NY Adventures

SOMETHING OLD

While there are peeks into Manhattan's 400 year old history scattered across the borough, it's rare to find many amongst the rioting skyline of the Financial District.

Little seems to have a sense of history here, but tucked away near Manhattan's southernmost tip, hidden by the walls of glass and light, is the island's oldest building. The Fraunces Tavern has stood upon the corner of Pearl Street and Broad Street, in one form or another since 1762.

The tavern is best known for the part it played in the American Revolution. A pre-presidential George Washington based himself here after seeing off the British rapscallions, after which the building provided offices for Congress.

There are several rooms and restaurants within the building, most featuring elegant Colonial furniture. The tavern bar itself lets the experience down somewhat; the centrepiece of this historical setting is ye olde eye-stretching plasma screen rammed with sport and gas guzzling commercials.

The age of the tavern comes attached with the small print that parts of the building has been torn down and undergone significant modernisation over the centuries; the claim of Manhattan's oldest building is one set by the tavern's own museum. Still, there's no doubting the quiet sense of history to be found here amongst the mania of downtown.

Fraunces Tavern and Museum
54 Pearl Street, Manhattan
212 968 1776

DEEP DOWN AND DIRTY

The Lower East Side may be hip, but it also bears all the hallmarks of a neighbourhood beaten with a brick and left for dead in the gutter. There's no doubting the credentials though, because the LES is home to the cool, the classy and the celebrity.

A couple of bars where famous faces have been known to drink are stashed away within a street of one another. 151 is a dark, miserable excuse of a dive. A filthy low ceiling squeezes the clientele into the floor, while others hide away in darkened corners. No neon, no bright lights guide the way - you need to count the door numbers along Rivington Street until you reach 151, and the unmarked door in the basement of an apartment block.