Best Things To Do In New York City This Weekend
Lots to see and lots to do this weekend, including two of the city's best-loved and most popular festivals: the New York Food & Wine Festival and Open House New York. Read on for details, and to learn more about our picks for the best in eating, drinking, and merrymaking this weekend. By Jessica Allen.
Quite possibly the most important event in the season's food- and wine-related calendar, the Food Network and Cooking Channel's New York City Food & Wine Festival, presented by Food & Wine magazine, features such good times as the Midnight Jazz Breakfast, Meatopia, intimate dinners, tastings, talks, panels, and demos. Such luminaries as Amanda Cohen, April Bloomfield, and Alex Guarnaschelli are scheduled to appear. Thursday, October 15, through Sunday, October 18, see schedule for details, prices vary, tickets required.
Once a year, New York's architectural gems and most fascinating spots throw open their doors and welcome the public to poke around and have a look, to the delight and awe of all. Among the scheduled guided tours this year, the event's 13th, are behind-the-scenes glimpses into the Alice Austen House, Battery Weed, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carnegie Hall, and Central Park. Saturday, October 17, and Sunday, October 18, see schedule for details, reservations generally required.
Benefiting two nearby elementary schools, the 6th Annual Taste of the Seaport showcases the amazing food and drink on offer in the Financial District and the South Street Seaport. In addition to stuffing your face with goodness from places like grk, The Malt House, Insomnia Cookies, MarkJoseph Steakhouse, and Fresh Salt, you can hear live music and treat your kids to a dance party and crafts zone. Jugglers too! Saturday, October 17, 11 am to 4 pm, free to attend, but you'll need tickets to eat.
Begun as a way of preserving, promoting, and bringing this distinctly American art form to Staten Island in 1988, the Staten Island Jazz Festival offers family-friendly workshops in art, vocals, dance, and music, as well as panel discussions. There are concerts as well, featuring performances by Betty Shirley, Vinnie Ruggieri, the Leopoldo Fleming Afro-Caribbean Jazz Ensemble, WaFoo, and others. Saturday, October 17, 2 to 7 pm, see schedule for details, $25, tickets required.
Still looking for that perfect gourd to decorate your house this Halloween season? Head to the Harvest Fest and Pumpkin Patch at the Queens Botanical Garden to find the platonic ideal of pumpkin. While you're there, you can also grab a beer in the beer tent, ride a pony, listen to live music, play games, stroll around the craft vendors, and hang out in the petting zoo. OK, so some of those activities are more for the kiddies, but still. Sounds like fun, right? Sunday, October 18, 11 am to 6 pm, $4, tickets required.
