DOWNTOWN
Cool kids can explore indoor and outdoor public art, shopping, pop-ups and lots of inventive food between Canal & 14th street.
See our neighborhood map to plan, but leave time for fun discoveries in these funky streets.
EVENTS
Museum of Ice Cream
558 Broadway at Prince StreetExplore a colorful pop-up with 13 interactive installations across 3 floors (plus a 3 story slide) that’s fun for sweet lovers of all ages. Eat as many ice cream treats as you want in 5 different shapes and forms. Play in a game room with mini golf and jungle gyms, jump or slide into a…
Some Bunny To Love: Year of the Rabbit, 2023
100 Hester St at EldrigeCelebrate the Lunar New Year with this new mural by BKFoxx and Claudio Picasso in Chinatown.
OUR ROOTS RUN DEEP: Finding Home in Chinatown
452 Broadway at Grand StUsing only cardboard and glue, Chinese American artist Warren King captures in exquisite beauty and detail everyday moments in nearby Chinatown. Distinctive life-sized sculptures, as well as smaller scale and wall-hanging pieces, depict local residents: women engaged in lively conversation, a hardworking fish vendor, players and spectators of an intense game of Chinese chess, and…
Off-Broadway Week
340 W 50th StGet 2-for-1 tickets on Off-Broadway shows Feb 15-Mar 5. The participating shows have not been announced yet; kid-friendly topions in past years have includes Gazillion Bubble Show, Blue Man Group, andThe Play That Goes Wrong.
See our ages recs for Broadway shows and more options for family-friendly theater (plus how to save…
Lunar New Year at Essex Market
88 Essex StCelebrate the year of the rabbit with variety of all-ages on the mezzanine of Essex Market. Sample dumpling sand enjoy lantern crafting, giveaways, and a lion dance.
Super Saturday Lion Dancing
452 Broadway at Grand StCatch a showstopping performance with The Wan Chi Ming Dragon Lion Dance Team on this penultimate day of the 15-day Lunar New Year festivities. Check out stunning new art exhibition, OUR ROOTS RUN DEEP by Warren King, and shop the iconic Asian emporium feature.
Eldridge Eats: A History of the Lower East Side Food Tour
12 Eldridge StreetVisit historic Lower East Side sites and nosh on delicious rugelach, pickles, knishes, and dumplingsStroll through the neighborhood’s 100-year history with long-time Lower East Side resident and Museum at Eldridge Street Docent Richard Soden. Learn about what life was like for Jewish immigrants at the turn of the last century: Where children played, where…
Family Day: I Love NYC
536 LaGuardia PlaceLook at the various designs for the Love in Times Square Design Competition, an annual competition that invites architecture firms to think about how a Valentine sent from the heart of Times Square could express love for everyone. As a family, design and build your own model of a 3D Valentine for NYC.
Sign up…
Valentine’s Day at the Jackie Robinson Museum
75 Varick StCelebrate Valentine’s Day with a special look a the loving partnership between Jackie and Rachel Robinson and the Robinson family.
See items from the Robinson Family collection not regularly on display. Join story time at 1 pm & 2 pm and hands-on activities for children (ongoing between 12 pm & 3 pm).
POP UPS
Arcadia Earth
718 Broadway at West 6th StreetExplore a large scale, multi-sensorial journey through underwater worlds, fantasy lands, and inspirational art installations. Powered by augmented reality, virtual reality, projection mapping, and interactive environments, learn how small lifestyle changes can have a massive impact on the future of our planet. Interact with holograms in every room with HoloLens, Microsoft’s augmented reality headset.
For…
Sloomoo Institute
475 Broadway between Broome & Grand Streets* Explore a sensory playground centered around slime. Walk & crawl through an obstacle course with a vat of slime, take photos with slime-inspired art, play with a slime catapult and more. Turn into slime in a augmented reality glow-in-the-dark cove, smell dozens of scents and chill in ASMR booths.
* Make an included custom…
Museum of Ice Cream
558 Broadway at Prince StreetExplore a colorful pop-up with 13 interactive installations across 3 floors (plus a 3 story slide) that’s fun for sweet lovers of all ages.
