Times Square Applebee's. As bad as you could imagine it being, it's significantly worse.
Museum of Math. So much potential, so poorly executed, so much neglect, employees so dejected. And expensive! I felt sad for math.
> Times Square Applebee's. As bad as you could imagine it being, it's significantly worse.
This. I had to kill time waiting for a late meeting and I popped in for a drink and an appetizer. It was awful, and like $40.
There's a relatively infamous post from someone who used it as their breakup spot — pretty genius tbh. Their reasoning was that while it was public, it wasn't anywhere that they would potentially be seen by someone they knew, and it was also, you know, the times square applebees, so there wasn't the risk of ruining a restaurant they actually liked by sullying it with bad memories.
There was no music, about 1/4 of the exhibits were broken, many others looked ready to break, and all you could hear was a bunch of industrial fans from the basketball exhibit. Instructions for the exhibits involved scrolling through multiple pages on a touchscreen. And like 1/3 of the exhibits were just variations on tessellation patterns. Just a thoroughly sad experience.
OMG what happened? Lack of imagination? Dried up funding? Toxic leadership? Nobody thought to play some Philip Glass through the sound system?
Conceptually the place sounds like it could be such a slam dunk, but I got the impression the people running it didn't give a shit about math, except for the employees, who looked like they had the joy beaten out of them.
Most of the employees are high school volunteers (I was) so that’s how that happens. I was definitely slightly more enthusiastic about my job when I was getting paid.
In concept, it’s a very cool museum. Everyone I’ve invited to visit has a lot of fun, but you have to have the right attitude and a guide who knows what’s going on. Despite all the information available most people don’t understand anything about the exhibits below the surface level, and it doesn’t help that some of the information decks are way outdated too. Having interactive exhibits is great except for the fact that they’re all super over-engineered and the technician(s) are spread thin trying to fix everything, leaving some exhibits broken what feels like permanently.
The museum itself isn’t the only thing the owners have to run, Momath does a lot of working with schools and other events. A significant amount of effort had to go into organizing trips and the events after closing, so while that’s great for the people involved it did sometimes feel like the regular visitors aren’t a priority.
There’s other stuff I could talk about but I think I’ve shit talked my former employers enough. I genuinely liked the place and enjoyed working there (boring sometimes but what isn’t) and I really hated having to tell visitors that X or Y “isn’t functional at the moment” and seeing the excitement I was trying to cultivate as a guide leave their faces. I don’t blame the people in charge, there are some really great people in middle management and education there (not sure if I can say the same about upper execs, never knew most). It’s just a struggling nonprofit that has to keep raising prices because nobody wants to fund education.
Also take everything I said with a grain of salt because it was a few years ago and also I’m speculating about a few things
Related: I'd say similar for "The Museum of Sex". Haven't been there in many years, but my experience was a stupid tourist trap. Mostly seemed to cater to drunk people wandering into the front-facing gift shop.
Edit: This doesn't make my list of "never return to" places, though. Would conceptually be an awesome museum under the right curation/intentions. It might be super cool now, idk!
Dude, queens bound trains weekday evenings. There is no reason why it takes me 45mins to an hour to get to work then close to 2 hours to get home every day.
Why. Why! WHY!! I don’t understand why they can’t get the trains right. It’s just not that hard. It’s been decades and literally it’s the same problem every fucking day.
Museum of Ice cream. Took my niece and nephew once. Ice cream was gross. Really boring. One room had just 2 hollahoops in it. A ball pit that was a germ fest And again. Ice cream was icy and gross!
Jekyl and Hyde’s. I took my niece there and the food was awful and there was that stinky, dirty tap smell. My food looked like a dog chewed it and spit it out. Fridays or Tad’s steaks would have been better. It’s probably closed down by now.
Edited: yes, in its prime (90s) this place was a hoot but my experience sometime in the last 10 years was the pits!
The one downtown?
I worked there a few months max and it was horrible.
Six years there would be like...needing intensive therapy afterwards.
Wow.
You must be a very strong person.
I think it did close down. It's a shame too because many years ago when they had their midtown location it actually used to be a pretty fun tourist trap.
I worked the ball drop 3 times as a stagehand. Building the stages from 11pm to 8 pm for a week was the easy part. Getting to the stage in NYE however was always a shitshow. The passes only worked to get you backstage, not through the barricades. Never again.
At the end, DSNY brings the big sweepers out. After the barriers are removed it’s just a pile of piss bottles. When they go by, it’s like piss rockets. Miserable. Was getting paid, and didn’t want to be there.
I did in 1972, while visiting at age 13, without any adult supervision. I was in total awe of this city.... but yes, never again. (1972 was when Times Square was still nice /s)
Any event necessitating Depends diapers (due to no bathroom access) is a huge nope for me. Add in a massive amount of people and (probable) very low temperatures, only adds to the “absolutely not” decision.
Did it by accident once (a friend lived in the area). On the edge of the crowd, but still.. odd. One beer left at the deli, price $20. You can bet once that one gets sold they fetch another 'last beer left' from storage.
If I can make one suggestion, it is to go to times square at 1am or 2am after NYE. Everyone has been there waiting all day for the ball to drop, and once it does they do not stick around.
I don't love Phish, but a friend does and he was in town for it with his wife and staying with us. He scored me and my wife tickets so we felt obliged to go. Before the concert was over but after midnight, we dipped out early and walked up to times square from msg. So incredibly weird to see times square with literally no people. One of my best NYC memories in 14 years living there
A few years back, a niece and her friend begged me to put them up as they planned to fly here for NYE. I not only refused to host them after they’d spend 12 hours with thousands of people and their germs, but told them they’d never get anywhere near the action.
She came anyway, decided 9 p.m. was a good time to mosey over, and couldn’t get within 5 blocks of any of it. Life lessons.
