A Post-Grad’s Guide to the Upper West Side

By Mia Romanoff

I have always thought of myself as the great defender of the Upper West Side.

As a lifelong resident, I have a built-in soft spot for the brownstone-lined streets and magnificent parks, but my defense has always been of the value of peaceful living — and an abundance of subway lines to get to the neighborhoods where things were happening.

As a neighborhood, the Upper West Side is not exactly built for the overeducated, downwardly mobile offspring who are returning to live with their parents after graduation.

Quiet and expensive, it’s a neighborhood built for families. Yet, after starting work, it no longer made sense to spend 45 minutes commuting one way to the specific yoga class I liked in Chelsea, or schlepping out to Bushwick every time I wanted to go out with friends. I needed to find things to do and places to go that were local.

This raised the ultimate question: as a twenty-two year old, what is there to do on the Upper West Side?

When I posed this question to my fellow Upper West Side returners at the end of August, the consensus was that we’d all been spending a lot of time walking around, doing nothing, and going nowhere.

I had too, yet, through my wanderings, I had found some enticing local destinations.  

While most people I talked to seem to favor the Great Lawn or Riverside Park for pondering and staring at the water, I spent a decent chunk of time this summer avoiding the swarms of tourists and hiding out at the 87th Street Community Garden between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West. Aside from the shaded tables and many benches, which are great and quiet places to drink a coffee, read a book, or scroll endlessly on LinkedIn, the space runs amazing programming. I’ve seen an excellently curated pop-up store run by Epilogue Vintage and myriad forms of art-making run by Greg Stevens. It is definitely on my list to stop by during one of their upcoming musical performances or volunteer days. You can find their whole event calendar here.

What I love about the Community Garden is that, whether there is an event or not, the people who go there are incredibly friendly and warm, making it one of my top spots for conversing with strangers in the city. 

As fall fast approaches, I’ve turned my sights indoors. With two branches of The Strand, a giant Barnes and Noble, and four New York Public Library locations, there are plenty of places for the loosely employed future intelligentsia to hang out. My favorite place to buy more books than I could possibly read is Westsider Rare and Used Books on Broadway between 80th and 81st. I can and have spent exorbitant amounts of time perusing the shelves of books I’ve never heard of and slightly stained classics I’ve been meaning to read.

If the lack of reading in your post-grad life is something you’re celebrating, Film at Lincoln Center runs programming all year for both new releases and retrospectives.

Or, if you’re looking to keep moving, the yoga classes at New York Loves Yoga are a personal favorite, especially the longer 75-minute Classic Vinyasa class.

When it comes to food on the Upper West Side, the 79th Street Greenmarket that happens every Sunday always has great produce at prices that are considerably less than Whole Foods. With those savings, you can head over to the Grand Bazaar to buy all the knick-knacks and flowy dresses your heart desires, or down to Mast Market for the sea salt chocolate chip that is worth the $6.75 price tag.

For a more substantial meal, I’m partial to the Vietnamese spot Two Wheels. Both the beef pho and chicken summer rolls are phenomenal and won’t break the bank, especially if you get them to go and turn the massive bowl of soup into two days of dinner.

Moving on to Upper West Side nightlife, on a friend’s recommendation, I recently visited The Owl’s Tail on 75th Street between Amsterdam and Broadway. While it’s definitely not cheap, this cozy cocktail bar has a menu full of innovative and delicious drinks (I’d recommend the Salt & Sea Spritz) making it a great spot for a date or to catch up with your friends who managed to snag a job in finance.

The Upper West Side is not lacking in bars. Having spent no shortage of nights bouncing between The Gin Mill, Dive 75, and the soon-to-be-closed Jake’s Dilemma, I’ve remained partial to e’s Bar on 85th Street and Amsterdam. The crowd tends to be young, the drinks are cheap and come quickly, and most importantly, I’ve never once had a bad night there. Despite the perceived superiority of downtown bars among young New Yorkers, I would dare to say that e’s measures up as a solid New York bar.

The Upper West Side and its offerings should not be treated as an afterthought or consolation prize for its young residents even if it sometimes feels like we are an afterthought in the neighborhood. This local-first mentality is one I plan to follow as we head into the winter months, as my summer gallivanting has to come to an end.

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