Eat as many ice cream treats as you want in 5 different shapes and forms. Play in a game room with mini golf and jungle gyms, jump or slide into a…
PLAY
Wilson NYC Flagship
594 Broadway at HoustonPlay in a 6,400-square-foot atrium in the new Wilson NYC Flagship store. Hit tennis balls, shoot hoops on an indoor court and test out products among cool design.
In-store services include racket stringing, leather ball customization, and glove personalization.
Monday-Saturday 11 am – 8 pm
Sunday 11 am – 6 pm
Valentine’s Day at the Jackie Robinson Museum
75 Varick StCelebrate Valentine’s Day with a special look a the loving partnership between Jackie and Rachel Robinson and the Robinson family.
See items from the Robinson Family collection not regularly on display. Join story time at 1 pm & 2 pm and hands-on activities for children (ongoing between 12 pm & 3 pm).
MUSEUMS & ART
Freeman Alley
Freeman Alley between Bowery & ChrystieLook for all sorts of tags & paste-ups at one of the most famous graffiti spots in NYC, a storied alley on the north side of Rivington Street between Bowery and Chrystie Street. The walls of former horse stables turned marble factory turned residences are crammed with images and messages. Find ‘rugged clandestine colonial American…
New Museum
235 BoweryAlways something interesting to see – or interact with – at Manhattan’s only dedicated contemporary art museum in a geometric building in a cool neighborhood.
HIGHLIGHTS:
☁️ Great view from the top floor Sky Room.
CURRENT EXHIBITS:
🪨 Evocative salvaged sculptures in Theaster Gates: Young Lords and Their Traces.
🔈 All-encompassing sonic experience
The Museum at Eldridge Street
12 Eldridge StreetStep inside history and explore an icon of New York City resilience. Learn the story of the grand 19th-century Eldridge Street Synagogue and the Jewish immigrants who built it.
HIGHLIGHTS:
🕍 In self-guided tours, experience life through the eyes of a newly arrived immigrant to New York’s Lower East Side
🕍 Free docent-led tours…
Wilson NYC Flagship
594 Broadway at HoustonPlay in a 6,400-square-foot atrium in the new Wilson NYC Flagship store. Hit tennis balls, shoot hoops on an indoor court and test out products among cool design.
In-store services include racket stringing, leather ball customization, and glove personalization.
Monday-Saturday 11 am – 8 pm
Sunday 11 am – 6 pm
Jackie Robinson Museum
75 Varick StLearn about the life and legacy of Jackie Robinson through artifacts, historical imagery and multilayered storytelling. Celebrate the enduring legacy of Robinson’s multifaceted commitment to advancing equal opportunity for all through activism, civic engagement, and economic empowerment efforts.
⚾️ Follow a chronology of Robinson’s life set within the context of 20th-century America with interactive…
Some Bunny To Love: Year of the Rabbit, 2023
100 Hester St at EldrigeCelebrate the Lunar New Year with this new mural by BKFoxx and Claudio Picasso in Chinatown.
OUR ROOTS RUN DEEP: Finding Home in Chinatown
452 Broadway at Grand StUsing only cardboard and glue, Chinese American artist Warren King captures in exquisite beauty and detail everyday moments in nearby Chinatown. Distinctive life-sized sculptures, as well as smaller scale and wall-hanging pieces, depict local residents: women engaged in lively conversation, a hardworking fish vendor, players and spectators of an intense game of Chinese chess, and…
EAT
Max Brenner
841 Broadway at East 13th StreetSelect from nine hot chocolates – Italian Thick, Oreo, Peanut Butter and more – at this huge cafe and store that feels like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, with tubes of liquid chocolate criss crossing the space. Choose from a variety of creative, high-quality chocolate concoctions to fo, gift or to eat on site.
