I had an internship in the Wig District (kinda Flatiron, kinda "Midtown South") last winter. It was exciting to commute to Manhattan among the rush hour hordes, and even though it was usually too bitter out to explore the neighborhood all that much, I feel like I got a good overview. And I discovered (meaning 'found on the internet') the excellent Chandni restaurant, and the charming Johny's Luncheonette. I always cannot help but feel anger at the people who, given the huge amount of cheap, delicious and varied lunch options in the city, opt instead to eat at nasty Chipotle every day.Chandni is located directly across from the uber-fancy Ace Hotel, which, at present, is refreshingly at odds with the wig stores, the wholesale purse stores, the African men hustling on the street, and the constant traffic of deliverymen wheeling huge carts of stuff or racks of clothes through crowded streets. Despite the obvious shift going on away from manufacturing/blue collar jobs, plenty of people in New York labor in a more traditional way. And plenty of people also love the Opening Ceremony store inside the Ace Hotel, but what they don't know is that any suburban Goodwill will have the same looks for less.
