Originally Posted by BrightRabbit
When I lived at Riverside and W. 160 last year, I liked the small independent stores on Broadway for fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and a real butcher. Quality was better than in the supermarkets, and prices similar. Supermarkets include Key Foods on 164/Broadway, but look online to find a closer supermarket. Those are helpful for all the pantry staples. I didn't like their fruits/veg as much as the small independents, sometimes right on the same block. I don't know, it was just my theory, but I had the feeling that the hardworking immigrant store-owners were up at 4 a.m. hustling to bring in the freshest goods to the neighborhood, while the chain supermarkets had a slower delivery system that left us with older produce. Pantry staples were fine at supermarkets, they don't wilt. The aisles are small and crowded, and it's not sparkly-shiney clean like a suburban supermarket.
I didn't like the bread sold in any of the stores, but that's just because I don't like Dominican Republic breads. I never found good wholegrain bakery breads or bagels. There's a decent Cuban bakery around B'way @ 162 St for pastry sweets with guava and coconut fillings, but still only white flour bread recipes.
No problem, though. It's easy to carry home grain-breads, real bagels, or other bakery products from other NYC neighborhoods if you work elsewhere. They're lightweight, so I just carried a few home easily on the subway, twice per week.
Be sure to visit Fairway, around Riverside and 133, early on. You can decide how much you want to use them as your big grocery store. They have so many choices your head will spin. That's where I stocked up on better tasting coffee (worldwide choices), olives from barrels, amazing cheeses and really everything. I'm perhaps the only transplant to NYC who hasn't been inside a Trader Joes or WholeFoods because I love Fairway.
To bring home groceries, I used a small rolling cart in the neighborhood, and a cab from Fairway. It's also possible to have groceries delivered after you buy them from a local supermarket, but I just rolled everything home myself.
If you do move there, be sure to visit the Hispanic Institute Art Museum on the campus of Boricua College. You live right there. It's a wonderful small collection, including some things by El Greco, Goya, and other master artists, plus a huge mural inside by a Mexican artist that's knockout, and some decorative arts. It's a hidden gem of a museum. Speaking of Boricua College, a community college, their choir welcomes neighbors to join, rehearsing on Friday nights.
In general that area of Manhattan is mostly immigrants from the Dominican Republic, plus others now joining from Central and South America. You'll hear plenty of Spanish spoken in stores, although most everyone can converse in English with you. If you learn a few social greetings in Spanish, it's much appreciated as a friendly gesture. Sometimes it's kind of loud in the neighborhood, especially in summer, because people like to be out on sidewalks, sometimes with radios, just family socializing. I enjoyed it, actually. Riverside Drive will be quieter than Broadwya,so likely better for sleeping and not so noisy.
In your apartment building, you might get some loud-radio-playing neighbors. Music is a big part of the Dominican culture. If you are really noise-phobic, and arent' willing to sleep with earplugs if necessary, then don't choose this neighborhood because your complaints won't change it.
When I first moved there, I wasn't sure about walking around after 10 p.m. alone, but after a couple of weeks I saw my concern had no basis in fact. Until around 10 p.m. the neighbors are all out, including mature women and little children, socializing. By 10 p.m., the mature women go in with the littles, leaving only the teens (boys and girls) plus men. People write here about "catcalling" but I never experienced that, perhaps because I'm older. My beautiful young adult daughter lived same neighborhood, and also was never troubled walking home solo from school or work, as late as midnight. I have a middle-aged woman friend with blonde hair, who's been living same neigborhood for 4 years, said similarly You'll also see plenty of neighborhood women of all ages, coming home from work on late shifts on the 1 subway. They also walk home solo.
I don't know who gets these catcalls, but it wasn't myself, my pretty daughter, or my blonde friend. Maybe we were just looking like we had a purpose in the neighborhood, coming home from work and all that.
The 1 train is pretty frequent and dependable. It just makes many local stops until W.96th. There, you can easily transfer to a 2 or 3 Express subway, or just stay with the local 1. You'll get the hang of it. After awhile, try to figure out the buslines, also, as sometimes they are helpful going places the subways don't cover.
It's a neigborhood. Most residents are working immigrant families, and some are unemployed. In a year, nearly everyone I encountered in stores was either warm and positive, or preoccupied with their thoughts, but nobody gave me a hard time ever.
You asked about amenities. This neighborhood is not lined with sidewalk cafes, bookstores, or yoga lessons. The "vibe" as you asked for, is more that of hardworking families and individuals, struggling to make their living. Pharmacies are small places, owned independently, that close early evenings -- no Duane Reed or CVS yet.
Still, within a mile up and down Broadway, you'll find some restaurants you like, especially if you enjoy Spanish foods. Tucked in among all this, you'll also notice other people who appear to be young single working folks, like yourself, but there aren't clubs or hangouts to meetup. They socialize in other neighborhoods and just come home by subway.
As I left the neighborhood, a second new coffeehouse had just opened at the 1 station on 157th at Riverside, worth checking out. Sadly it was some kind of big company that opened right next door to a small independent coffeehouse. Hopefully they're both still in business, but this shows they had a market for those $5. lattes.
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