The Lower East Side in Manhattan is one of the most fascinating neighborhoods in New York City.
I lived there during college and watched the Lower East Side transform from a sketchy neighborhood into a prime destination for culture and cuisine.
Besides its great places to eat, shop and hear live music, the Lower East Side's history played a major role in making NYC the diverse city it is today.
Our local guides lead Lower East Side walking tours every day and know the neighborhood well.
In this video, Kyle, also a tour guide with us, Tours by Foot NYC, takes you on a virtual walking tour of the Lower East Side NYC.
When writing this post, I collaborated with my fellow tour guides to create a self-guided tour of the most important sites and bites!
We also put together lists of restaurants, shops and nightlife venues.
Ok, let's dive in!
THINGS TO SEE AND DO
First, here's a map to give you a sense of where the Lower East Side is.
It's a pretty big chunk of NYC, though the self-guided tour includes a small sliver. Still, if you stop and eat along the way.
It's north of Chinatown, east of SoHo, south of the East Village, and west of the East River.
How to Get Here
Several subway and bus lines service the Lower East Side, but for this self-guided tour, you'll want to take the F train to the 2nd Avenue Station.
Use this Google Maps link for directions to the self-guided tour starting point.
TIP: New to the subway? Check out our guide to navigating the New York City subway.
Map of Stops on this Self-guided Tour
Click on the map for a scrollable version.
NOTE: For a much more detailed version of this tour with additional stops, you can download this Lower East Side Self-Guided Tour pdf.
137 East Houston Street
Start at Yonah Schimmel’s Knishes and have a knish (pronounced ki-nish).
This shop is located on Eldridge and Houston just off the 2nd Ave F train subway station.
Yonah Schimmel’s Knishery has been baking big, round delicious knishes since 1910.
In the 1890s, Yonah Schimmel, a Romanian immigrant, started selling his wife’s knishes at Coney Island while training to be a religious scholar.
The knish sold like hotcakes, as they say. Yonah abandoned his religious callings and opened this store with his cousin, Joseph Berger.
Yonah eventually left the business and went back to his studies.
His cousin Joe Berger and his wife, Schimmel’s daughter Rose, took over the store.
Along with the traditional classics like potato and kasha, there’s sweet potato, spinach, mushroom, and even jalapeno.
This iconic Jewish New York eatery also has blintzes and latkes (potato pancakes).
A stop at Yonah Schimmel is included in our Lower East Side Food Tour.
Here's a funny story of mine about Yonah Knish.
I went to visit my father in Florida who, as a former New Yorker had eaten hundreds of Yonah knish, so he asked me to bring him three Potato and Kasha knish.
I packed three which were so big they took up quite a bit of room in my suitcase.
When I passed through security at the airport, my bag was put aside and I was asked to come over.
Apparently, as the knish passed through the x-ray, the security staff couldn't identify what was in my big Tupperware.
I opened up the container and explained that they were knish for my dad. Luckily, they let me through.
First thing when I arrived at my dad's, he heated a potato knish and gobbled it up.
You just cannot get knish this good in Florida - or anywhere!
179 East Houston Street
Continue east on Houston and stop at Russ & Daughters.
This fabulous gourmet Jewish grocery has stood the test of time.
Go inside! Smell everything. Eat something!
Lox, gefilte fish, sturgeon, herring, trout, salmon, bagels, white fish, caviar….the list goes on and on!
Joel Russ, a Polish immigrant, started selling mushrooms out of a pushcart and opened this store in 1914.
He moved on to other dried goods like fruit, nuts and more.
The business expanded into smoked fish and the rest is history.
On our Lower East Side Food Tour, we stop at the outside of the shop.
It's always so busy it's hard to get our group in. But we encourage you after the tour to go back.
If you do, I suggest you get an egg cream. It's a beverage that has no egg and no cream.
It's basically a simple combination of whole milk, chocolate syrup, and seltzer.
At Russ, the proportions are just right, and they are among the finest egg creams in the city!
Read more about egg creams in our post on famous NY foods.
You may notice something unusual about the name. How often do you see and Daughters in company names? It's always and Sons.
Well, Joel had three daughters and they worked in the store. There ya go!
The shop has a few satellite locations, The Cafe at 127 Orchard Street, a shop inside Penn Station and another at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
205 East Houston Street
When it comes to Jewish delicatessens, Katz’s is the undisputed champion.
