FRIDAY
The Center of It All
Breakfast at JW
Marriott Essex House
New York
Breakfast in the aptly named
Southgate restaurant makes
perfect sense: It’s a portal to
Central Park, which forms
the hotel’s front yard, and
the city beyond. You might
want to go back for seconds.
You have a full day ahead.
Hidden Central Park
There’s nothing as eye-
opening as a new look at
an old favorite. Most people
know the Wollman Rink,
the Sheep Meadow and
the Reservoir, but Central
Park has unexplored nooks
and crannies that are worth
checking out. Shockingly
close to the bustle of the
hotel and the midtown
streets is the Hallett Nature
Sanctuary, a four-acre gem
on the west side of the Pond.
It’s not crowded,
so you can listen for birdcalls. As you head north and
east, you will pass by one of
many huge rocky outcroppings: Look up, because
there’s an Adirondack-style
gazebo perched there
called the Dene hut. It’s
a great place to sit and
people-watch.
Neue Galerie
1048 Fifth Ave.
neuegalerie.org
The country’s top stop for
German and Austrian art
is housed in this restored
Fifth Avenue mansion, just
off the Park. It’s small
and well-edited, the true
jewel-box experience.
This fall brings a show
of the famously tortured
Austrian artist Egon Schiele,
one of the 20th century’s
best draftsmen.
Café Sabarsky
1048 Fifth Ave.
kg-ny.com
After all that Sturm und
Drang, it might be time for
the city’s best apple strudel
and a coffee mit schlag.
Chef Kurt Gutenbrunner
has been operating the
top-notch Sabarsky inside
the Neue Galerie since it
opened, and it’s beloved
by museumgoers as well as
people who have no intention of seeing paintings.
Fivestory New York
18 E. 69th St.
fivestoryny.com
Tucked into an elegant
townhouse on one of the
SIGHTSEEING.
Entering Green-Wood
Cemetery, previous
page. This page,
clockwise from
above: breakfast at
JW Marriott Essex
House New York;
the goods at Fine &
Dandy; the Museum
of Art and Design;
Central Park. Opposite
page: an art lover at
Neue Galerie.
The cool crispness of a New York City autumn clarifies the mind, and it even makes the stuffed- to-the-gills smorgasbord of cultural options seem
approachable. No place in the world has more going
on — uptown art to downtown cabaret, soignée midtown
shopping to avant-garde Brooklyn restaurant — but when
the leaves are falling, you can just join the glide path and
bounce elegantly among the options.
If, that is, you have the right guide. Three days in New
York from a very comfy home base at the JW Marriott
Essex House New York starts right here.