What lies behind this door? The hidden New York gems you won’t find on the tourist map

YOU won’t find New York’s best restaurants and bars on a tourist map. Here are the secret spots only the cool kids know about.

What’s hidden behind this door?

BEYOND the iconic Big Apple sights, a slow wander through the neighbourhoods of Manhattan will reveal the city in close up — its hidden gems, intimate venues, exclusive boutiques and intriguing sights.

Here are places you won’t find on the tourist map.

SECRET RESTAURANTS AND SUPPER CLUBS

Hudson Clearwater in the West Village has wonderful bar at the front, but for its secret restaurant serving American fare enter via Morton St (look for the red brick wall and nondescript grey door).

Behind the nondescript door above lies a hipster foodie heaven at Hudson Clearwater. Picture: Instagram.

Japanese restaurant Bohemian in Noho is hidden behind a butcher shop, but even if you manage to find it, access is granted only by hunting down their phone number and being sent a code to enter. Good luck!

For the chance to make the guest list to secret suppers and art happenings held in wacky locations sign up to nonsensenyc.com well in advance of your trip.

BARS

Manhattan is full of secret bars. Two of the best are in the East Village: PDT (Please Don’t Tell — 113 St Marks Place) where one enters through a phone booth. and Angel’s Share, an elegant speakeasy up the stairs and behind the back door of a Japanese restaurant at 8 Stuyvesant St.

Secret bar PDT is entered via a phone booth. How very Maxwell Smart.

For the best view of the Empire State Building while sipping a cocktail, don’t miss the rooftop bar 230 Fifth (at 27th Street).

Grand Central station also has hidden gems. Campbell Apartment is an opulent bar up a staircase off the West Gallery. Reminiscent of New York’s Jazz Age it’s a popular local haunt come Friday night but mid afternoon it’s a whisper quiet location away from the city hustle.

Campbell Apartment, the stunning bar hidden in plain site in Grand Central Station. Picture: Alexandra Carroll.

MUSEUMS

Museum (mmuseumm.com) is a weird and wonderful natural history museum of modern life (everything from gummy worms to toothpaste tubes from around the world have been exhibited) housed in an abandoned elevator shaft in the quiet Cortlandt alley in Tribeca. It’s only open on the weekend, but at other times you can peek through the window and listen to the audio guide by downloading it on your phone.

The wonderfully strange museum, in an abandoned elevator shaft. Picture: Instagram.

At the other end of the spectrum the Metropolitan Museum of Art beckons, but it is such a colossal facility that a museum hack is in order. Enter Museumhack.com who offer private, renegade tours of the Met.

SHOPPING

Dear Rivington+ in Great Jones St, Noho is a fashion industry haunt. Their exquisite house label Dear, plus vintage furniture raise the bar in this style epicentre.

For a glimpse into loft living in Soho, visit The Apartment by The Line on Greene St (no. 76 on the third floor). Its luxe decor is styled throughout as though the apartment is a home. Only open on Wednesday and Saturdays.

So fashion. Only open two days a week, you wouldn’t know The Apartment by The Line is a shop. Picture: Instagram.

OLD WORLD NYC

Take the 6 train to Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall, its last stop. Stay on the train and as it loops around to make the journey uptown you’ll get a glimpse of the architectural grandeur of the station underneath City Hall which closed in 1945.

Alexandra Carroll is the author of the recently released New York: An inspired wander through the Manhattan and Brooklyn boroughs.

Alexandra Carroll is the author of ‘New York: An inspired wander through the Manhattan and Brooklyn boroughs’. RRP $39.99, Plum Books.