Manhattan Trends

Though New Yorkers were recently brought up short by the financial crisis, with no one quite knowing just how bad it would be, one thing this city has going for it is its resiliency. Yes, there are worries about 401(k)s and mortgage payments — and perhaps a second thought about spending time in clubs with $300 bottle service — but there are still plenty of reasons not to stay at home watching CNBC, from new restaurants featuring ever-more inventive menus to hipster hangouts colonizing yet another part of Brooklyn. Historians might look back at 2008 as the year that Wall Street tanked; trend-seeking visitors may remember it as the year they had their first sip of a black maamba.

In the last few years, the Lower East Side has emerged as among hottest gallery scenes in the city, but for visitors the best sites can be tricky to find. Now, a colorful map by the area’s Business Improvement District and GalleryBar — hot off the presses on Sept. 24 — plots 54 galleries and art institutions, Web sites included. They range from the (relatively) established Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center to brand-new, like gallery nine5, open this year. The map is available in hotels and at www.lowereastsideny.com. If it’s the art of shopping that you’re interested in, there are plenty of shops nearby that should satisfy that craving, among them the superhip Upper Echelon Shoes (100 Forsyth Street; 212-925-8330), which sells casual designer shoes. (P. Diddy wore them to the BET Awards last year.)

The roof space of the Peninsula Hotel got an overhaul this year, and after adding Chinese daybeds on the patios and Chinese contemporary art on the walls, reopened this May as the Salon de Ning (700 Fifth Avenue; 212-956-2888; www.salondening.com). Sure, naming a high-end bar after a completely fictional 1930s Shanghai socialite and art collector is verging on absurd. But especially if you land one of the few lucky tables overlooking the Museum of Modern Art sculpture garden and order a gin and elderberry-liqueur flavored Ninglet, though, you’ll forget the gimmick and appreciate the place for what it is: not a nostalgic throwback to 1930s China but a depiction of upscale New York 2008.