Welcome to The Lower East Side
Ludlow Street and East Houston Street
Katz’s Deli was started in 1888 as a small storefront by two Jewish immigrants selling knishes and pickles. This makeshift deli quickly became a centerpiece of the rapidly developing Jewish Lower East Side and over the next couple of decades the store expanded and moved to its current location on Ludlow and Houston streets. During this time, Katz’s expanded its menu as well, adding hotdogs, sandwiches, and its most famous dish, pastrami on rye.
In the 20th century, Katz’s became known worldwide as a symbol of New York. Its bright red neon sign, half broken, the blunt and no-bullshit cooks and waiters, the long lines and fresh food, and the smell, the smell of pickles and fried food mixed with a hint of garbage made Katz’s the epitome of New York. If New York City has a soul, it is Katz’s Delicatessen. And yet today this unrelentingly amazing place that speaks volumes of the culture and history of the Lower East Side is being surrounded and squeezed by condos and luxury hotels. Everywhere you look in the Lower East Side the story is the same; more luxury condos, more hotels, and distinctly fewer of the small delis, alternative bookstores and theaters, and multigenerational businesses like Katz’s that are the lifeblood of New York.
Rivington Street between Ludlow and Essex Streets
This eighty-year-old candy store is a piece of the Old New York. It is a glimmering beacon of quirkiness and history in an otherwise gentrified and samey Lower East Side.
Rivington Street between Ludlow and Essex Streets
Essex Street and Rivington Street
Norfolk Street and Rivington Street
Attorney Street and Stanton Street
These old tenement buildings run along Pitt Street between Stanton and Delancey Streets. Squashed between the gentrified Lower East Side to the west and the public housing projects to the east, these few blocks are most of what remains of the old, gritty Lower East Side.
Delancey Street between Attorney Street and Clinton Street
Clinton Street and Rivington Street
Rivington Street and Suffolk Street
Rivington Street and Clinton Street
Clinton Street between Rivington Street and Delancey Street
Ludlow Street and Rivington Street
Essex Street and Rivington Street
Christie Street and Rivington Street