kickassNYC

Life in the Lower East Side has had a history rich with the immigrant experience. View restored apartments from different time periods, take  or visit a costumed interpreter showing what life was like as a past resident of 97 Orchard Street.

See what subway travel looked like in the old days by boarding vintage cars and city buses, walking through old turnstiles, and exploring any of the mass transit exhibits. The museum itself is located underground, in an actual 1936 subway station. You can even take a tour of the now-defunct City Hall station, with its vaulted tile ceilings and chandeliers.

When one sense is taken away, your other senses are said to heighten. Taste your food in a whole new way by eating with a blindfold at Dinners in the Dark. Menus are kept secret until of the very end, to keep you guessing.

Extra, extra, read all about it! This cute newsroom-themed coffee shop even has a wall of magazines and newspapers, so you can catch up on all the latest.

A Mexican food restaurant that features modern Aztec decor and a “bugged-out” menu. Try the grasshopper tacos, or the ant and worm cocktails.

High-end Japanese with a twist- literally! Ninja New York is designed to depict a ninja village in feudal Japan, and a roaming Ninja Magician delights young and old alike with magical hijinks.

A 50s-themed diner that features American classics served by a Broadway-bound, singing waitstaff.

A haunted house-themed restaurant and bar that features live entertainment (vampires, werewolves, and mummies coming to life). Eccentric explorers and mad scientists welcome!

A hookah lounge/restaurant/bar/dance club that is also a reproduction of a Roman cave.

Unlike watching paint dry, seeing cheese age is a rather delicious affair that you can partake in through a tour of Murray’s cheese caves, which are the oldest in the country. The “overall guiding philosophy” at the caves is to “take cheeses that arrive with ‘one note’ and impart them with considerably more depth of flavor, like curing fresh pork legs into ham or fermenting grape juice into wine.” While the shop is open regularly, the caves are not, so you’ll have to register for a class or tour in order to see them.