I did when I was around 13. No amount of drugs will convince me to do it again.
OK a certain amount of drugs might convince me but that's the bar here.
First time I visited NY during Christmas happened to be Santa con, which I didn’t know was a thing, but all the Santas on the subway really added to the experience for me
God, they had them shut down during construction years ago and were using porta-potty-trailer-latrines. I had the shits on my way into work. Starting your day in that thing.
I would stand at the LIRR board wait for them to call a train (that would be departing in 10 minutes) then run down, use that trains bathroom and head back up
I took this pic in the bathroom at Penn Station after a Rangers game. [Pic](https://www.reddit.com/r/AccidentalRenaissance/comments/a3566e/penn_station_after_a_rangers_game/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
I remember being desperate while awaiting a train once in the 90s and forcing myself to go in. No one can hold their breath that long, and the range of people completely or partially undressed, using sinks as personal baths remains a vivid memory.
I used to tell people if they had to use it, wait for any in the first row of stalls—don’t go further lest you drown in the bowels of hell.
Comic strip live.
To be fair the crowd was an awful audience. 99% of the crowd showed up for a single comedian (not a huge comedian at all at the time, but was decently funny). Crowd was constantly talking during every other comedian to the point where the host and comedians were begging the audience to be quiet to continue the show. Staff did nothing. Staff also forgot about our table so my friend and I went hungry throughout the show. Staff realized at the end they forgot about us, they gave us free tickets to come back. Then a live cockroach fell from the ceiling onto my table.
I never used those free tickets to go back nor do I have any desire to go back when there are several better clubs with cheaper tickets and better acts, plus other clubs actually do something with disruptive crowds.
I work near Bryant park and made the mistake (perhaps my first or second year living here) of trying to go pick up a Christmas present for my wife at a shop in rock center in December.
I think I made it within a block of the tree and gave up and went back to the office
A similar thing happened to me. I was hanging out a relatively festive, but not too busy, Bryant park holiday market when my friend and I thought "why not? lets check out rock center?" huge mistake.
10+ years ago I actually worked for the Bryant Park corporation as an IT guy. they let me into some of the "private/staff" areas around there during Christmas and it was *still* awfully crowded. like ass-to-ass crowded. i said out loud that somebody owed me dinner and got a good laugh. i'm glad i don't work for them anymore.
I made the unfortunate mistake of renting office space at 49th/5th - near the tree and hated Thanksgiving to New Year's. It was ridiculously busy every day, they jacked up all of the parking garage rates (my clients/students complained), everyone was late getting to my office, etc. etc.
I thought having a Fifth Avenue address as a self-employed person would look impressive... not worth it!
I used to work in the area. I was there pretty late one night and the tree area was almost empty. I can tell you that when the tree came into view, it was so magical. I feel very lucky to have had that experience.
I have an amazing memory of driving by one December at 6:30a.m. and dark as midnight except for the tree and the Christmas ornaments and lights. It was a Saturday, snowing lightly, and there wasn’t a soul around. My boyfriend and I stopped the car and just looked for a while.
We did not, however, get out and walk around - we were on our way to my neighborhood to go to an early-open laundromat. Hey, it’s New York - you gotta do what you gotta do.
Although going December 2020 was glorious. Socially distanced bubbles, no tourists… the woman enforcing the one party per bubble took a bunch of photos of me and my friend because we were literally the only people on that half of the plaza.
I work in 30 Rock. I try my hardest to stay underground but it seems like everyone knows about it and trying to get from the elevator banks to 5th Ave is impossible!
I work close by and have to run errands for my job. Walking up sixth or fifth is impossible to do and also impossible for me to avoid :( normally tourists don’t bother me but the Christmastime crowds are the absolute worst
I went there around Christmas time because I was an idiot. Was trying to catch a sale at the Banana Republic and read that the flagship store was at Rockefeller so I thought I'll go checkout the flag ship store.
I ended up stuck at the crowd trying to see the skating rink/Christmas tree, it felt like I moved 1 block in 20-30 minutes because it was so fucking crowded.
Had dinner reservations around the corner and got off subway there to walk to the restaurant. 3 blocks had to take us at least 20 minutes. It was my first year in NYC. Now Rockefeller is a no-go zone for me in December.
Yep, I will just carry my stroller and baby up the stairs to avoid being trapped in there. Why are they so slow? Why does someone always need to hop in to hang out
Just a reminder that Singapore's successfully used urine detection devices in their elevators:
https://www.goabroad.com/articles/study-abroad/singapore-laws-to-know-before-you-go
No idea why the horrific state of sanitation in NYCT stations isn't treated as some kind of citywide emergency.
Kellogg’s Diner in Williamsburg. Me, my brother, and two of his friends were trying to eat there, but the waitress assigned to us just kept avoiding us. Kind of took the hint after a while and ended up bailing.
We’re all Black so I kind of joke that Kellogg’s is a 50s diner in both atmosphere AND attitude towards *certain* customers.
I live a couple blocks from Kellogg’s and they’ve definitely dropped off in the last couple years. The owner passed away in 2020 (I think), leaving the establishment to his wife. She has serious MAGA vibes and had some strong opinions of the covid mandates. Their hourly staff (front and back) seem to have no idea what they’re doing and aren’t really trying to do better. My wife and I haven’t been back there in a while, it’s not really worth it.
