How to Have an Unusual Saturday in Harlem
You probably got here by Googling “weird NYC” or “weird things to do in New York.” Here’s how to live your best off-the-beaten-track life in Harlem for a day.
SATURDAY - Harlem
10am: Giddy up. You’re gonna head to Superhet Coffee at 390 Manhattan Avenue in Harlem. It’s an expensive java joint where the proprietor absolutely BLASTS heavy metal all day.
11am: Walk 15 minutes to hit up Wu & Nussbaum at 2897 Broadway - perhaps the city’s only Jewish/Chinese combo restaurant, and get your bagel breakfast.
12pm: Take a “vertical tour” of the Cathedral of St. John The Divine at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue. This building is WILD, and the vertical tour will have you squeezing into locations you didn’t know could exist inside a church.
1:30pm: Meander your way to the Uptown Manhattan Trinity Church Cemetery Mausoleum at 601 West 153rd Street - it’s massive and very pretty! There are some Titanic passengers buried there, as well as some other NYC notables.
2:30pm: Head back downtown a bit to check out the Royal Tenenbaums’ house at 144th Street and Convent Avenue, and continue walking downtown through the campus of City College, which has some absolutely stunning architecture.
3pm: Down to 125th Street you go - to the heart of Harlem! The Apollo Theater is closed for renovations, but you can get cool photos around back, at the stage door on 126th Street - where all the stars of Amateur Nights past have entered the building.
4pm: Get a midday pick-me-up at perhaps NYC’s only coffee shop that is hidden inside of a hardware store - Mushtari Cafe!
5pm: With a bit of daylight left, head east on 125th to see some fantastic street art (South side of the street), and then take a right on Park Avenue to head down to….106 and Park (sound familiar?) It’s the Graffiti Hall of Fame, and it’s free to check it out.
6pm: Grab dinner at East Harlem Bottling Co. at 1171 Lexington Avenue - for locally-brewed beer and great food!
9pm: Go see a cool show at The Shrine at 2271 Adam Clayton Powell Blvd- it’s a divey nightclub with live music, where the walls and ceiling are decked out in record covers. Always a great time and a very cool crowd.