This iconic eatery, which opened in 1888, is known for serving the best pastrami sandwich in the world, not to mention great hot dogs, knishes, and knockwurst.
It's also where Harry Met Sally (wink, wink).
TIP: While known for its pastrami, I think the Matzoh Ball soup here is excellent as are the cheese blintzes.
Read more about the menu and some funny Katz stories here.
172 Norfolk Street
In the middle of the block stands the oldest synagogue building in New York City and the fourth-oldest in America.
Built in 1849 for the congregation Ansche Chesed (meaning "the people of kindness") in the Gothic Revival style, it was inspired by the Cathedral in Cologne, Germany.
The Congregation was formed in 1825 and was made up mostly of Jewish immigrants, primarily of immigrant German Jews, but also Dutch and Polish Jews.
In the 1850s, it had the largest membership of any synagogue in America.
By the 1970s membership dwindled as the neighborhood changed and the building was eventually abandoned and vandalized.
Then along came Jewish Spanish sculptor Angel Orensanz.
He bought the building in 1986 and turned it into an art gallery and event space, but not just any event space.
Luminaries such as Whitney Houston and Maya Angelou performed here.
Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker were married there in 1997.
TIP: The space is not open to the general public, but from time to time, the doors are open and you can pop your head in.
You may or may not be invited in to take a look. It depends on who is in the office. It can’t hurt to try.
In the picture above, you can see that one of our group tours got lucky -- someone inside was in a good mood and let us in!
5. Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery
126 Rivington Street
Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery might have the best cupcakes and puddings around.
An intoxicating array of flavors and a lovely staff make this one of our favorite sweet spots.
Co-owners, Debbie and Peggy, both alumni of Magnolia Bakery, opened this goody shop in 2003 and it's been a hit since the get-go.
While the cupcakes are scrumptious, the banana pudding is the bomb!
I have a few favorite flavors I'd like to recommend. First, the Sassy Red Velvet (Red Velvet cake with chocolate almond buttercream).
Second is the Vegan French Toast (Vanilla cupcake with cinnamon and nutmeg spiced vanilla buttercream).
Even though I am not a vegan, I love it!
Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery has a second location nearby at the Essex Street Market on the southeast corner of Essex and Delancy Streets.
108 Rivington Street
In 1937, Economy Candy opened and now almost 80 years later, this candy shop is still going strong with what is most likely the most extensive selection of candy in the city.
This is THE place to hunt down your favorite childhood candies.
From old hard-to-find favorites like Squirrel Nut Zippers, Chuckles, and Charleston Chews to modern sweets like Pop Rocks, Pez dispensers, and Big League Chew, Economy Candy has thousands of types of sweet treats.
They also have a huge assortment of Ritter Sport chocolate bars and an incredible range of Jelly Belly flavors!
If you are familiar with Halvah, you can buy some by the pound.
It's fresh, rather than the prewrapped kind we are used to.
If you aren't familiar with Halvah, it's a sweet Middle Eastern treat made of sesame paste and sugar, with the consistency of fudge though fluffier.
Ask the staff behind the counter if you can have a small sample. I hope you like it!
TIP: Can't make it to the Lower East Side location? In 2023, Economy Candy opened a satellite in the Chelsea Market near the High Line.
103 Orchard Street
This museum is a must-see for anyone interested in this important part of NYC history.
In the mid-1800s to early 1900s, hundreds of tenement buildings were hastily built to house millions of newly arriving immigrants.
These buildings are typically 25 feet (8 m) across and 100 feet long (30 m).
Apartments were tiny and filled with too many residents, making conditions virtually unliveable.
Slumlords took advantage of the tenants in many ways.
The conditions were filthy, dangerous, and at times, life-threatening.
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum educates the public about the horrific life in the tenement slums by recreating the original conditions of a typical tenement apartment that you can tour.
One of the most realistic aspects of the museum was how hot it was inside the apartments in the hot months.
When I took a tour of the stifling apartments one hot July, I could truly imagine stepping back in time, suffering as the residents did 100 years ago!
Good news! The apartments as well as other parts of the museum are now air-conditioned!
8. Williamsburg Bridge
Entrance on Delancey Street and the FDR Drive
One of three bridges that link Brooklyn to Manhattan, the Williamsburg Bridge was built in 1903 and was the world's longest suspension bridge until 1924.
