{"id":18089,"date":"2025-10-27T10:14:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T10:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/18089\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T10:14:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T10:14:12","slug":"priya-ahluwalias-guide-to-the-big-apples-coolest-neighbourhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/18089\/","title":{"rendered":"Priya Ahluwalia’s guide to the Big Apple’s coolest neighbourhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

British fashion designer Priya Ahluwalia loves New York<\/a>, whether she\u2019s there to walk the famous steps at the Met Gala, or for fun with family and friends. These are her recommendations for living it up in the Big Apple.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favourite destination and why?<\/p>\n

I love New York in general, but the Lower East Side has so much character. When I\u2019m there, I feel like I\u2019ve gone back in time. It\u2019s like the New York that I saw in the films when I was growing up.<\/p>\n

When was the last time you were there, and who were you with?<\/p>\n

In May for the Met Gala<\/a>. I stayed for a couple of nights, as I designed Aimee Lou Wood and Gabby Thomas\u2019s looks. I saw both of them and my best friend came with me to be my pretend assistant for the week. You\u2019ve got to bring family where you can. And it was important on this trip because it was really emotional for me, as it was such big career milestone.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

(Annie Schlechter)<\/p>\n

Where do you like to stay there?<\/p>\n

The Ludlow Hotel \u2014 it feels historic with all the brass touches. I like hotels that lean into the classic, golden age New York with their design.<\/p>\n

What has been your favourite meal there?<\/p>\n

Tacos from the Birria-Landia truck. I\u2019d heard it was one of the best in NYC and it definitely didn\u2019t disappoint. I loved the Tijuana-style beef birria.<\/p>\n

What are your three favourite restaurants?<\/p>\n

Wildair is a great restaurant for sharing plates and the cocktails are amazing. They do great shrimp and Wagyu steak too. And Kiki\u2019s is a Greek restaurant which does big portions, so I recommend going there when you\u2019re hungry. The mixed grill platter is 10 out of 10. Double Chicken Please makes very experimental cocktails that almost taste like food. There\u2019s one inspired by Japanese cold noodles. I was apprehensive but they\u2019re delicious and the food is great too.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

(Birria Landia)<\/p>\n

What is the one unmissable thing you recommend doing?<\/p>\n

Go to the Tenement Museum. It\u2019s one of the best museums I\u2019ve ever been to. I\u2019ve been four times on different guided tours. It\u2019s two tenements with different apartments in the Lower East Side in their original state. There are historic home tours and you can see the home of an Irish family, a black family, a Chinese family. You learn about their story and how they migrated to America. It\u2019s so moving. One of the tours had my mum and I in tears. You learn how people were treated in history and you can see where they slept, where they worked \u2014 you learn so much about them.<\/p>\n

Where do you like to let your hair down?<\/p>\n

Attaboy, which is hard to find, but it\u2019s a gem of a bar with a great atmosphere and very strong cocktails. Or go to Lullaby which has always had great music when I\u2019ve visited, often played on vinyl. There\u2019s a sexy atmosphere so it\u2019s perfect for a date night.<\/p>\n

I also love Bar Revival, a more laid-back bar. Try the Electric Jungle and Around the World cocktails.<\/p>\n

Is there a hidden gem you are willing to share?<\/p>\n

The Back Room, which is a speakeasy that actually existed during the prohibition era.<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

New York (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Who do you call to have a good time there?<\/p>\n

My little brother, Ryan, is my favourite person to call. He lives in Upper Manhattan.<\/p>\n

I try to manufacture trips to New York quite a bit because it\u2019s always fun to see him and we always end up having a really good night out. I also love going out with Danielle Kwateng, who is the executive editor of Teen Vogue \u2014 she\u2019s fun for a party or for going to dinner.<\/p>\n

Favourite shops?<\/p>\n

Vintage shopping in the Lower East Side is amazing, and there are these outdoor vintage pop-ups in the street like one under the Bugs Bunny mural on Ludlow Street where I\u2019ve bought a cool vintage bag and some tops.<\/p>\n

Your packing essential?<\/p>\n

You walk a lot in New York, so take nice shoes that are also comfortable \u2014 I\u2019d pack the new Ahluwalia and Puma trainers in black and silver. It\u2019s a seasonal place, but you definitely pound the pavements, so they\u2019re really important.<\/p>\n

Which song reminds you of the place?<\/p>\n

Juicy by The Notorious BIG or Get Me Home by Foxy Brown and featuring Blackstreet. East Coast rap always reminds me of NYC and when I\u2019m listening to it in my headphones walking past the vintage shops in the Lower East Side, I feel as though I\u2019ve gone through a time machine.<\/p>\n

Your dress code for the destination?<\/p>\n

People in New York wear incredible jackets, so I always make sure I have a strong jacket or coat depending on the time of the year. Often I wear one from my collaboration with Ganni. It\u2019s a leather patchwork coat, and there were fewer than 50 of them made, and they all sold out so everyone always asks, \u201cWhere did you get that?\u201d<\/p>\n

The one thing you would bring home as a souvenir?<\/p>\n

A great hat! Every single time I go to New York, I buy a hat from World Hats even though I never wear hats. They sell these really old-school Kangol bucket hats and berets. I have about eight! The locals have great hats.<\/p>\n

Which building would you like to live in?<\/p>\n

One of the traditional apartment buildings on the Lower East Side with the fire escapes running down them. They\u2019ve got double-height ceilings \u2014 I can see myself in one of them\u2026 Or a brownstone.<\/p>\n

Favourite memory from there?\"Aimee<\/p>\n

Aimee Lou Wood at The Metropolitan Museum of Art\u2019s Costume Institute benefit gala (AP)<\/p>\n

Definitely the Met Gala as a whole \u2014 it\u2019s one of my best memories ever. It was an amazing night. I dropped Gabby off at the carpet and then I went for drinks with Aimee afterwards, and the next morning, my friends and I went out and got bacon, egg and cheeses because we were quite hungover.<\/p>\n

It was one of the giddiest feelings I\u2019ve ever had in my life to have designed for the Met. We couldn\u2019t stop looking at all the pictures and I couldn\u2019t stop laughing, because I couldn\u2019t believe it had happened. I felt on top of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British fashion designer Priya Ahluwalia loves New York, whether she\u2019s there to walk the famous steps at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[12492,358,9,56,63,65,64,12494,12493],"class_list":["post-18089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-aimee-lou-wood","tag-lower-east-side","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-priya-ahluwalia","tag-the-met-gala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}