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Eating your way around New York City? Plan, you’ll be adding yummy to your tummy and inches to your midriff when taking a bite out of New York City’s smorgasbord of eating options. Taste buds are constantly being spoiled with culinary choices. Don’t expect to lose weight in the city that never sleeps.

Stick a Fork In It! Chow-Time Trivia! 

NY Over Easy Guide Cover

NY Over Easy Guide Cover

At this writing, you can bury a fork or chopsticks into meal offerings in 17,619 officially registered restaurants across the five boroughs of New York City.

Eateries are a vibrant part of the city’s sizzle, and even after post-COVID-19 cloud-cover alterations, New York is STILL a mecca for meals of all types.

If your palate craves it, New York caters for it.

In fact, if an interested eater were to sample chow in each New York eatery, they’d be staring down the spoon at close to 40 years, making the rounds, at a meal a day. Somebody check my math!

Pizza Anybody?!

Yep, we got pizza galore in this Big Apple!  According to city data, New York is only 100 eateries short of 2,000 pizza joints, making it the city with the highest concentration of any American city.

If New York Pizza is your pleasure, join a merry band aboard ‘A Slice of Brooklyn’ pizza tours. ‘Big Tony’s’ teamsters run daily tours, and you’ll sink your teeth into the three most famous Brooklyn slices on the planet.  The on-board commentary is ‘ta-die-fur!’  And fabulous.  Eat Up…“Mangia~Mangia!”

ESCAPE Fine Diners

ESCAPE Fine Diners

If it’s Vintage ‘Vittles’ You’re looking for, look no further…

 We dropped into New York’s oldest, continually operating eatery and pub at Pete’s Tavern on East 18th Street. You can have a pint or load up a plate. Try Both.

Not to be outdone on the claim to ‘old’ New York, tip a pint of strong ale, like America’s first President, George Washington, did at the Fraunces Tavern.

The tavern is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, so you can linger in the second and 3rd story museum setting while awaiting your palate-pleasing plateful served up on the ground floor. George Washington stopped in for a time during the Revolutionary War. It’s a massive bit of architecture at the corner of 54 Pearl St and Broad in the Wall Street District.

…Or Vendys or…Vendys!?

NY Venie Awards

NY Venie Awards

With over 20,000 registered mobile food vendors across the five boroughs, the selection is mind-bending & menu-boggling. The city hosts and sponsors the ‘Annual Vendys Awards’, coveted by gourmets and spans the spectrum of eats and pricing.

Walking off the curb, side meals are suitable for digestion. Tour operators catering to eating enthusiasts can dig into some brilliant bites. Check reviews from folks who’ve “been there, ate that1”. At least a baker’s dozen tour outfits are making menus easily accessible while they digest the local history of the nearby sidewalks.

Bring on the Bodegas!  “There’s lies, there’s damned lies… and then, there’s Statistics!…”

                                                         ~ Mark Twain

According to the folks who keep track of the official ‘statistics’ and permits, there are 17,261 registered ‘Bodegas’ operating within New York’s five Boroughs. Each, like a snowflake, is different.

The definition ‘by law’ is simple; it’s a neighbourhood establishment that sells a variety of goods such as milk, eggs and bread, while not being a specialty food store, such as a bakery, butcher or candy shop.

Vendy Awards

Vendy Awards

Most Bodegas are salt & peppered with a vast variety of items, many open 24 hours and have ‘no more than two cash registers’ on site. The earliest ones focused on Puerto Rican, Cuban and islander origins, with each street corner in the barrio represented.

‘My mother would send me down to the corner to get milk, a pair of chorizo sausages, bread and box of cigarettes from Mr Ortega and his wife’s shop. Nobody asked me how old I was and the smokes came with a cardboard box of free matches. I could pick out a penny candy from a jar on the counter. Sometimes, when my mom was “waiting for her check”, Mrs Ortega would write what we owed down on a slip of paper. They had no cash register, chits and money got folded into a small index box that served as a cash register. Coins were kept in the lid of a egg carton that sat on the countertop.’

Jaffees

Jaffees

~Tony Esteve

It’s a ‘Wrap’! 

We could easily write about eating in the Big Apple for ages. It’s a lot to digest…

… If YOU need more help, drop us a postcard; we love getting mail! Or, reach out to the contacts listed here for a better gander at the New York Menu on offer. New York’s a fine, fine forkful.

Plan!  Take a big bite of the Big Apple!  There is plenty to digest, and timing is the biggest challenge. This feature is an extract from the ‘best-selling Know BEFORE You Go Guidebook, “America Over Easy!” published by New Holland Books.

Lip Service!   Valuable contacts:

 

By:  Mark William Sheehan – (c) 2025

Read Time: 6 minutes

 

About the Writer
Mark Sheehan - Bio PicMark Sheehan has never been one for the slow lane. He’s the bloke who spots an opening, rolls up his sleeves, and builds something brilliant before the rest have finished their coffee.
With a sharp nose for new business and product development, he’s turned more than a few bright ideas into serious commercial wins. Mark’s passion lies in short, hard-hitting campaigns, the kind with grit, pressure, and clear rewards at the finish line.
Sales, marketing, funding, public relations, he’s done the lot, but it’s the people and the challenge that drive him, not the corner office. When you need momentum, he’s the spark plug who’ll get things roaring fast, focused, and just a touch mischievous.

 

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