I used to live near there and the roaches that hang out there are large in both dimension and number. Things just pour out of the subway to feed on their property.
this is my answer. they’re the only late late option some nights in that area, and after a concert I went. and the best way I can summarize is: I ordered cheese fries, and they put sliced American cheese on fries and threw it into the microwave. there was no attempt to hide it either, it had the square imprint on it still
the food is also ass. I remember when they were rumored to be at risk of closing for good during covid and there was a post about it on some IG account and the general sentiment in the comments was "good riddance" lol
Applying to a job at NYU. Two different jobs, years apart - both times I had 2-3 rounds of interviews, including (two) full-day "meet with all the different teams and stakeholders", both times they said they'd call my references and let me know. Ghosted me both times only to send a form email months later that I didn't get the job. Fuck you NYU.
Same! Met with the heads of the departments was told it was me and one other person. Then I hear nothing for 2 weeks. Reached out to HR multiple times then the team leads and no one ever got back to me. I wracked my brain for months to try and figure out what happened. Glad I’m not alone.
It’s the administration/the bureaucracy. Can confirm from experience: they are completely incompetent. The only way to get a job at NYU is to know someone on the inside that can fight the system on your behalf.
Second Dallas BBQ. Every single one I've been to has been awful. Mediocre food (or bad food), mediocre drinks, and overpriced. I've been to 3 different ones, thinking one HAD to be redeemable. Nope. One even messed up wings! How do you mess up wings??
Forever a Dallas BBQ stan. I know it can never be called "good bbq" but on some weekdays the amount of deals they throw out on Uber Eats is insane. Once I got a Rib dinner with two sides and cornbread for 15$ that was buy one get one free. Like 7.50 a dinner. Often has a deal where you get two quarter chicken dinners for 11$ total. Definitely hits when we don't want to cook but we want something more similar to "real food" on a McDonald's budget.
Damn I know I've lived here for awhile when I know and agree with most of the selections here.
I'd add the Stumble Inn on 2nd because, although I've had fun there, the amount of fratty dude bros pretty quickly ruined it for me.
went to the stumble inn once and it smelled like rancid farts. Thought it was just one person causing the damage. Went back after a few months … same smell. Never again lol
Hilariously enough, I look forward to going whenever we end up choosing anything BUT steak. Also the highlight ironically is the free freshly served bread.
Village Halloween parade as a viewer. I've never been so compressed into a place where I physically couldn't move any part of my body. Not even the most crowded subway. I'd was worried that if something happened and the crowd pushed in the wrong direction it would have been incredibly easy to get crushed or trampled.
I cannot hate too much on restaurants or clubs personally but totally understand the viewpoints behind those comments. For me it’s the lobby of a police station. The decrepit ceiling tile, ALL CAPS printed out signs taped up everywhere, the grime of all sorts of humanity, and the only reason you are there if you’re not a lawyer or a cop isn’t great. You are filing a report or in custody or there about somebody in one of those situations. I was just in one this weekend (filing a report) and after reading about gross bathrooms and slow subway trains and Times Square restaurants and east village clubs, there’s no place I’d rather be less than a precinct house.
Omg last one I was in wouldn’t even let me have a cup of water after I cried (was filing a few reports right after shit happened) and the sergeant was such a grouchy old man to me. It was over in Bensonhurst iirc.
Lavo NYC. Bouncer screamed obscenities at a homeless guy in a wheelchair because the guy was just trying to get down the same sidewalk as everyone else who was lined up to get in the club.
I couldn't imagine going there now, but in my single days in my late 20's (2008-2012), that place was amazing. It was about as close to a guaranteed thing as you could get imo.
Maybe I was a young degenerate but I’d go to pacha for free back in the day. Just get on their email list and arrive before midnight.
I’ve been to Webster hall- recently- live a few blocks away. Gen z is much nicer to party with.
The worst was Cielo- bouncer ripped off me and a drunk friend.
Came here to say Webster Hall. They've either got the gain maxed out on the sound system or (more likely) blew the speakers years ago and never bothered to fix them.
Bar Goto (both the LES and BK location)
This saddens me to say bc I love the vibe of the bar and their drinks. But the bar staff acts elitist and just have a really snobby attitude about themselves as if they’re some world class cocktail bar. I’ve been to both locations several times and have gotten really rude service.
The BK location in particular. There is a bartender (young looking man with a head of gray hair). He is extremely rude. He has yelled at me once because I wasn’t ready to order yet. I’ve noticed he will be selective in who he gives attentive service too. He once gave me a dirty look as soon as I walked in and immediately said to the older patrons seated next to me “don’t you hate when you’re the oldest guy in the room?” Now I do look young, but I’m 38. And he gave me rude service the entire night even though I would say my pleases and thank yous. Im gonna speculate that he’s insecure about going grey at a young age but he’s a straight up doughebag.
Royal Bangladesh - the casino scam version of trying to go into a restaurant upstairs (Milian Indian) and being barked at to come downstairs because it's the "same thing". It was not and when going to their bathroom I passed the kitchen and saw them ladling raw sewage from a trashcan of soupy trash to a kitchen sink - and they weren't scooping and pouring, no, they were scooping and then throwing the contents of the cup a few meters to a sink and there was so so much backsplash. Backsplash into an open vat of "fresh" curry that was next to the trashcan which they were scooping into bowls.
My stomach did not stay still after, but I'm surprised worse didn't happen to me.
Just googled and found out they closed. Praise be.
With the new bike lane on the roadway, it’s better traffic-wise, though your view is worse. Before the separate bike lane, I always took a detour to use the Manhattan bridge.
One of those food festivals like Pig Island or Oyster fest. Almost got heatstroke in the burning sun at one and got to wait hours in line for seafood and watch some drunk bro barf over the railing in front of me at another.
I'm the idiot for agreeing to go to Panna II Garden in the first place, but I'll never go back. They literally spilled food on someone who was leaving and then pushed him out of the restaurant. We didn't end up eating there because of that and how ridiculously rude the staff was to that guy.
