Meatpacking District Walking Tour

Not so long ago, the trendiest thing worn in the Meatpacking District was a blood-stained apron. Now, Gansevoort Market (as the district is officially known) is New York’s most fashionable neighborhood, chock full of hip restaurants, exclusive clubs, and paycheck-draining boutiques. Despite the haute onslaught, the neighborhood has managed to retain its blue-collar edge, thanks to the many wholesale meat companies which still operate out of the warehouses between Gansevoort and West 15 Streets. By night, however, the district is transformed, as butchers and meat-cutters disappear, and magazine editors, models, and a stream of Sarah Jessica Parker look-alikes take their place.

BY JON STEINBERG

What do you get when you mix famous chefs, a sizzling neighborhood, and a restaurant that can seat hundreds at a time? The answer: a madhouse, or more specifically, Spice Market (pictured). Since it opened in early 2004, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Gray Kunz’s Asian street-food emporium has been constantly packed, despite competition from nearby restaurants like Vento Trattoria and Pastis. Spice Market’s secret (if you can call anything this popular a secret) is its fabulously exotic design, its elaborate pan-Asian menu, and its ability to attract celebrities like Scarlett Johansson and Nicole Kidman while leaving room for us non-VIPs as well. Reserve well in advance.

• Spice Market, 403 West 13th St., 212-675-2322
• Vento Trattoria, 675 Hudson St., 212-699-2400
• Pastis, 9 Ninth Ave. 212-929-4844

The Studio 54 days are back in a big way at Meatpacking clubs like PM and Cielo (pictured), where beefcake bouncers separate the partiers from the pretenders. If you can get into either of these clubs (a much easier proposition on weeknights), expect fantastic sound systems, $14 drinks, and trendsetters three-deep at the bar. PM has an exotic voodoo feel, while Cielo goes for something a little more space-aged, but both are strictly FPPO: For Pretty People Only.

• PM, 50 Gansevoort St., 212-255-6676
• Cielo, 18 Little W. 12th St., 212-645-5700.

The Highline, a rusty, 75-year-old elevated railway that hovers over the Meatpacking District, was a candidate for demolition as recently as 2000. But a group of preservationists called Friends of the Highline have ensured that the 35-foot-high structure will soon see new life as a 1.5-mile long public park. The city is currently considering design proposals, and hopes to finish New York’s newest stretch of open-space in 2006.

• The Highline, along the edge of the Hudson River from 34th St. to Gansevoort St., 212-206-9922, thehighline.org