Why I love NYC #5: Food and Drink

There are few pleasures like good food and good drinks, and New York is home to amazing options across the board.  If eating is your pleasure, options range from pizza to raw oysters to every ethnic cuisine imaginable.  You can find excellent Thai, Chinese and Japanese, but also Burmese, Ethiopian, Caribbean, Argentinian, French... you name it.  You want fried grasshopper tacos?  (Try next door to Irving Plaza.)  Looking for a traditional Irish breakfast?  (Thady Con's in midtown is pretty good.)  The fierce competition ensures that across the city, restaurants are superior, regardless of price range.  You can spend a couple bucks on a slice, or a couple hundred on an omakase, and there's a time and a place for every option. 

But your experience wouldn't be complete without the booze.  And New York is a city for drinking.  Whether it's pitchers of cheap beer with free hot dogs on the side or $20 specialty martinis, finding a drink in New York is even easier than finding a meal.  People sip bottomless mimosas with brunch, drink rose wine outside on summer afternoons, do shots.  We slug down beers and toast with champagne.  New Yorkers can make every occasion an occasion to drink.  It's all made possible by the city's reliance on public transportation; there's never a reason to drink and drive here.