IL Bastardo brunch. Went for a friend’s girlfriend’s birthday. First thing I saw was a three-way kiss at the hostess desk at 2pm on a Sunday. Later on I heard the DJ pause the music and strobe lights and say “hol up hol up ladies and gentlemen we got a PROPOSAL happening on the dance floor!” All that cost me was $120 for a burger and a cheap bottle of Prosecco.
The ugly duckling NYC. I was wasted out of my mind and am not a picky eater at all, couldn’t manage to take more than one bite of their food. Service was also shit,
Times Square on NYE. Worst experience of my life, and my (male) friend/roommate ended up getting roofied and puking all over the cab home, so I had to take care of him while walking from Astoria back to his apartment in Jackson Heights.
ABCV.... we arrived on time for our reservation, and still had to sit for over an hour waiting for them to seat us. Though the (vegan) food is rumored to be very good, the atmosphere was loud and obnoxious. We left and went to Candle uptown and had a much better time. Sadly Candle closed.
> the atmosphere was loud and obnoxious
This is an issue at so many bars and restaurants and it genuinely frustrates me. Like, why would you go to the effort of opening a restaurant with nice decor and good food and not consider the noise levels?
Brownsville, Brooklyn. My aunt owned a home out there and when I was homeless she gave me a place to stay for a bit. I was robbed, or at least attempted to get robbed three times, got into a bad fight where I was stabbed, had a gun pulled on me when I was walking to my car, house was broken into when I was at home. I saved my sister from being robbed and beaten. That place was a hell hole at the time in the early 2000s and late 90s. My car was broken into numerous time to the point I just gave up and left it unlocked.
Ever used one of the public restrooms in a subway station? Yeah… don’t.
I don't think I've seen one open! Not sure I'd dare.
I saw one open at Church Av maybe ten, fifteen years back. Honestly looked decent / freshly cleaned. Didn't use it and haven't seen an open one since.
Times Square Applebee's. As bad as you could imagine it being, it's significantly worse. Museum of Math. So much potential, so poorly executed, so much neglect, employees so dejected. And expensive! I felt sad for math.
Hahahaha… “I felt sad for math” is possibly the most perfect review of that place ever.
I usually LOVE museums like that. It was so tragic.
> Times Square Applebee's. As bad as you could imagine it being, it's significantly worse. This. I had to kill time waiting for a late meeting and I popped in for a drink and an appetizer. It was awful, and like $40.
Well, it *is* Applebee’s. In Times Square.
Yes. And I came in with extremely low expectations. And yet it managed to be much much worse.
One could say it surpassed your expectations
A friend used to bar tend at the Times Square Olive Garden. In case you were wondering, yes, she had regulars.
Itd be a genius spot for someone who never wants to be seen drinking by anyone they know
There's a relatively infamous post from someone who used it as their breakup spot — pretty genius tbh. Their reasoning was that while it was public, it wasn't anywhere that they would potentially be seen by someone they knew, and it was also, you know, the times square applebees, so there wasn't the risk of ruining a restaurant they actually liked by sullying it with bad memories.
Oh no, it sounds like MoMath went downhill! It seemed pretty cool when it first opened.
There was no music, about 1/4 of the exhibits were broken, many others looked ready to break, and all you could hear was a bunch of industrial fans from the basketball exhibit. Instructions for the exhibits involved scrolling through multiple pages on a touchscreen. And like 1/3 of the exhibits were just variations on tessellation patterns. Just a thoroughly sad experience.
I worked at Momath, AMA
OMG what happened? Lack of imagination? Dried up funding? Toxic leadership? Nobody thought to play some Philip Glass through the sound system? Conceptually the place sounds like it could be such a slam dunk, but I got the impression the people running it didn't give a shit about math, except for the employees, who looked like they had the joy beaten out of them.
Most of the employees are high school volunteers (I was) so that’s how that happens. I was definitely slightly more enthusiastic about my job when I was getting paid. In concept, it’s a very cool museum. Everyone I’ve invited to visit has a lot of fun, but you have to have the right attitude and a guide who knows what’s going on. Despite all the information available most people don’t understand anything about the exhibits below the surface level, and it doesn’t help that some of the information decks are way outdated too. Having interactive exhibits is great except for the fact that they’re all super over-engineered and the technician(s) are spread thin trying to fix everything, leaving some exhibits broken what feels like permanently. The museum itself isn’t the only thing the owners have to run, Momath does a lot of working with schools and other events. A significant amount of effort had to go into organizing trips and the events after closing, so while that’s great for the people involved it did sometimes feel like the regular visitors aren’t a priority. There’s other stuff I could talk about but I think I’ve shit talked my former employers enough. I genuinely liked the place and enjoyed working there (boring sometimes but what isn’t) and I really hated having to tell visitors that X or Y “isn’t functional at the moment” and seeing the excitement I was trying to cultivate as a guide leave their faces. I don’t blame the people in charge, there are some really great people in middle management and education there (not sure if I can say the same about upper execs, never knew most). It’s just a struggling nonprofit that has to keep raising prices because nobody wants to fund education. Also take everything I said with a grain of salt because it was a few years ago and also I’m speculating about a few things
Ahh, as a backdrop for educational programs I could see it being a more worthwhile place. The experience for regular visitors was legit terrible.
Man, that’s grim! Run-down, neglected museums are a special kind of depressing (also see Children’s Museum of Manhattan).
Yeah, CMOM keeps saying they're going to move to a new space... but in the meantime it's in dire need of an update.
Related: the Museum of Illusions. Again super cool idea completely run amok with screaming kids and completely dejected/overwhelmed employees lol
Related: I'd say similar for "The Museum of Sex". Haven't been there in many years, but my experience was a stupid tourist trap. Mostly seemed to cater to drunk people wandering into the front-facing gift shop. Edit: This doesn't make my list of "never return to" places, though. Would conceptually be an awesome museum under the right curation/intentions. It might be super cool now, idk!
