Lower East Side

Opportunity abounds amidst a bustling restaurant scene, a stage for emerging fashion designers, a montage of boutiques, discount shopping, food markets, and nightlife hot spots, making the Lower East Side a popular destination today

More than 200 years ago, extended families from around the world pursued the American Dream by coming to New York and living on the Lower East Side. A place where dreams materialize, this area just south of the East Village and east of SoHo has once again blossomed into a destination for writers, artists, musicians, and professionals of all varieties.

Today, the neighborhood's chic is apparent as new renters and buyers move in, and the young claim the area with trendy bars, cafes and performance spaces. The neighborhood still possesses old world charm and is possibly the best place to get a great pastrami sandwich, pickles out of a barrel and the world's best bialys.

This multifaceted neighborhood is centered by Orchard Street, once a Jewish wholesale enclave. Today the street is lined with cutting-edge new designers, French cafes and velvet-roped nightspots. The Lower East Side Tenement Museum interprets the area's immigrant and migrant experiences through tours of a landmark 19th-century tenement, living history programs, neighborhood walking tours, plays and special programs. The first synagogue built by Eastern European Jews in America (1887) is the Eldridge Street Project, now a cultural center and gift shop.