How to Spend the Perfect Weekend in NYC

Set in an Art Deco landmark building from 1881 located right near City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge, the Beekman's Instagram-famous nine-story atrium is jaw-dropping in person. Wrought-iron railings on every floor, a pyramid skylight, and plush, vintage décor recreate the feeling of the Victorian Golden Age in downtown New York. The hotel also houses two top restaurants, Temple Court and Augustine, from James Beard Award-winning chefs Tom Colicchio and Keith McNally. The recently opened Alley Cat Amateur Theatre, located in the Beekman’s cellar, is a post-modern lounge created by Serge Becker of Miss Lily’s and La Esquina and features Tokyo-influenced cocktails and light bites. If you can manage to book one of the two Turret Penthouses, do it. Each one has a 400-square-foot rooftop terrace overlooking the Manhattan skyline.

Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s West Side has gotten its first destination restaurant, Legacy Records, named after the recording studio that was torn down to build the development. The bi-level, 85-seat spot with a café and wine bar is from the team behind downtown favorites Charlie Bird and Pasquale Jones. The marble bar and dining room, with art deco and mid-century overtones, is a sumptuous backdrop for chef Ryan Hardy’s menu, with dishes like chestnut tagliatelle with duck ragu, and East Coast oysters and scallops.

When you run a successful supper club out of your parents' house at 13, opening a restaurant at 19 is a natural career progression. Chef Flynn McGarry presents a stunning tasting menu ($155) in a dinner party format at Gem, his 36-seat, Lower East Side spot. The evening begins with Champagne and hors d'oeuvres in the cafe and moves to the dining room for a meal consisting of 12 to 15 courses.

New York's cultural scene got a significant boost in 2015 with the re-opening of the Whitney in its Renzo Piano-designed building at the south end of the High Line. Nearly a quarter of the permanent collection works now on view in 50,000 square feet of light-filled galleries had either not been exhibited for decades or never been seen before. Closed Tuesdays.

The city's leading forum for experimental art from around the world is across the East River in Long Island City, Queens. MoMA PS1's galleries showcase visual artists in all mediums, from performance to video installations to painting and sculpture. On Saturdays during the summer, the museum popular "Warm Up" series presents live and electronic music in what most refer to as a huge outdoor dance party. This year’s program takes place within an architectural installation by Dream the Combine. Upcoming artists include Cashmere Cat, DJ Kass, and Starchild & The New Romantic. Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Founded in 1939, American Ballet Theatre, colloquially known as ABT, performs in front of 300,000 people annually, in both New York City and on regular tours around the world. Led by Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie, ABT’s spring and fall seasons are held at Lincoln Center’s Metropolitan Opera. The stellar company performs both full-length 19th-century classics like Giselle and Swan Lake, as well as 20th-century masterpieces by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Twyla Tharp, among others, but perhaps most exciting is the work they do with contemporary choreographers such as Wayne McGregor, Alexei Ratmansky, and Michelle Dorrance.

Alumnae’s line of chic flats, mules, and booties are from two former 'Alumnae' of Sigerson Morrison, Kari Sigerson and Eliza Axelson-Chidsey, who broke off to start their own brand. The marble-floored emporium on Hudson Street in Tribeca showcases the shoes made out of all manner of skins, from python to eel to silver calf hair, described by the founders as having a “refined tomboy spirit.”

This Miami Beach concept store finally opened a location in New York last November, a six-floor, 12,000-square-foot ode to Art Deco style in an 1878 landmarked building. It includes a separate shoe shop, a David Mallett hair salon, and the recently-launched Webster Home. A glass roof floods the atrium with light, the better to see the themed racks of designer frocks from Balenciaga, Atlein, and The Row, among others, and the luxe accessories are arranged like gemstones on glass shelves.