What makes the Lower East Side, where my boyfriend and I live, interesting is that it has retained it's diversity. It has yet to become a monotonous row of fancy clothing shops, design shops, museums, expensive restaurants and bars. It's working on it - especially with the addition of the Thompson LES hotel that will feature Susur Lee's first NYC dining room after being a star in Toronto for years. He's so dedicated to this endeavor that he closed down his very successful Toronto restaurant so he could focus on it.
Sorry about the digression.
The point I'm trying to make is that along with all that typical stuff, you still have lots of housing projects, poor people, a wonderful diaspora of people from all over the world, especially the food/produce aromas and bustle of Chinese culture, the persistent orthodox Jewish presence, and a fun Latin vibe. It is, in fact, still a neighborhood while most of the rest of Manhattan has become alley ways of luxury condominiums.
I walk by the Streit's factory on Rivington street almost daily. The other day, the adjacent Streit's store was open so I went in and bought some matzo for my boyfriend. But, as he keeps insisting, it turns out to be an amazing way to eat local cheese, that I can buy around the corner at the Essex street market from Ann and Benoit at Saxelby Cheese.
Make a journey downtown if you live in New York and visit a New York landmark - no telling how longer it will stay there.
For those of you unable to visit I took two videos, one from the inside, one from the outside.
I love this place.
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