour that grows out of major donors paying $100,000 a seat to attend a reception and cast dinner (Don’t worry $95,840 is tax deductible). In this kind of charged atmosphere, a great aria can bring the audience to stop the show mid-performance. Unfortunately, Beverly Sills is no longer around to provide humor and some much-needed perspective during intermissions. Most fundraisers would describe their $100,000 patrons as distinguished and generous. Not Sills. Last year, she said something like this, “We take super-rich patrons on private tours of the Met hoping that they’ll give us lots of money.”

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Landmarks • Upper West Side (Lower)

Cheap Met Opera: Part I

Always assumed that you couldn’t afford the Metropolitan Opera? Well guess what folks, you can! I myself enjoyed a fabulous production of Aida, replete with dead Ethiopians, for a fraction of the price of the average ticket. And you too can sit in the Oxygen-Tank Circle (named for the breathing apparatus you’ll need to bring with you to stay alive at this altitude) and experience dead Ethiopians for only $15 or $26. Both prices offer excellent views, but rent binoculars since faces and small props are blurry when you’re four stories up. Rentals costs $2 with a $20 refundable deposit at coat check, also inexpensive at $2.00. There’s an overpriced bar at the summit as well. And yes, you can hear every unamplified note perfectly despite having to supplement your air intake. When you talk to the box office, just ask for Family Circle tickets. Another affordable possibility, Rush Tickets, gives you the opportunity to sit where air is abundant if you can arrive at the box office two hours before curtain. A generous patron donated $2,000,000 to provide $20 orchestra seats (they usually cost $100). Apparently, some of the $100-a-seat subscribers are rather miffed about sharing oxygen. They’ll get over it once they realize that the Met needs a younger audience to replace those who will no longer need oxygen. But no matter, be sure to turn on Met Titles so you can understand the libretto.

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Theaters-Performing Arts Centers • Upper West Side (Lower)

Luigi Dance Studio

The motto at Luigi Dance Studio is "Never Stop Moving." Now in his early 80s, jazz dance legend Luigi practices what he preaches by teaching the daily “style” class to dancers (professional, novice, aspiring, and often sycophantic) who come from all over the world to experience “Luigi style.” His influence on dance is profound, having touched Broadway and Hollywood alike, and he’s regarded as having laid the foundation of modern jazz technique. His warm up emphasizes placement, carriage, and style, style, style! During the combination, his corrections and criticisms are buffered by gentle humor (“Be a butterfly!” he called out as I stumbled a half beat behind), but his passion for dance is fierce and unmistakable, and he wants you to feel the same way. Plus he walked Liza Minnelli down the aisle when she married David Gest, so he’s gotta be cool, right?

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Schools • Upper West Side (Lower)

Bouchon Bakery at Time Warner Center

When you can’t spare the $250 it takes to dine at Per Se but you really want to live in Thomas Keller’s world, stop by the counter at Bouchon Bakery. For $1.75, you can have a signature Chocolate Bouchon of your very own. It’s two heavenly bites of tender, slightly gooey chocolate cake shaped like a big cork, and it is as rich as it will make you feel while you eat it looking out on Columbus Circle from the third floor seating area of the Time Warner Center. If you want to unload a little more cash, the fresh pastries run in the $3 range, sandwiches go for about $9, and foie gras dog biscuits for your most deserving Labra-puggly-poo-zer will set you back $14. Nice to know Keller hasn’t forgotten those of us with cultivated tastes but slightly less cultivated bank accounts.

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Shopping • Upper West Side (Lower)

Beard Papa

With a logo depicting a pipe-smoking cartoon man in a funny little hat, Japanese food chain Beard Papa’s has been creating converts out of the cream puff curious since the fall of 2004. At its NoHo location (not far from NYU), bright-white surroundings punctuated with orange and yellow accents add to the energetic feel of the store. The biscuit-sized cream puffs ($1.45 to $1.55 each) consist of a flaky, croissant-like outer layer filled with a custard-like cream on the inside. While vanilla filling is always on the menu, customers can also choose from a daily rotating list of special fillings, which include familiar flavors (chocolate, strawberry, and coffee) as well as the not so familiar (green tea, organic sesame, and royal milk tea).

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Coffee • Upper West Side (Lower)

Baked-hot Cream Puff in the Best Condition

At first I thought Beard Papa was a sexual predator, but that’s only because I jump to wild conclusions. The fellow in question is actually a fictional old “seaman” with a fluffy white beard and pipe, concocted by The Muginoho Co. to peddle their creamy, creamy treats. According to the website, Beard Papa comes from Osaka. He had some house and used to lure kids inside with sweets. Then he decided to cash in, and started mass producing his puffs: light, double-layered crusts filled with a mixture of vanilla custard and whipped cream. I read somewhere that these are the new “Krispy Kreams,” which I guess means they’re the latest trendy sugar fix for folks who like to glorify the high pleasures of lowbrow snacks. Bottom line? Come to Papa!

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Coffee • Upper West Side (Lower)

Zabar’s

To step into Zabar’s is to experience a suspension of time. Owned by the Zabar family for nearly 75 years, this self-styled food emporium on the Upper West Side recalls the hustle and bustle of a New York from another era. Zabar’s presents a unique, sometimes cramped, layout along with a motley crew of employees. It’s a glass half-empty or half-full scenario, where the store could be either viewed as a zoo or a real slice of life in the city. Carrying the orange on white Zabar’s shopping bags is something of a status symbol for uptown shoppers. While other gourmet food shops proliferate in branches all around the city, Zabar’s growth is evident within their one and only location. Over time, the family has added an eat-in café and converted the second floor into a housewares mezzanine, containing a comprehensive stock of cookware and gadgetry for the self-proclaimed chef. What started out as a smoked-fish counter within the very building it now fully occupies, Zabar’s is a testament to New Yorkers’ love of both the unique and amazing food.

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Shopping , Supermarkets • Upper West Side (Lower)