The bridge was critical to the growth of the borough of Brooklyn while decreasing the overpopulated slums of the Lower East Side.
The bridge leaves Manhattan and heads into the Williamsburg neighborhood now known for its 'hipster' vibe, restaurant scene and live music venues.
There are several waterfront parks that offer some of the best skyline views of Manhattan.
TIP: If you are interested and have the time to head over to Williamsburg, you can walk over it as there are pedestrian lanes.
9. Former Site of the Ludlow Street Jail
Once full city block between Grand, Broome, Essex and Ludlow Streets
This is the former site of the Ludlow Street Jail which opened in 1862 and closed in 1920s.
Once the jail was closed and the building demolished, the new huge Seward Park public high school was erected in 1929 (since slit up into five small huge schools in the same building).
Among its famous alumni are many actors and comedians such as Walter Matthau, Zero Mostel, Tony Curtis, Estelle Getty, Jerry Stiller, and Keenen Ivory Wayans.
If you are a history lover like me, you'll appreciate the site's past life as the site of the Ludlow Street Jail.
Its most famous prisoner was politician Boss Tweed, the head of NYC’s infamous Tammany Hall, the powerfully corrupt political machine that reigned over the city in the 1800s.
Tweed died in the jail in 1879. He was buried in Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, a destination unto itself .
10. The Pickle Guys
49 Essex Street
In the early 1900s, Essex Street was teeming with pickle stores. Now it's only The Pickle Guys.
But they more than satisfy! Enter this storefront and you are hit with that sour -- but oh so wonderful -- smell of pickles.
Their pickles are cured in barrels in a salt brine with garlic and spices.
Some pickles sit for a day and others up to six months!
Choose from: Sour, 3/4 Sour, Half Sour, Hot Sour, Horseradish, and Bread & Butter Pickles.
Or get the crunchiest, least sour pickle, the New Pickle.
Despite the name, The Pickle Guys sells a lot more than pickles. Peppers, sour vegetables, olives, the list goes on!
If you like pineapple, you must try the pickled pineapple.
It’s sweet and with a few flakes of crushed red pepper, a wee bit spicy. Refreshing with a bite!
11. Kossar's Bialys
367 Grand Street
Bialys are a chewy yeast roll similar to a bagel, but baked and not boiled like bagels.
The center is indented and filled with garlic, poppy seeds, or onions. They also come plain.
Bialys were introduced to America by Jewish bakers who emigrated from Białystok, Poland at the turn of the 20th century.
Kossar’s is the oldest bialy shop in America, opened by Isadore Mirsky and Morris Kossar in 1936.
The business stayed in the family until bought out in 1998 and then the business was again sold in 2013.
While no longer a family-run business, the bialys are arguably the best in New York City.
That's why our Lower East Side Food Tour stops here.
In addition to bialys and bagels, bulkas (small loaves), or pletzels (Jewish flatbread, with onion and poppy seed) come fresh out of the giant oven.
The most popular way to eat a bialy is with cream cheese or butter.
I like the onion bialy with nothing on them when they come fresh out of the oven. So good!
Kossar's has branched out to the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side and Hudson Yards, near the Edge, one of the city's five observation decks.
They also ship nationwide!
12. Doughnut Plant
379 Grand Street
Yet another well-deserved stop on our Lower East Side Food Tour!
It opened in 1994 when owner Mark Isreal turned the basement of his tenement apartment into a bakery.
Word caught on fast and it was time to expand.
There are now multiple locations throughout the city including Grand Central Station on the lower level.
Made fresh daily with high-quality, all-natural ingredients, the doughnuts are to die for.
Here are a few mouthwatering doughnut flavors you can look forward to:
- Vanilla Bean and Strawberry Jam - filled with our housemade jam and with Madagascar vanilla bean glaze.
- Blackout - chocolate cake doughnut, filled with chocolate pudding, dipped in chocolate glaze and sprinkled with chocolate cake crumbs.
- Carrot Cake - traditional carrot cake with lots of real carrots, raisins, walnuts, and spices, with a cream cheese filling.
If you can't eat a full doughnut or want to try a few flavors? Order doughseeds, mini filled doughnuts.
I highly recommend that if you are a fan of Creme Brûlée, try the doughseed of the same name (on the left in the picture above).
189 Bowery, inside the CitizenM Bowery Hotel
The free Museum of Street Art (MoSA) opened in October 2018 and grew out of the forced closure and demolition of the famous 5 Pointz outdoor graffiti museum in Queens in 2013.
