Those belting out show tunes might not realize this piano bar marks the site where Thomas Paine died in 1809.

One of the city’s oldest watering holes was originally the home of a famous James Brown (not that one).

Some of the best Persian food in New York comes from the front window of an unassuming pizza shop.

This semi-hidden Manhattan restaurant is based out of a loading dock.

A garment factory hides a small Dominican eatery in the hallway to its freight elevator.

“Invented in Key West, Perfected in Brooklyn."

A big shiny gin and whiskey distillery in Sunset Park.

Enter the deli, walk until you hit the taxidermy, then order some hot, homey guisado.

A restaurant on Staten Island showcases a different grandmother’s cooking every night.

Sunset Park's Guatemalan community knows to head to the back of this bodega for a taste of home.

The cuisine at this Sheepshead Bay spot tells the story of a displaced Muslim Chinese community.

This neighborhood grocery houses a treasure trove of Eastern European delights.

A ruthless Soviet relocation campaign birthed a new cuisine, and this humble restaurant.

The flagship building of an early national restaurant chain is a superb example of terra cotta art.

An easy to overlook storefront hides some of the most authentic and regionally diverse Chinese food in New York.

This enormous Hindu temple in Queens serves incredible dosas in its basement canteen.

Seriously good slices of Sicilian pizza lurk at the back of the Bronx's oldest enclosed market.

A basement pool hall is the front for some of the best Dominican food in New York City.

Rare moles meet activism at this Oaxacan eatery.

These small stands sell Malian snacks to worshippers and passersby after Friday prayers in Harlem.

The "Seinfeld" diner.

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

Slyly buy a shake in the Parker Meridien lobby.

Discover the taste of mold.