Greenwich Village
Charm in the Big City
What is Greenwich?
Why Go?
What is there to do?
Is it worth seeing?
Why Make Greenwich part of my Trip?
It feels like an escape even within Manhattan with its picture-perfect townhouses, tree-lined streets, and quaint shops and cafés. It’s perhaps the most desirable neighborhood in NYC, and once you spend a day here, you’ll see why. You’ll eat well, shop well, and feel a world away from the madness of Times Square or the Empire State Building, and you’ll probably never want to leave.
One-of-a-kind shops, winding streets, and homemade eats delight. Greenwich Village is one of the oldest and most charming neighborhoods in New York City.
Head north a few blocks to Washington Square Park, find a bench fountain-side. Soak in everything going on around, you will find yourself pulled into an hour of pure NYC. It's delightful.
Don't miss Greenwich Village, it makes for the perfect day.
Stroll the Streets and Take in the Vibe
Tucked away from the honking horns and crowded sidewalks of midtown Manhattan sits Greenwich Village, a downtown neighborhood that spans west of Broadway to the Hudson River.
Where do I go? What do I see? I would say that you should start with a Food Tour, for your first time in Greenwich. You will than be able to understand the lay of the land, discover your new favorite spots, and enjoy the food in the Village.
Don't miss Bleecker Street, Cornelia Street, the little cute key shop, and Joes' Pizza. You can truly spend a day getting lost in the streets of Greenwich Village. Below you will find photos and a list of many of the places to stop by and visit during your day in the Village.
The Food
Eat Your Way through the Village.
Greenwich Village is known for its wide range of cuisines that reflect the ethnic diversity of NYC. Some of the neighborhood’s food shops, cafes and restaurants opened up almost a century ago and are still every bit as popular as they were then.
Faiccos' is a family-owned meat shop. It opened in the 1940s and is still fantastic. The shop’s loyal customers have been coming for years to get homemade sausages and other meats and cheeses. You can order authentic Arancini, a rice ball lightly seasoned with pepper, rolled in breadcrumbs then pan-fried.
While, it's not quite as old...go to Joe's Pizza. Established in 1975 by Joe Pozzuoli, who is originally from Naples, Italy, the birthplace of pizza, Joe's Pizza is a "Greenwich Village institution" offering the classic New York slice for over 37 years.
Please read about many more Best Eats and how to make a picnic lunch, while in Greenwich... Click Here!
Don't just be a Tourist
They say a “Traveller sees what he sees, the Tourist sees what he has come to see.”
We’ve all spotted them (by “them” we mean tourists)… We've all been one. You know, eagerly exploring a new city, cell phone in front of their face. Never even truly taking in where they are. Snap, Snap, Pose. Then a hundred more photos, and we've come to see what we've come to see... it's time to go to the next landmark.
What if you sat? What if you ate pizza on the local park bench? What if you slowed down and truly took in where you are?
Greenwich is the ideal place to practice this. I promise it will be well worth slowing it down.
Cornelia Street
Hashtag Charming
Rarely can you walk down a Manhattan street, hearing cabs honking and being shoulder to shoulder with people, turn the corner and then hear nothing but the faint murmurs of the couple walking ahead of you. Welcome to Cornelia Street. You will stand on Cornelia and forget that you are in the middle of a concrete jungle. This equals lovely.
The History
Hashtag start of our Country
Greenwich Village’s known history dates back to the 16th century, when it was a marshland called Sapokanican by Native Americans who camped and fished in the meandering trout stream later known as Minetta Brook.
In the 16th century, Native Americans referred to its farthest northwest corner, by the cove on the Hudson River at present-day Gansevoort Street, as Sapokanikan ("tobacco field"). The land was cleared and turned into pasture by Dutch and freed African settlers in the 1630s, who named their settlement Noortwyck ("North district", equivalent to Northwich/Northwick). In the 1630s, Governor Wouter van Twiller farmed tobacco on 200 acres here at his "Farm in the Woods". The English conquered the Dutch settlement of New Netherland in 1664, and Greenwich Village developed as a hamlet separate from the larger New York City to the south on land that would eventually become the Financial District. In 1644, the eleven Dutch African settlers were freed after the first black legal protest in America. All received parcels of land what is now Greenwich Village.
In 1713, the area later evolved into a refuge for the wealthy during outbreaks of cholera and yellow fever in the early 1800’s and an immigrant neighborhood in the late 19th Century.
Best Eats in the Village
Click on the photo above to discover great places to eat in the Village.
