Read more

Yes, we know Brooklyn is the new sweet spot for New Yorkers who consider themselves in touch with the zeitgeist of the city. But the fact remains that Manhattan is the primary reason millions risk life, limb and financial ruin to flock to New York City every day. Quintessential New York writer Jimmy Breslin once said, “People born in Queens, raised to say that each morning they get on the subway and ‘go to the city,’ have a resentment of Manhattan, of the swiftness of its life Read more

★ BEST NEW NYC NATURAL DISASTER  First, weary travelers started complaining of contaminated hotel beds (and we’re not talking about splooge). Then, the city’s finest found they weren’t alone come bedtime. That’s right, bedbugs have invaded New York City! (Dun … dun ... dunn…) Now, after nearly a 50-year absence, the United States is getting reacquainted with these nasty blood-sucking pests. Experts blame their return on travel, saying the cr Read more

★  BEST 24-HOUR DUMBBELL SERVICES POLISH CULTURAL CENTER OTOM Gym 169 Calyer St. (betw. Lorimer St. & Manhattan Ave.) 718-383-2800 Most 24-hour gyms in New York fall into one of two categories: the clean, well-lit, namby-pamby juice bar variety used primarily for preening by rich girls and anonymous steam room sex by rich guys, or the dark, dingy storefront iron factories used primarily for pre-prison bulking up and selling steroids out of the supply closet. Luckil Read more

★ BEST ART HOUSE MOVIE THEATER WITH A PORN VIBE Two Boots Pioneer Theater 155 E. 3rd St. (betw. Aves. A & B) 212-591-0434 Times Square was succumbing to its makeover, but there were still a few porn pits that hadn’t yet closed. A few of them kept running all night while showing DVDs of bootleg kung-fu films and old public domain movies. It was a lot of fun to stop by at 3 a.m. and watch these things. We’d sit in the cheap rows of seats nailed to the floor, look at the t Read more

★ BEST TRANSFORMATION OF A FIGHT-PRONE DIVE BAR INTO A MEATPACKING DISTRICT SUCKPIT  Village Idiot Becomes Gin Lane 355 W. 14th St. (betw. 8th & 9th Aves.) 212-691-0555 The stench hit you like a baseball bat. It was a retch-inducing cocktail of stale urine, puke, sweat, liquor, old smoke and testosterone. That was the perfume of the Meatpacking District’s infamous Village Idiot, where men drank $5 domestic pitchers, puked in the bathroom, then brawled for the honor of slutt Read more

Best Summer Festival Central Park Summer Stage (U.E.S.) Best Public Bathroom Barnes & Nobles Best Place to See Fashionistas Meatpacking District Best Weekly Club Night Black Cat Tuesdays at Otto’s Shrunken Head (East Side) Best DJ DJ Meat Mistress Best Place For Radical Politics ABC No Rio – www.abcnorio.org Best Republican Hang-Out Rodeo Bar (East Side) Best Bronx Bar Rambling House (Woodlawn) Best Brooklyn Bar The Lucky Cat (Williamsburg) Best Queens Bar Bohe Read more

BO INTRO WELCOME TO BEST OF MANHATTAN (AND BEYOND) 2005 What do Gustav Mahler, Jimi Hendrix, Jenna Jameson, Federico Garcia Lorca, Greta Garbo, Hillary Clinton and Mike Meyers have in common? Just one thing: Somewhere along the line, they all realized that they had to come to New York, that it was the place to be. We agree. So, for all our bitching and moaning, we choose one week each year (this week, as it happens) to put forward particular recognition of the city in all its stra Read more

Read more

Read more