The Tour of Chinatown, Little Italy, East Village and The Lower East Side

Did you know that from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, these neighborhoods were collectively referred to as “The Slums of New York”? Yes, when immigration from Europe, and later from Asia, reached its highest peak, most of the newly arrived settlers found their homes around Lower Manhattan, the area that was back then famous for its push-cart businesses, cheap tenement houses and possibly over dozens of different languages spoken daily on the streets.

Why should you visit The Lower East Side

In this area, we can find immigrants from Italy, Ireland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine and later from Bangladesh, China, the Dominican Republic, India, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. Still today, it’s an incredibly diverse area and through local, some of them historic, food establishments and other businesses we can revisit the New York of those years. The city that you probably saw in "Once upon a Time in America" and "The Godfather", or perhaps "Gangs of New York" with the famous Five Point’s.

Explore the East Village

We will start by exploring the East Village, once knew as the Klein Deutschland ("Little Germany"), making our way down 2nd Avenue and the famous Jewish Rialto (Yiddish Theater). Did you know that here many Eastern Europeans and German-Jewish arrived in New York by the end of the 18th century? We will stop by St. Marks Place, back in the 60s and 80s it was the place to be to see famous rock bands and artists and the former Yiddish Theater became known as "The Church of Rock and Roll". Today, one of the busiest streets at night with pubs and cheap-eats frequented regularly by college students. Later, we’ll reach the Lower East Side, famous for the many street-food vendors and other authentic food establishments, where we can stop (and try – who wants) different delicacies from all over the world. Do you know the difference between Kosher and Halal food? Have you ever tried an authentic New York’s Bagel? And, is New York’s, the best pizza in the world?