Quick! Non-touristy things to do in NYC? ALSO, good place to get cocktails?

Go out and get a slice.

shopping in soho, pizza, bagels, little italy… eat at the good places.

Are the cabarets still there in the village? The Duplex? Rose’s Turn? 88’s?

If they are, it’s a great evening.

Walk Central park. PIZZA 57th and 8th.

Go see the hookers on 10th Ave.

See the Flatiron Building. And walk through FIT, Fashion Institute of Technology.

Honestly, just walk. But, find time to take the subway.

Do they still sell beer on the Staten Island Ferry? Drinking $3 tall boys with the commuters is a fond memory for me. Time it so you are headed back to Manhattan at sunset.

Take the subway to the first Brooklyn stop and walk back to Manhattan on the Brooklyn bridge

oh oh Blazin Saddles just opened a “bike the bridge” tour in nyc… it is touristy but it’s new and could be fun. i’ve done it out here in SF over the golden gate bridge, you should look into it.

Walk through the Columbia University campus, and don’t forget East Campus/Morningside heights.

There are still some genuine things left ungentrified below Houston Street on the East Side (around Orchard.)

Stop at Barney Greengrass for some whitefish on a bialy.

Museum of Natural History

Striver’s Row.

Jog around the reservoir.

Go to Flushing for lunch.

Columbia is a good suggestion. And, (seriously) check out Harlem while you are there.

(Striver’s Row is in Harlem)

Well, there you go. :-)

Per cocktails; Have a drink in the lobby of the Algonquin Hotel. It’s expensive but you will feel like a member of the Round Table.

People watching doesn’t get much better than walking thorugh Central Park on a sunny weekend afternoon.

Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts

Have a potato knish at Yonah Shimmel’s on Houston St.

Yonah Shimmel sold out to the Puerto Rican employees in 1978.

So we can’t go there any more?

It ain’t what it was. The OP said “non-touristy”.

For a drink. The first Irish bar you come to. :-)

You must be kidding. In a city that is known world wide as the most visited city in the world (read tourist) how would that even be possible? Maybe visit a homeless shelter or take toys to a children’s hospital. Most tourists will avoid those things.

If you want real non-touristy things, I’d say go to a smaller museum such as the Museum of the City of New York. Walk a lot and take the train and just explore the different neighborhoods, and discover the little quaint shops and boutiques sprawled around the city. Take the GWB (George Washington Bridge) and check out the Palisades. You could hang out in Central Park, but Riverside will have way less tourists. Harlem is a good choice, plenty of good restaurants, especially if you want to venture out into more world/ethnic cuisine. Also, you could head over to Brooklyn and get some of Junior’s cheesecake (kinda touristy, but not as much as doing most things in Manhattan), go to the Prospect Park Zoo, see if there’s a concert or a performance in a park. Hang out in the trendy parts of Brooklyn. Most non NYC people forget that NYC is so much more than Manhattan. Go to the botanical gardens in Queens, or Jones Beach. There’s plenty to see aside from the touristy areas. I’m from NY, most of us haven’t even seen it all and like to avoid the tourist places.

And definitely get a slice of pizza, standing up, extra garlic (if you like that). A bagel and a dirty water hot dog is also choice too.

MoMA is “touristy” – but always worth the visit.

Juniors hasn’t been the same since the fire.

@dpworkin I wasn’t even born then so I wouldn’t know, whoops! :)

Would I lie to you?

@wwpil How could you mistrust a doggie face like that?

How about going to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum?

That’s a cool museum. And if either of you come from an immigrant family, Ellis Island is very evocative.

Or you might take the ferry out to Governor’s Island which is just now being developed for public use and very unbuilt up as yet.

A most wonderful and memorable place to have a cocktail is in “The Campbell Apartment” hidden within Grand Central Terminal, at the north side. It was once an elegant private apartment within the terminal.
http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/11351464/new_york_ny/the_campbell_apartment.html

Per cocktails again – after 5 and until 8:30 or so, on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art has cocktails on the roof, with some of the best views in the city (and a giant, climbable bamboo structure right now).

Go in and pay whatever you want, and head up (the suggested donation is suggested and you shouldn’t feel guilty at all for not paying the full amount).