Unusual books about food and drink abound in this 19th-century New York townhouse.

Have a steam and some blini at this cafe in a century-old bathhouse.

More than 250 sakes are available in an izakaya hidden in the basement of a Midtown office building.

A Jewish deli run by Yemeni Muslims in an Afro-Caribbean neighborhood is quintessential Brooklyn.

This subterranean oyster house has been the pearl of Grand Central Station since 1913.

Two New York rooftops are home to the largest rooftop soil farms in the world.

“Invented in Key West, Perfected in Brooklyn."

Just your average Marie Antoinette–themed speakeasy in an abandoned 19th-century subway tunnel.

A hip bar decorated with walls of golden skulls.

Order scoops of pandan, lychee, and black sesame at this family-run institution.

The one-stop shop for all of your superhero (or evil arch-nemesis) needs.

This lower Manhattan bar is set up in an old bank vault that rests beneath a skyscraper that hides even more historic splendor.

The world’s oldest and biggest bookstore stocking only mystery, crime fiction, espionage, and thrillers.

New York's oldest magic store.

Try not to get slimed in Tribeca.

The oldest family-run luncheonette in New York, last renovated in 1948, still serves food and drinks the old-fashioned way.

This beautiful building in the heart of Manhattan's Financial District was empty for decades.

A treasure trove of artifacts, books, and artwork from the "golden age" of exploration.

La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela's "Dream House" will immerse you in an ever changing world of sound and light.

A beautiful and abandoned New York subway station from 1904, complete with chandelier.

A terrific purveyor of natural history objects and curios.

Decades before the scandal, this staircase on the river was a literal "water gate."

A hoard of sky catalogs, astrophysical journals, even the works of Galileo and Copernicus.

D.C.'s first central library was born out of a chance encounter with the philanthropist whose name it bears.