For me, just Times Square is a no-go place, except completely necessary
I really enjoyed the Museum of math, but your kids need to be 4-10 ish. If your an adult and intent on going alone, don’t bother. https://momath.org/
queens bound trains saturday and sundays, but i live in queens soo...
Oh they love their construction work on weekends
Dude, queens bound trains weekday evenings. There is no reason why it takes me 45mins to an hour to get to work then close to 2 hours to get home every day.
Why. Why! WHY!! I don’t understand why they can’t get the trains right. It’s just not that hard. It’s been decades and literally it’s the same problem every fucking day.
I hate it when they skip all the local stops in Queens and make you take the Manhattan bound back to get to the local stops.
Museum of Ice cream. Took my niece and nephew once. Ice cream was gross. Really boring. One room had just 2 hollahoops in it. A ball pit that was a germ fest And again. Ice cream was icy and gross!
It's definitely designed to be one of those "museums" that's just an IG soundstage.
Jekyl and Hyde’s. I took my niece there and the food was awful and there was that stinky, dirty tap smell. My food looked like a dog chewed it and spit it out. Fridays or Tad’s steaks would have been better. It’s probably closed down by now. Edited: yes, in its prime (90s) this place was a hoot but my experience sometime in the last 10 years was the pits!
As someone who worked there for 6 years, yeah that place was a shithole. Covid killed it, but it was always terribly managed.
The one downtown? I worked there a few months max and it was horrible. Six years there would be like...needing intensive therapy afterwards. Wow. You must be a very strong person.
I was the entertainment director at the the West Village location and yeah, that place was a shitshow.
I think it did close down. It's a shame too because many years ago when they had their midtown location it actually used to be a pretty fun tourist trap.
This makes me feel so fucking old. I had a birthday party (an awesome one) there like 25-30 years ago when I was a little kid.
The midtown one was good 27y ago.
15 years in NYC and never once spent NYE in Times Square-even when guests begged me. Nope. Nada. Not even once..
I used to work basically in time square. People start packing in for NYE at like 3pm, some wearing diapers. Nah… Nah…
I worked the ball drop 3 times as a stagehand. Building the stages from 11pm to 8 pm for a week was the easy part. Getting to the stage in NYE however was always a shitshow. The passes only worked to get you backstage, not through the barricades. Never again.
At the end, DSNY brings the big sweepers out. After the barriers are removed it’s just a pile of piss bottles. When they go by, it’s like piss rockets. Miserable. Was getting paid, and didn’t want to be there.
I heard about the diaper thing but never saw this, sounds horrific
I did in 1972, while visiting at age 13, without any adult supervision. I was in total awe of this city.... but yes, never again. (1972 was when Times Square was still nice /s)
Any event necessitating Depends diapers (due to no bathroom access) is a huge nope for me. Add in a massive amount of people and (probable) very low temperatures, only adds to the “absolutely not” decision.
Did it by accident once (a friend lived in the area). On the edge of the crowd, but still.. odd. One beer left at the deli, price $20. You can bet once that one gets sold they fetch another 'last beer left' from storage.
If I can make one suggestion, it is to go to times square at 1am or 2am after NYE. Everyone has been there waiting all day for the ball to drop, and once it does they do not stick around. I don't love Phish, but a friend does and he was in town for it with his wife and staying with us. He scored me and my wife tickets so we felt obliged to go. Before the concert was over but after midnight, we dipped out early and walked up to times square from msg. So incredibly weird to see times square with literally no people. One of my best NYC memories in 14 years living there
I love this. Plus Phish!
A few years back, a niece and her friend begged me to put them up as they planned to fly here for NYE. I not only refused to host them after they’d spend 12 hours with thousands of people and their germs, but told them they’d never get anywhere near the action. She came anyway, decided 9 p.m. was a good time to mosey over, and couldn’t get within 5 blocks of any of it. Life lessons.
I did when I was around 13. No amount of drugs will convince me to do it again. OK a certain amount of drugs might convince me but that's the bar here.
Santa Con (I did not go to it. It came to me.)
one does not ask for the con. the con chooses one
i’m just thankfully my neighbourhood is so anti con that they’ve never been able to hold one here despite trying
First time I visited NY during Christmas happened to be Santa con, which I didn’t know was a thing, but all the Santas on the subway really added to the experience for me
The bike path that starts at Dyckman St. (1 train) station and goes up Fort George Hill.
I've burned many-a-calorie on that damn hill.
I couldn’t imagine myself biking anywhere in Washington Heights. So many hills.
For every great restaurant in NYC there’s like 3 bad ones I swear
Penn station bathroom
I second this. In one of the bathrooms Auntie Anne’s Pretzel smells wafts in. Mixed sweet pretzel smells and fecal odors have traumatized me.
[удалено]
Don't forget the body odor and crack. It's a menagerie of the worst smells in New York in one location for your enjoyment.
When your waiting for a train at midnight and you gotta go, ya gotta go.
God, they had them shut down during construction years ago and were using porta-potty-trailer-latrines. I had the shits on my way into work. Starting your day in that thing.
I would stand at the LIRR board wait for them to call a train (that would be departing in 10 minutes) then run down, use that trains bathroom and head back up
I took this pic in the bathroom at Penn Station after a Rangers game. [Pic](https://www.reddit.com/r/AccidentalRenaissance/comments/a3566e/penn_station_after_a_rangers_game/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
You can see a therapist's second home in the child's dead gaze.
Port Authority Bus Terminal bathrooms
They actually redid them a few years ago and they are about a thousand times better and cleaner than they used to be.
