Best Free Things To Do in NYC This Week

“The quality and quantity of free events, free things to do that take place in New York City every day of the year is truly amazing. So don’t miss the opportunities that only New York provides: stop wondering what to do; start taking advantage of free things to do, free events to go to in NYC today!”

Join Club Free Time – I did, and it’s one of the best things I ever did. Here is a sample of FREE events this week. Get more information by going to the Club Free Time website.

Best Free Things To Do in NYC This Week

Monday, June 21, 2021

Mon, Jun 21 – 2:00 pm / free Concert | (IN-PERSON, outdoors)
A Mix of Jazz, Classical and Folk Music
Saxophonist Gottfried Stöger’s ensemble DreamHunter performs an eclectic mix of jazz, classical … more

Mon, Jun 21 – 4:00 pm / free; no reservation required
Concert | (IN-PERSON, outdoors) Paris on the Hudson
Paris on the Hudson is the culminating event of Third Street’s new music festival, 20/21 Vision cele … more

Mon, Jun 21 – 6:00 pm / free; no reservation required
Concert | (IN-PERSON, outdoors) Hazmat Modine: Honky Tonk Meets Klezmer
Hazmat Modine’s music tips its hat to New Orleans-style honky-tonk with dashes of klezmer and gritty … more

Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Tue, Jun 22 – 9:00 am / free, donations welcome
Performance | (IN-PERSON) Aerialists and Acrobats: Works-in-Progress and Show-Ready Acts
Professional circus performers showcasing training and creative process as well as rehearsals of wor … more

Tue, Jun 22 – 6:00 pm / free, registration required
Dance Lesson | (IN-PERSON, outdoors) Afro Peruvian Festejo
Enjoy an outdoor dance class. Each Tue through July, participants will learn a new dance style. Chec … more

Tue, Jun 22 – 7:30 pm / free
Opera | Met Opera: Dvorak’s Rusalka (virtual, streaming for 23 hours)
In Mary Zimmerman’s production starring soprano Kristine Opolais, this classic tale of a water sprit … more

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Wed, Jun 23 – 5:30 pm / free; RSVP required
Workshop | (IN-PERSON, outdoors) Japanese Sword Lessons
The New York Budo Association teaches the art of traditional Japanese Sword, specifically Ryushin Sh … more

Wed, Jun 23 – 8:00 pm / free; RSVP required
Performance | Audience: Vaclav Havel’s Play — With Puppets
The presented Audience is a Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre version of Vaclav Have … more

Thursday, June 24, 2021

Thu, Jun 24 – 12:00 pm / free, RSVP required
Museums | (IN-PERSON) Tiffany Glass and Other Exhibitions
The collection of Tiffany’s leaded glass includes an extraordinary array of floral and geometric lam … more

Thu, Jun 24 – 1:15 pm / free
Classical Music | Popular Consorts, Songs, and Dances from the Elizabethan and Jacobean Periods in Great Britain (virtual)
The Violators, a renegade consort of viols, recorders, voices, and “air viol” (aka English concertin … more

Thu, Jun 24 – 7:00 pm / free; RSVP required
Play | (IN-PERSON, outdoors) King Lear — with a Happy Ending
This version of King Lear by William Shakespeare will employ Nahum Tate’s 1681 “happy endin … more

Friday, June 25, 2021

Fri, Jun 25 – 11:00 am / free, registration required
Museums | (IN-PERSON, outdoors) Historic 1885 Ship and History Exhibition
Wavertree is a historic iron-hulled sailing ship built in 1885, now the largest wrought iro … more

Fri, Jun 25 – 2:00 pm / free
Screening | Leonard Bernstein’s The Gift of Music: Footage from the Archives and Early Television Ventures (virtual)
Throughout his career, Leonard Bernstein made more than 400 appearances at Carnegie Hall, beginning … more

Fri, Jun 25 – 3:00 pm / free; RSVP required
Performance | (IN-PERSON, outdoors) June Rites!!: An Hour of Stunning Live Performance
After more than a year of isolation, Waterwell invites you to join your fellow New Yorkers for a sum … more

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If you are looking for some of the best info on food and drink, restaurants and eating in New York City, then you want to head to New York magazine’s Grub Street.

Right now you want to check out: The Return of Restaurants

“Make up for lost meals. No takeout, no pasta kits, just 66 of the best new (or newly relevant) places to eat.”
Edited by Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld, Photographs by Dina Litovsky

Here are 3 of my faves:

Eat All Your Chinese Vegetables

Fat Choy / 250 Broome St.

It’s one thing to offer a $335 meat-free menu for the one percent (see Eleven Madison Park 2.0). It’s another to charge $10 and under for veggie-centric Chinese food for everyone: the curious carnivores, the certified vegans, and the dedicated superfans like Deborah from the Upper West Side, who loves the food and the vibe so much she literally hiked down the West Side Highway from 88th Street to Broome and Orchard one recent Saturday afternoon just to tuck in to paper-boatloads of chewy rice rolls topped with gai lan and juicy bok choy showered with crispy fried garlic. We know she did this because Fat Choy is the kind of place where diners who have navigated the scrum of Lower East Side streeteries — bars, vegan-cupcake shops, more bars — start conversations with strangers to recommend dishes, offer bites, and generally share communal moments of vibrantly flavored, inventively conceived culinary bliss. —Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld

Sip a Sazerac in a Secret Garden

Villanelle / 15 E. 12th St.

This elegant Greenwich Village establishment has flown so far under the radar that many regulars (ourselves included) were afraid it would close forever when disaster struck. Miraculously, unlike with the still-shuttered Gotham Bar & Grill across the street, the opposite has happened. Owner Catherine Manning fitted the space out back with tables and little enclosed “garden rooms” that have become a hit during the outdoor-dining craze. The Sazeracs we enjoyed on a recent summery evening were exceptional, and you can also addle yourself with $9 cocktails during the new happy hour. The talented young chef Tyler Heckman (Ferris, Le Turtle) took over the kitchen last fall, and he’s slowly added the kind of variety and style to the aggressively seasonal menu (braised spring lamb on our visit, white-asparagus velouté, gnocchi with escargot) that threatens to turn this sleepy local favorite into a proper big-city dining destination. —Adam Platt

Sample the Latest Fusion Cuisine on New York’s Original Open Street

The Migrant Kitchen / 45 Stone St.

Long before 2020 brought alfresco eating to every corner of our city, Stone Street was a pedestrian paradise, and it still is, a cobblestoned car-free wonderland for outdoor pints, pizza, and mozzarella sticks. The Migrant Kitchen, which opened last fall, brings Middle Eastern–Latin fusion to this Fidi pub-grub zone. Owner Nasser Jaber, who operates out of the Dubliner bar’s kitchen, sends out sumac-butter-slicked fried-chicken-and-falafel waffles, mariquitas (fried plantain chips) nachos, and pastelon mahshi, a Dominican-style maduros-and-beef riff on the traditional Palestinian stuffed gourd. And since many office workers are still Zooming in from home, Stone Street feels distinctly chiller and less suits-y these days. —Ryan P. Sutton

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Also see Eater New York’s interactive map that highlights
these 66 restaurants that deserve your attention.