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Condé Nast Traveler picks
 New York for Romantics
If you're with the right person, all you need is the right place to manufacture romance. Wherever you are, a just-the-two-of-us vibe envelops lovers, separating them from the world—an invisible bubble that can actually feel as solid as glass when you're together in a place that swirls with energy, action, people. Welcome to New York.
No wonder so many romantic movies are filmed in Manhattan—though not just anywhere. The Empire State Building has been popular with screen squeezes from Deborah Kerr to Meg Ryan (not to mention Fay Wray and Naomi Watts), but as a lover's perch it pales in comparison with two Midtown rooftops, both open every day until midnight. In the heart of Midtown, at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the restored observatory called Top of the Rock is best at night, when Manhattan glows below. Six blocks north, at the classy Pen-Top Bar & Terrace atop the Peninsula Hotel, you sip your martini sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with Fifth Avenue's skyscrapers (700 Fifth Ave.). But the Pen-Top is only the tip of the burg. Some of New York's most romantic nooks are its bars, even if you only want to drink seltzer. A legendary favorite in the classy Carlyle hotel, dark and cozy Bemelmans may be the world's coolest piano lounge. Booths and tables sit in a low room with gold-leaf ceilings and walls filled with delicate cartoons of Central Park scenes, drawn in 1947 by Ludwig Bemelmans, author of the Madeleine series of children's books (35 E. 76th St.). If the intimate Blue Bar is full, walk through the doorway into the parlor-like lobby of the Algonquin Hotel and choose a sofa. Either way, a waiter will find you (59 W. 44th St.). A few blocks away, inside Grand Central Station, the Campbell Apartment is to be avoided during commuter rush hours, but at any other time, this gorgeous lounge is one of Manhattan's most glorious rooms (15 Vanderbilt Ave.). Down in the East Village, wander through leafy, funky Tompkins Square en route to Rue B, a small room with a dozen or so tables, a bar, a surprisingly good kitchen, and a jazz combo every night (188 Ave. B). Of course, you don't want to spend all your time in bars. On a sunny morning, lovers can easily find places to steal a kiss in Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux's masterpiece of landscape design. Enter at West 72nd Street and pause to admire Strawberry Fields, partially funded by Yoko Ono and opened on October 9, 1985—which would have been John Lennon's 45th birthday. Continue northeast toward the Lake and the classically beautiful Bow Bridge for a romantic photo-op. Follow the path toward the eastern end of the Lake and the Loeb Boathouse, where you can rent a rowboat before or after lunch at the Boathouse Restaurant (212-517-2233). Central Park has competition, of course. Also designed by Olmsted, Riverside Park extends for more than 80 blocks along the wide Hudson River, across from the New Jersey cliffs called the Palisades. Start at the Boat Basin, an overlook near the southern end of the park at 79th Street, and begin strolling north, at least to the 91st Street Garden & Crabapple Grove, the lovely spot where Tom Hanks revealed his identity to Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail. Then there are bridges. Perhaps because they symbolize connection, or perhaps because they suspend you in a separate world, bridges exude a special quality. It's no accident that Woody Allen's camera faced the 59th Street Bridge when he and Diane Keaton greeted the dawn seated on a bench (now gone) at Riverview Terrace on Sutton Square in Manhattan. One of New York's most glorious walks begins on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, which winds toward the Brooklyn Bridge. From the end of the Promenade, walk inland to Cadman Plaza, then left to the stairs leading up to the walkway. You emerge with traffic in your ears, but also with all of Lower Manhattan across the East River and the Gothic towers of the bridge before you, like gateways to Oz. Anyone would be hard-pressed to top the Café des Artistes as New York's most romantic restaurant. Plush and cozy, with flowers and subdued lighting, the rooms are decorated with murals of wood nymphs that are as sexy as they come (1 W. 67th St.; 212-877-3500). But there are worthy runners-up—oodles of them. Raoul's is a blessedly unchanging French bistro in SoHo (180 Prince St.; 212-966-3518). Far fancier French food is served in the radiant interior of TriBeCa's Chanterelle (2 Harrison St.; 212-966-6960). The Old World comes to life at Il Buco, a charming NoHo space with a Mediterranean menu (47 Bond St.; 212-533-1932). Peasant serves flavorful Italian dishes in a rustic setting in the pocket above Little Italy called Nolita (194 Elizabeth St.; 212-965-9511). Charming and small, with an inventive menu, the Austrian restaurant Wallsé is a quiet spot in the West Village (344 W. 11th St.; 212-352-2300). Nearby, the inexpensive, candlelit French Tartine takes no reservations and welcomes you to bring your own wine (253 W. 11th St.; 212-229-2611). Truth in Travel is the guiding principle for all content published in Condé Nast Traveler. Other travel publications often accept free travel and accommodations. Condé Nast Traveler does not. It is independent of the travel industry. The magazine always pays its way, and, as far as possible, its correspondents travel anonymously. By doing so, they experience the world—both the good and the bad—as other travelers do, and their reports and recommendations are fair, impartial, and authoritative.
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