35 ways to have the best summer in NYC – Time Out New York

“Soak up the sun as well as our list of recommendations for the best things to do during summer in New York.”
By Shaye Weaver and Krista Diamond

“This summer in NYC promises to be an unforgettable one now that our city is back up. The city has a boundless energy once the heat cranks up, and doubly so this year, so it’s time to start checking off our sensational list of things to do in summer in NYC. Some of the most popular New York attractions provide an endless list of things to do outside from rooftop movies and free dance parties to can’t-miss music festivals and more. Here’s how to make the absolute most of these steamy summer nights.

Tip: You may want to request off for a few staycation days too so you can spend some time relaxing at a few rooftop pools during the week when they’re less crowded.”

35 ways to have the best summer in NYC

Do dinner and drinks at Time Out Market New York

Broadway at the Drive-In

Be a disco diva at Lola Star’s Dreamland Roller Disco

Catch “In the Heights” at the Tribeca Film Festival

See live music at the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn Festival

Try the city’s best bites at Smorgasburg

Take in a show at Irving Plaza, finally

Get down at Hot Honey Sundays

Get free entry to the 1885 Tall Ship Wavertree

Skate around at TWA Hotel’s Roll-A-Rama

Celebrate Pride!

Visit NYC’s gorgeous floating park

Do margs on NYC’s only floating Mexican restaurant

Go glamping in the Rockaways

Go glamping on Governors Island, instead

Fill up at Queens Night Market

See the hot Immersive Van Gogh exhibit

See movies atop Pier 17’s rooftop

See a free SummerStage show

Devour an ice cream cone at Ample Hills Creamery

Eat, drink and shop in the streets

Cool off in the city’s pools

Lindy Hop at the Jazz Age Lawn Party

Take a trip to Governors Island

Catch a flick at Rooftop Cinema Club

Have drinks with a view at these rooftop bars

Drink on the water at boat bar!

Scream your guts out at Luna Park

Go stargazing on the High Line

Nosh on as many lobster rolls as you can

Dance the night away at Midsummer Night Swing

Tackle the water slide at Summer Streets

Go kayaking (for free!)

Attend a tennis match during the U.S. Open

Have a picnic in the park

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The best things to do in NYC this week

The best things to do in NYC this week include Restaurant Week and new outdoor performances! By Shaye Weaver / Time Out New York

If you’re looking for the best things to do in NYC this week or even today, there are tons of fun options. Enjoy Restaurant Week, attend a Daybreaker party or head to Prospect Park’s outdoor movie screening. For more ideas, scroll down to see this week’s best things to do in NYC.”

Here are just a few of this week’s events.

13. New York City Restaurant Week

New York City Restaurant Week, which is now live for dining, has been a twice annual tradition since 1992. When it first got cooking, the culinary holiday was celebrated with $19.92 lunch specials at restaurants like Tribeca Grill. Surprisingly, those midday meals only rose to $26 by 2020. What’s even wilder? This year’s prices have actually fallen. Sort of.  Summer 2021’s NYC Restaurant Week, which runs from July 19 through August 22, has three pricing tiers: $21, $39 and $125 for lunch or dinner. RW organizers advise restaurants to offer at least an entree and a side for the first two tiers, and the $125 ticket must include three or more courses plus a little something extra like wine. 

1. Watch the Olympics at these NYC bars

The Tokyo Olympics are officially underway, and like we do each time, New Yorkers will flock to their favorite sports bars to catch the games. It’s safe to say sports bars across the boroughs will be screening the games but some bars and restaurants are hosting special viewing parties between Friday, July 23, and Sunday, August 8 that you’ll want to take part in.

4. Midsummer Nights: Stoop Concerts

Park Slope Jul 29 2021-Aug 12 2021

Brooklyn Conservatory of Music is hosting “Midsummer Nights: Stoop Concerts,” a series of free outdoor concerts for the public on Thursday afternoons at 4:30pm. Below is the lineup:

July 29: Klezmer Music with Zoe Aqua, Dan Blacksberg and Ira Temple
August 5: The Kirk Driscoll Trio
August 12: Special Series Finale Performers To Be Announced

7. Next Slide Please

Hosted by Reed Kavner, Next Slide Please invites comedians to prepare and deliver PowerPoints about whatever they want, from a data-driven ranking of the best Manhattan street corners for first date make-outs to pitches for start-up investment opportunities that are *probably* not scams. This edition will feature presentations from Zach Zimmerman (The New Yorker), Shalewa Sharpe (The Tonight Show), Jonathan van Halem (“Tooning Out The News”), Shannon Odell (“Drunk Science”) and Kyle Turner (GQ, NYT). The show is on Tuesday night at 10pm and tickets are $18 in advance and $20 at the door, which is Caveat (21 Clinton St.). Proof of vaccination is required.