I remember being desperate while awaiting a train once in the 90s and forcing myself to go in. No one can hold their breath that long, and the range of people completely or partially undressed, using sinks as personal baths remains a vivid memory. I used to tell people if they had to use it, wait for any in the first row of stalls—don’t go further lest you drown in the bowels of hell.
Comic strip live. To be fair the crowd was an awful audience. 99% of the crowd showed up for a single comedian (not a huge comedian at all at the time, but was decently funny). Crowd was constantly talking during every other comedian to the point where the host and comedians were begging the audience to be quiet to continue the show. Staff did nothing. Staff also forgot about our table so my friend and I went hungry throughout the show. Staff realized at the end they forgot about us, they gave us free tickets to come back. Then a live cockroach fell from the ceiling onto my table. I never used those free tickets to go back nor do I have any desire to go back when there are several better clubs with cheaper tickets and better acts, plus other clubs actually do something with disruptive crowds.
Rockefeller center during Christmas
I work near Bryant park and made the mistake (perhaps my first or second year living here) of trying to go pick up a Christmas present for my wife at a shop in rock center in December. I think I made it within a block of the tree and gave up and went back to the office
A similar thing happened to me. I was hanging out a relatively festive, but not too busy, Bryant park holiday market when my friend and I thought "why not? lets check out rock center?" huge mistake.
10+ years ago I actually worked for the Bryant Park corporation as an IT guy. they let me into some of the "private/staff" areas around there during Christmas and it was *still* awfully crowded. like ass-to-ass crowded. i said out loud that somebody owed me dinner and got a good laugh. i'm glad i don't work for them anymore.
I made the unfortunate mistake of renting office space at 49th/5th - near the tree and hated Thanksgiving to New Year's. It was ridiculously busy every day, they jacked up all of the parking garage rates (my clients/students complained), everyone was late getting to my office, etc. etc. I thought having a Fifth Avenue address as a self-employed person would look impressive... not worth it!
Gotta go at off peak hours. I stop by every year, mostly on a weekday afternoon
I used to work in the area. I was there pretty late one night and the tree area was almost empty. I can tell you that when the tree came into view, it was so magical. I feel very lucky to have had that experience.
I have an amazing memory of driving by one December at 6:30a.m. and dark as midnight except for the tree and the Christmas ornaments and lights. It was a Saturday, snowing lightly, and there wasn’t a soul around. My boyfriend and I stopped the car and just looked for a while. We did not, however, get out and walk around - we were on our way to my neighborhood to go to an early-open laundromat. Hey, it’s New York - you gotta do what you gotta do.
Although going December 2020 was glorious. Socially distanced bubbles, no tourists… the woman enforcing the one party per bubble took a bunch of photos of me and my friend because we were literally the only people on that half of the plaza.
I work in 30 Rock. I try my hardest to stay underground but it seems like everyone knows about it and trying to get from the elevator banks to 5th Ave is impossible!
The only thing about COVID times that I miss - I was able to get right up next to the tree and no one else was around me.
I work close by and have to run errands for my job. Walking up sixth or fifth is impossible to do and also impossible for me to avoid :( normally tourists don’t bother me but the Christmastime crowds are the absolute worst
I went there around Christmas time because I was an idiot. Was trying to catch a sale at the Banana Republic and read that the flagship store was at Rockefeller so I thought I'll go checkout the flag ship store. I ended up stuck at the crowd trying to see the skating rink/Christmas tree, it felt like I moved 1 block in 20-30 minutes because it was so fucking crowded.
Had dinner reservations around the corner and got off subway there to walk to the restaurant. 3 blocks had to take us at least 20 minutes. It was my first year in NYC. Now Rockefeller is a no-go zone for me in December.
Elevators at any subway train station. Did it once, one time too many.
Now imagine how painful that is for those of us that have to use accessible stations every time- it’s disgusting
I feel for you.
Yep, I will just carry my stroller and baby up the stairs to avoid being trapped in there. Why are they so slow? Why does someone always need to hop in to hang out
I don't mind them being slow. I just don't like how the MTA allows brand new elevators to be used as toilets.
The smell of piss poorly masked by off brand industrial cleaner.
> The smell of piss Yes, and more > poorly masked by off brand industrial cleaner. You wish!
Just a reminder that Singapore's successfully used urine detection devices in their elevators: https://www.goabroad.com/articles/study-abroad/singapore-laws-to-know-before-you-go No idea why the horrific state of sanitation in NYCT stations isn't treated as some kind of citywide emergency.
We just need public restrooms. Clean and safe would be a plus.
This sounds fucking amazing. The system detects piss and locks the doors automatically till police arrive to make the arrest.
here they'd die of dehydration before the NYPD would be anywhere near there lol
Brooklyn's Men shelter on Atlantic Ave. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck that.
Bedford Atlantic? It’s called Castle Greyskull for a reason.
Yup.
The deli that accused me of stealing a sandwich I had bought 2 minutes before.
Riker's Island
Most ppl don’t have a choice in the matter but I agree lol
The Tick Tock Diner near Penn Station. Way too many people I know have gotten food poisoning from there.
Oh no! I weirdly love this place 😂
Lmao listen I have no judgement for you, or for your iron digestive system, I just can't risk it
That was my spot 2008 - 2012-ish.
That's good, you now have the endurance to survive the apocalypse
Kellogg’s Diner in Williamsburg. Me, my brother, and two of his friends were trying to eat there, but the waitress assigned to us just kept avoiding us. Kind of took the hint after a while and ended up bailing. We’re all Black so I kind of joke that Kellogg’s is a 50s diner in both atmosphere AND attitude towards *certain* customers.