Salads, paninis,…
Levain Bakery NOHO
340 Lafayette Street at Bleecker StreetEverything is baked on-site throughout the day at this Noho outpost of the legendary UWS bakery, from an array of rustic breads to the world-famous, super-gooey, six-ounce cookies in four flavors: Two Chip Chocolate Chip, Walnut Chocolate Chip, Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip & Oatmeal Raisin (plus a gluten-free chocolate chip…
Dominique Ansel Bakery
189 Spring Street between Sullivan & ThompsonFrench bakery Dominique Ansel has delicious classic and post-modern pastries and specular seasonal desserts like hot chocolate with a blossoming marshmallow flower, frozen s’mores and milk in a chocolate chip cookie cup.
If you see a line down the block it’s probably for a cronut, the rightly famous croissant-doughnut hybrid pastry with flavors that change…
Essex Market
88 Essex StSample fresh, affordable, and high quality food and other items from 40+ small businesses in this Lower East Side fixture.
Shop vendors with individual stories and distinctive personality for delicious treats like cupcakes from Sugar Sweet Sunshine, cheeseburger empanadas from Dominican Cravings, ube ice cream from L.E.S. Ice Cream…
Shopsin’s
88 Essex StThis whimsical, family-owned restaurant features a legendary 900-item menu with dozens of wacky (and delicious) pancakes varieties filled everything from s’mores and mac n’cheese. Lots of savory, extravagant egg, sandwiches etc. options also.
Small seating area; expect waits on weekends (but lots to explore in the indoor Essex Market while you wait). The owner…
Ladurée Soho
398 W BroadwayEscape to Ladurée’s pastel Parisian wonderland, where the only stress is choosing among the 25+ colorful flavors, from salted caramel to strawberry marshmallow – plus chocolate covered macarons, fancy French ice cream, macaron ice cream sandwiches, sorbets and more sweet treats.
Get your treats to go or dine on casual yet sophisticated French fare including…
Economy Candy
108 Rivington StreetAt this legendary family-owned LES sweets emporium, founded in 1937, shop over 2,000+ items, including international gummies, unique candy bars, a color-sorted jelly belly bar, chocolate covered graham crackers (with and without jelly), bacon and kale lollipops and so much more. Also find unique toys, Pez, gifts and vintage trading cards featuring fan favorites from…
The Pickle Guys
357 Grand StreetTry free samples of old-fashioned pickles, barrel cured from an old Eastern European recipe at this unique friendly LES spot. Rows of barrels features pickled turnips, pineapples and other items along with a wide variety of pickled cucumbers.
They even have pickle-flavored cotton candy for sale. Or head next door to Doughnut Plant for…
Beetle House NY
308 East 6th StreetCelebrate Halloween year-round in a unique dining experience inspired by horror culture, magic and the artistic, literary and cinematic works of Tim Burton, Alfred Hitchcock, Bram Stoker, Washington Irving, Edgar Allen Poe, and many many more. In short, Halloween party with a Burtonesque feel, curated by Alfred Hitchcock, with a 90s goth band on stage…
Museum of Ice Cream
558 Broadway at Prince StreetExplore a colorful pop-up with 13 interactive installations across 3 floors (plus a 3 story slide) that’s fun for sweet lovers of all ages.
Eat as many ice cream treats as you want in 5 different shapes and forms. Play in a game room with mini golf and jungle gyms, jump or slide into a…
Winter Garden at The Standard East Village
25 Cooper SquareHunker down in private alpine yurts, or outside (with heaters) among the twinkling evergreens. The cozy menu includes raclette burgers, fresh oysters, orange blossom waffles, spiked hot cider, gooey fondue, freshly baked beignets and more.
Sat-Sun brunch: 11 am – 1:30 pm (no minimum)
Dinner: 4 – 7:30 pm ($100 pp minimum)
Blossoming Hot Chocolate
189 Spring Street between Sullivan & ThompsonA marshmallow flower blooms when it’s placed into a cup of homemade hot chocolate, revealing a little bonbon surprise in the center. One of many delicious classic and post-modern pastries and specular seasonal desserts at French bakery Dominique Ansel
If you see a line down the block it’s probably for a cronut, the…