10. Temperance Wine Bar

Taste your way around the world at a new wine bar that offers dozens of international wines, all by the glass. Temperance Wine Bar (40 Carmine Street), which officially opened yesterday, is a new neighborhood drinking spot with a fun energy and eclectic design featuring local artists. Most importantly, there’s plenty to drink. At Temperance, Ojeda-Pons has curated an extensive menu of over 100 rotating international wines by the glass, as well as a selection of eight wines on tap. The wines range from affordable to higher-end, featuring classic European producers like Foradori and Clotilde Davenne, wines from New York like Millbrook Estate in the Hudson River Valley and Osmote in the Finger Lakes, wines from across the US like Monte Rio Cellars in California and Day Wines in the Willamette Valley, as well as wines from less traditional wine regions including countries like Morocco, Lebanon and Cyprus, and more. Other wine categories featured include smaller producers, lesser-known grape varieties, natural wines, orange wines, year-round rosés, sherry, sparkling wines from Champagne, and beyond

11. Jazz in Times Square

Midtown West Jul 29 2021-Sep 30 2021

Get your feet tapping at Times Square on Thursday nights with Jazz at Lincoln Center. It’ll bring NYC’s hottest young jazz bands to the plaza weekly through the end of September (weather permitting). Can’t make it in person? You can catch the show on Youtube as well.

July 15: Vanisha Gould Trio
July 22: Ashley Pezzotti
July 29: Corcoran Holt Trio
August 5: Luther S. Allison Trio
August 12: Willerm Delisfort Duo
August 19: Sarah Hanahan Trio
August 26: Zaccai Curtis Trio

For the full list and descriptions of all 88 events go HERE

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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 more of my faves:

Surrender to Carbs in Soho

Coco Pazzeria / 307 Spring St.

You see traces of far-west Spring Street’s past at the still-swinging Ear Inn and symbols of its future in the luxury apartment towers that have sprouted along Renwick and Greenwich Streets. Coco Pazzeria, with its raw bar and sparkling-wine list (liquor license pending), is the perfect pizzeria for this newly ritzy part of town, if the steady flow of neighbors stopping in for takeout orders is any indication. But thanks to the reputation of owner Pino Luongo and the presence of homegrown pizzaiolo Ciro Verdi, who can be seen slinging thin-crust pies and his trademark focaccia robiola at his oven in back, the restaurant also attracts couples on dates, travelers from other Zip Codes arriving on fancy folding bikes, and young families taking full advantage of the BYO policy (a must when your dining companions are an infant, a toddler, and a juvenile-delinquent tween). The menu extends to pastas and salads, but dough is the thing, fried into mini-calzones or formed into loaves for sandwiches, including a recent lobster-roll special. —R.P. & R.R.

Eat Greek Off the Beaten Path

Eléa / 217 W. 85th St.

This airy greek restaurant opened in 2018 on a rather unfavorable Upper West Side side street, facing a soon-to-be construction site, at a remove from the buzzier stretches of Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues. But when COVID hit, Eléa was one of the first places in the neighborhood to build a beautiful, greenery-draped outdoor seating area, complete with inviting flowers, twinkly lights, and copious heat lamps. The kitchen didn’t miss a beat, turning out zesty shareable small plates like fried-zucchini “chips” and sesame-crusted feta. Now, Eléa has blossomed into a local go-to for date nights and other special occasions — the kinds of dining excursions that feel more celebratory than ever. —Ellie Krupnick

Slurp Some Pho in a Brooklyn Backyard

Bolero / 177 Bedford Ave., Williamsburg

This Vietnamese restaurant smack in the middle of prime Bedford Avenue opened just before the pandemic and managed to soldier on throughout thanks to its backyard — small and slightly suburban-feeling with its wooden fence and strings of tiny lights. Pots of herbs grown on the restaurant’s farm in Pennsylvania line that yard; sometimes a cook will wander out and clip a fragrant betel leaf or a sprig of rice-paddy herb. It’s the ideal setting to enjoy chef Matt Le-Khac’s neo-traditional Vietnamese dishes, such as an unusual pho topped with coarsely ground beef and a vegetarian bun bo Hue chay made with mushrooms as opposed to the customary pig’s blood. —R.C.S.

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