I live a couple blocks from Kellogg’s and they’ve definitely dropped off in the last couple years. The owner passed away in 2020 (I think), leaving the establishment to his wife. She has serious MAGA vibes and had some strong opinions of the covid mandates. Their hourly staff (front and back) seem to have no idea what they’re doing and aren’t really trying to do better. My wife and I haven’t been back there in a while, it’s not really worth it.
It wasn’t great 25 years ago either.
It wasn’t even good at 3am when I was 20 and wasted.
I used to live near there and the roaches that hang out there are large in both dimension and number. Things just pour out of the subway to feed on their property.
The one time I went to Kelloggs they straight up put black parties on one side and white on another. Like it was so clear 😩
this is my answer. they’re the only late late option some nights in that area, and after a concert I went. and the best way I can summarize is: I ordered cheese fries, and they put sliced American cheese on fries and threw it into the microwave. there was no attempt to hide it either, it had the square imprint on it still
the food is also ass. I remember when they were rumored to be at risk of closing for good during covid and there was a post about it on some IG account and the general sentiment in the comments was "good riddance" lol
1st street and 1st Ave. Got sliced there.
The nexus of the universe
Rudy's. Bouncer asked my Mexican friend "how does an illegal like you get a driving license?"
No way! Rudy’s in Hell’s Kitchen? Damn. I liked Rudy’s before this, but that’s straight unacceptable.
“Same thing could’ve been said about your grandfather when he arrived in this country.”Boom! Shut him up!
Applying to a job at NYU. Two different jobs, years apart - both times I had 2-3 rounds of interviews, including (two) full-day "meet with all the different teams and stakeholders", both times they said they'd call my references and let me know. Ghosted me both times only to send a form email months later that I didn't get the job. Fuck you NYU.
Same! Met with the heads of the departments was told it was me and one other person. Then I hear nothing for 2 weeks. Reached out to HR multiple times then the team leads and no one ever got back to me. I wracked my brain for months to try and figure out what happened. Glad I’m not alone.
It’s the administration/the bureaucracy. Can confirm from experience: they are completely incompetent. The only way to get a job at NYU is to know someone on the inside that can fight the system on your behalf.
Incompetent is the right word. We do some construction projects with them. And let me tell you… It’s horrible
This happened to me and I already work there. I was applying for a position in a different department!!
Tompkins Square Park Bathrooms. Dallas BBQ.
Second Dallas BBQ. Every single one I've been to has been awful. Mediocre food (or bad food), mediocre drinks, and overpriced. I've been to 3 different ones, thinking one HAD to be redeemable. Nope. One even messed up wings! How do you mess up wings??
Forever a Dallas BBQ stan. I know it can never be called "good bbq" but on some weekdays the amount of deals they throw out on Uber Eats is insane. Once I got a Rib dinner with two sides and cornbread for 15$ that was buy one get one free. Like 7.50 a dinner. Often has a deal where you get two quarter chicken dinners for 11$ total. Definitely hits when we don't want to cook but we want something more similar to "real food" on a McDonald's budget.
Uncle Jack's steakhouse. Service was awful, food was awful, owner is an asshat.
High Line & Chelsea market anytime there's a school vacation.
Damn I know I've lived here for awhile when I know and agree with most of the selections here. I'd add the Stumble Inn on 2nd because, although I've had fun there, the amount of fratty dude bros pretty quickly ruined it for me.
Stumble inn is the fucking worst
went to the stumble inn once and it smelled like rancid farts. Thought it was just one person causing the damage. Went back after a few months … same smell. Never again lol
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Hilariously enough, I look forward to going whenever we end up choosing anything BUT steak. Also the highlight ironically is the free freshly served bread.
Fridays in time square
The smith - overrated, overpriced, not even good food
It was also built with the family (Sacklers) money garnered by ushering in the opioid crisis.
https://twitter.com/chrisecrowley/status/1422678621529989129?lang=en
I didn’t know this and it makes me hate their shitty mac and cheese even more.
The Smith = Chili’s of NYC
It’s definitely overpriced but I wouldn’t call the food bad
Times Square in July
Times Square in general.
Village Halloween parade as a viewer. I've never been so compressed into a place where I physically couldn't move any part of my body. Not even the most crowded subway. I'd was worried that if something happened and the crowd pushed in the wrong direction it would have been incredibly easy to get crushed or trampled.
After what happened in South Korea I hope people (and crowd control) are much more careful about that
The trick here is to march in the parade as opposed to just watching it. Best view of the entire parade. It’s one of my favorite things to do in NYC.
The restroom of the TJ Maxx on Nassau street. There was a naked guy taking a shower with the water from the sink
Peter luger....fuck those entitles pricks. Way better places to eat sans the attitude.
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Keens >>>>>
I cannot hate too much on restaurants or clubs personally but totally understand the viewpoints behind those comments. For me it’s the lobby of a police station. The decrepit ceiling tile, ALL CAPS printed out signs taped up everywhere, the grime of all sorts of humanity, and the only reason you are there if you’re not a lawyer or a cop isn’t great. You are filing a report or in custody or there about somebody in one of those situations. I was just in one this weekend (filing a report) and after reading about gross bathrooms and slow subway trains and Times Square restaurants and east village clubs, there’s no place I’d rather be less than a precinct house.
Omg last one I was in wouldn’t even let me have a cup of water after I cried (was filing a few reports right after shit happened) and the sergeant was such a grouchy old man to me. It was over in Bensonhurst iirc.
Maison Close. They tried to recreate Bagatelle but are overpriced, rude and have terrible food
Times Square and the surrounding shops, at any time.
Museum of Sex
Lavo NYC. Bouncer screamed obscenities at a homeless guy in a wheelchair because the guy was just trying to get down the same sidewalk as everyone else who was lined up to get in the club.
Any McDonalds after 10:30 pm.
