Sip coffee and talk politics at this landmark cafe in Astoria's Little Egypt, a contender for the title of America's first hookah bar.

Snack on a partially gestated duck egg.

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

This Queens beer hall preserves a German culture and language that is all but lost.

You don't have to be an ambassador to dine like one.

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

Finally, you don't have to be a pious Swedish seaman to relax like one.

This Wall Street bar was once a hub of revolutionary activity where Washington famously bid farewell to his troops.

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

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

A very classy 1920s-era bar right in Grand Central Station.

Nikola Tesla's former home contains an homage hidden from plain sight.

The "Seinfeld" diner.

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

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

Ride the subways of yesteryear.

Amid the bustle and noise of the Financial District hides a secluded garden oasis above the city streets.

A tiny museum housed in a New York freight elevator specializes in the "overlooked, dismissed, or ignored."

A crumbling hospital from the 1850s on Roosevelt Island.

A terrific purveyor of natural history objects and curios.