In 2018, the CitizenM offered the former 5 Pointz curator, Meres One, a space to bring 20 artists whose murals had been on display at 5 Pointz.
Artists were each given the walls of a flight of stairs in the hotel’s 20-floor stairwell.
Yes, this means you must walk 20 floors of stairs to see all the murals.
Fortunately, the museum starts on the 20th floor, so at least it is a walk down, not up!
TIP: If you love street art like I do, take a look at our post on the best places to see street art in NYC. You might even like one of our street art and graffiti tours!
Tours by Foot offers several tours of the neighborhood.
One of our most popular tours is our Lower East Side Food Tour.
It includes most of the locations in this post and more. It's a great way to sample a variety of the best foods in the neighborhood.
We also have a Lower East Side, Nolita, and East Village Tour which takes you through three iconic neighborhoods.
Our Lower East Side Street Art Tour visits the Lower East Side, SoHo, NoHo, Nolita, and Little Italy to see some of the best murals and street art in the city.
See the calendar below for dates and to book any of these Lower East Side tours.
You can also book self-guided audio tours of 20 neighborhoods throughout New York City.
LOWER EAST SIDE EVENTS
The Lower East Side is full of great celebrations all year round. There's something for everyone. Here are a few.
Lower East Side Film Festival - This popular cinematic festival takes place every June.
Egg Creams, Egg Rolls, and Empanadas - An integration of Jewish, Latino, and Chinese culture that takes place each June. There's food, music, dance and a whole lot of colorful fun.
Taste of the Lower East Side - Once a year, usually in May, hundreds of food vendors come together to serve up their delights and carry on the rich tradition of the Lower East Side. Check the Grand Street Settlement events calendar for the date.
LOWER EAST SIDE FOOD AND RESTAURANTS
The Lower East Side is well known for its dazzling array of delectable delights.
In addition to the food shops in this post, here are several others.
Scarr’s Pizza ($) 22 Orchard Street. A classic New York slice with loads of toppings.
Shopsins ($) Essex Market at 88 Essex Street. You don’t want to miss this tiny breakfast and lunch café with the giant menu.
Kotti Berliner Döner Kebab ($$) Essex Market at 88 Essex Street. A bit of Berlin in NYC!
Clinton Street Baking Company ($$) 4 Clinton Street. Considered one of the best brunch spots in the country, people come for world-class pancakes as well as every other fantastic delight.
Beauty and Essex ($$$) 146 Essex Street, Serves up terrific brunch and dinner in an ultra-cool venue.
NIGHTLIFE
If it's nightlife you want, the Lower East Side is as good as it gets.
From dance clubs to pubs, posh lounges to dive bars and live music venues of all kinds, the Lower East Side has it all.
Drinking Spots
- The Magician at 118 Rivington Street
- Welcome to the Johnson’s at 123 Rivington Street
- Top Hops in the Essex Street Market at 88 Essex Street
Live Music
- Mercury Lounge at 217 East Houston Street. A 250-seat live music venue since 1993. It’s where the band, the Strokes, got their start.
- Pianos NYC at 158 Ludlow Street. Alternative rock venue.
- Rockwood Music Hall at 196 Allen Street. A three-stage venue in 2005. Lady Gaga, Mumford & Sons, and Billie Joe Armstrong are just some of the top artists who have performed here.
- Bowery Ballroom at 6 Delancey Street. This standing-room-only venue has a capacity of 575 people. It opened in 1998. One of the best music venues in New York City.
LOWER EAST SIDE SHOPPING
MooShoes at 78 Orchard St (at Broome St). A vegan-owned business that sells an assortment of cruelty-free footwear, bags, t-shirts, wallets, books, and other accessories
Extra Butter at 125 Orchard St (Delancey Street) Minimalist boutique featuring on-trend men's & women's streetwear, sneakers & accessories.
Self Edge at 157 Orchard St. Upscale menswear outpost stocking designer denim & accessories in contemporary surroundings.
Edith Machinist at 104 Rivington St. Vintage boutique featuring a fashionable assortment of women's clothing, handbags, shoes & jewelry.
November 19 at 37 Orchard St. Chic homeware from around the world.
Bluestockings Cooperative at 116 Suffolk St. Worker-owned community space and bookstore with a coffee shop.
