Meet 22nd Street
Quiet on the east side, busy and convivial in the Flatiron district, green and residential in Chelsea, and art-centric on the far west side, 22nd Street is a potpourri of Manhattan adventures. Punctured by three long stretches of excellent food spanning different cuisines and dining experiences, 22nd Street is also home to several educational facilities, arts centers and galleries.
On the east side, the first places of great interest that we passed were Lamarca Pasta. Unpretentious on the outside, we ventured inside and experienced Lamarca’s main attraction: fresh pasta. As we continued walking, we found that the east side of 22nd is home to an unusual combination of high-end, acclaimed restaurants and schools. In between the Epiphany School, Baruch College, School of the Future, and the École Internationale de NYC, lies BLT Prime, the go-to for great American steak-and-potatoes, and Novita, a neighborhood Italian staple.
The center of 22nd Street is occupied by several more gastronomic treats. Almond, just east of the central Flatiron Building, is an open, genial brasserie with outdoor seating that serves French-influenced food all day long. We loved BXL Zoute — a Belgian bar and brasserie known for their “all you can eat” mussel pots, which come in a variety of sauces, and are served with ice-cold Stella.
The central western side of 22nd Street is full of photography and design-related businesses. The Valen Institute, Manhattan’s only bookstore devoted entirely to architecture, amazed us with its bright yellow sculptural installation. Next-door was Mosaic House, home of gorgeous, handcrafted and hand-dyed Moroccan ceramic and concrete tiles.
Walking further west, we almost missed Living Fresh Men’s Spa, whose storefront window masks a surprisingly large, winsome interior that attracts the city’s men with luxurious massage, body and facial treatments. Following suit, Mantiques Modern caters to a male clientele, although we saw both men and women ogling over mint-condition nineteenth and twentieth century antiques.
NY Cake and Baking Distributors and L’Atelier du Chocolat New York are all about sweets. L’Atelier du Chocolat purveys impeccably carved and painted Valrhona truffles out of their tiny, serene glass storefront. NY Cake and Baking was, perhaps, our best find on 22nd Street. On a street that is not usually terribly busy, lies an enormous store that sells every possible baking-related item on the market. We were shocked to come across it and as we walked up and down the aisles, we were in complete awe. This is any baker’s dream and apparently many a celebrity chef’s go-to place for discovering the newest and the best in baking goods.
The end of 22nd Street, between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, is chock-full of art galleries: DC Moore, Yancey Richardson, Silas Seandel, and CRG, to name a few. Rei Kawakubo’s NYC flagship clothing store, Comme Des Garcons, is also located on this block, and it might as well be considered an art gallery itself. Its dramatic metal entrance, white labyrinth interior, and sculptural designs lining the curved walls all make for an incredible show and a fitting end to a day of discovery.