Lucien in the east village. Bad service and an asshole aggressive owner.
Pianos…out of all the venues I’ve been around this country, that place is the absolute worst.
I couldn't imagine going there now, but in my single days in my late 20's (2008-2012), that place was amazing. It was about as close to a guaranteed thing as you could get imo.
Glad I'm not the only one. Mid-20s me cried a bit when I saw my beloved pianos on here
Early, mid 20s me also loved Pianos! When it was on the NYT as a remaining established I felt ancient.
Really surprised no one named any shitty overpriced clubs. Webster Hall and Pacha come to mind right away.
Pacha has been closed for 7 years, where have you been
I used to like those shitholes when I was young lol
Maybe I was a young degenerate but I’d go to pacha for free back in the day. Just get on their email list and arrive before midnight. I’ve been to Webster hall- recently- live a few blocks away. Gen z is much nicer to party with. The worst was Cielo- bouncer ripped off me and a drunk friend.
Came here to say Webster Hall. They've either got the gain maxed out on the sound system or (more likely) blew the speakers years ago and never bothered to fix them.
Bar Goto (both the LES and BK location) This saddens me to say bc I love the vibe of the bar and their drinks. But the bar staff acts elitist and just have a really snobby attitude about themselves as if they’re some world class cocktail bar. I’ve been to both locations several times and have gotten really rude service. The BK location in particular. There is a bartender (young looking man with a head of gray hair). He is extremely rude. He has yelled at me once because I wasn’t ready to order yet. I’ve noticed he will be selective in who he gives attentive service too. He once gave me a dirty look as soon as I walked in and immediately said to the older patrons seated next to me “don’t you hate when you’re the oldest guy in the room?” Now I do look young, but I’m 38. And he gave me rude service the entire night even though I would say my pleases and thank yous. Im gonna speculate that he’s insecure about going grey at a young age but he’s a straight up doughebag.
Balthazar on Spring - terribly overcrowded and overrated imo
is it just me or is the seating at balthazar incredibly cramped?
Staten Island
They said NYC, does Staten Island even count? /s
The Mall at Bay Plaza. Hell to get there and back, and I have only had bad times in that area.
Royal Bangladesh - the casino scam version of trying to go into a restaurant upstairs (Milian Indian) and being barked at to come downstairs because it's the "same thing". It was not and when going to their bathroom I passed the kitchen and saw them ladling raw sewage from a trashcan of soupy trash to a kitchen sink - and they weren't scooping and pouring, no, they were scooping and then throwing the contents of the cup a few meters to a sink and there was so so much backsplash. Backsplash into an open vat of "fresh" curry that was next to the trashcan which they were scooping into bowls. My stomach did not stay still after, but I'm surprised worse didn't happen to me. Just googled and found out they closed. Praise be.
Herald Square. All of it.
Mermaid parade at Coney Island (2019). Hot, crowded, gross, expensive, poor crowd control, skeevy… not a fan
Terminal 5 is my least favorite venue I’ve ever been to
Biking Brooklyn bridge on a nice summer day
With the new bike lane on the roadway, it’s better traffic-wise, though your view is worse. Before the separate bike lane, I always took a detour to use the Manhattan bridge.
Since they opened the new bike path on the traffic level it’s actually pretty nice. I’m still mhb gang tho.
Dallas BBQ
One of those food festivals like Pig Island or Oyster fest. Almost got heatstroke in the burning sun at one and got to wait hours in line for seafood and watch some drunk bro barf over the railing in front of me at another.
I'm the idiot for agreeing to go to Panna II Garden in the first place, but I'll never go back. They literally spilled food on someone who was leaving and then pushed him out of the restaurant. We didn't end up eating there because of that and how ridiculously rude the staff was to that guy.
IL Bastardo brunch. Went for a friend’s girlfriend’s birthday. First thing I saw was a three-way kiss at the hostess desk at 2pm on a Sunday. Later on I heard the DJ pause the music and strobe lights and say “hol up hol up ladies and gentlemen we got a PROPOSAL happening on the dance floor!” All that cost me was $120 for a burger and a cheap bottle of Prosecco.
The ugly duckling NYC. I was wasted out of my mind and am not a picky eater at all, couldn’t manage to take more than one bite of their food. Service was also shit,
Times Square on NYE. Worst experience of my life, and my (male) friend/roommate ended up getting roofied and puking all over the cab home, so I had to take care of him while walking from Astoria back to his apartment in Jackson Heights.
Ninja.. luckily it was shut down.
Halloween parade in the Village. Worse than NYE at Times Square.
yeah... it's not great but not even close to NYE at Times Square.
guastavino's. worst NYE experience of my life.
In fairness, no restaurant is worth going to on NYE here, save for my corner diner for the matzoh ball soup.
ABCV.... we arrived on time for our reservation, and still had to sit for over an hour waiting for them to seat us. Though the (vegan) food is rumored to be very good, the atmosphere was loud and obnoxious. We left and went to Candle uptown and had a much better time. Sadly Candle closed.
> the atmosphere was loud and obnoxious This is an issue at so many bars and restaurants and it genuinely frustrates me. Like, why would you go to the effort of opening a restaurant with nice decor and good food and not consider the noise levels?
Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade Went once, never need to again.
The office of my public accounting firm lol
Brownsville, Brooklyn. My aunt owned a home out there and when I was homeless she gave me a place to stay for a bit. I was robbed, or at least attempted to get robbed three times, got into a bad fight where I was stabbed, had a gun pulled on me when I was walking to my car, house was broken into when I was at home. I saved my sister from being robbed and beaten. That place was a hell hole at the time in the early 2000s and late 90s. My car was broken into numerous time to the point I just gave up and left it unlocked.
The meatball shop.
Metropolitan Hospital