I was 25 in 1975 when I first went to Manhattan and was utterly enthralled. I watched the sunrise from the top of the Commodore Hotel (now the Grand Hyatt) above Grand Central station, and thought, I’m moving here. Two years later I did, and I stayed for 20 years.
The city never sleeps although I’ve had trouble getting a steak sandwich after 4am. Years ago, I had sushi in a place full of Japanese businessmen and only three westerners, and I remember approaching sushi bravely, never having had raw fish. Was that puréed cheese? No, wasabi! It told me New York was a place of exotic cultures.
Signs everywhere say, “DON’T EVEN THINK OF PARKING HERE.” When I moved to New York, I got four parking tickets in one day. I sold my car a week later. You can walk the island in two hours; it’s impossible to get lost.
One of Lower Manhattan’s most beautiful buildings is the Surrogate’s Court. It’s an ornate century-old building near City Hall and covered with sculptures. It’s been a location for countless movies – Batman Forever, Romeo is Bleeding, Devil’s Advocate. I wander the streets and find things I wouldn’t have known existed. I love the concept of old New York history surviving, and I’d say around 60-70% of Manhattan is preserved.
The Lower East Side is where many immigrants who came through Ellis Island settled. Much of what visitors wouldn’t necessarily find is here. A few blocks to the north on 2nd Avenue, there’s a little-known Ukrainian community, and Veselka, a popular Ukrainian restaurant which began 60 years ago as a newsstand serving soup, and is now a 24-hour gathering place. It sells borscht, goulash and pierogis filled with goat’s cheese or short ribs.
The midtown Mansfield hotel is opulence on steroids. I like staying in quirky places, and the Mansfield, in the theatre district, was a private residence. I can’t imagine what the family did for a living because their house is all beautiful copperwork and grand stone facade.
You can still find the old folk music scene a few blocks south of Washington Square Park. The Greenwich Village coffee houses where people like Peter, Paul and Mary and Woody Allen performed are still there. The Bitter End on Bleecker Street is still going seven days a week and has open jam sessions. And there’s the original Café Wha? on Macdouglall Street, where Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix played.
Harlem has seen a big renaissance of African-American tradition with hip-hop and Latino performers. You will also find southern cooking up there. I’m not saying it’s good if you’re on a diet – corn bread, chicken and gravy, fried chicken. You can also get Latin American dishes, which many visitors don’t find, such as Puerto Rican bacalaítos (salt cod fritters) and Dominican chicharrón (fried pork rib belly) at Cuchifritos on East 116th Street, and mofongo de mariscos (mashed plantain with salmon, shrimp and calamari) at La Fonda Boricua on East 106th Street.
I like hole-in-the-wall diners. I go to places like the dining car-style Empire Diner on the corner of 22nd Street and 10th Avenue in Chelsea, or Katz’s Deli on the Lower East Side, which was sort of discovered by the “I’ll have what she’s having” scene in the 1989 movie When Harry Met Sally. It serves the best deli food and you get abused by the staff – they are traditionally rude. Yet I’ve engaged some staff members in conversation and they’re positively charming! A bit like New York itself.
• Jeffery Deaver’s latest novel, The Skin Collector, is out now (Hodder & Stoughton, £18.99). To order for £15.19, including UK p & p, visit the Guardian Bookshop
