Morningside Heights

The Columbia bar on the corner of 110th and Amsterdam, established in 1994 and taken over by new owners in 2024. Oak bar top, booths at the back, a pool table and a dart board. It opens at four in the afternoon and runs to four in the morning every day.

Daily, 4pm to 4am. Happy hour 4pm to 7pm

A counter across Amsterdam Avenue from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, open since the early 1960s. Coffee refills are free and the pastries sit in a case you point at. There is no wifi. Columbia students have been writing papers at the small tables for decades and nobody moves them along.

Mon to Fri, 7:30am to 8:30pm. Sat and Sun, 8:30am to 8:30pm

Thirty acres on the rock escarpment that separates Morningside Heights from Harlem, laid out to plans by Olmsted and Vaux. Stone staircases run down the cliff face to an ornamental pond and waterfall added in 1990, where herons turn up. A farmers market sets up on Saturdays.

Daily, 6am to 1am, the standard NYC Parks schedule. The Saturday farmers market runs through the morning and early afternoon

The corner diner at 112th and Broadway, founded by Tom Glikas in the 1940s and run since by the Zoulis family. The exterior is the one from the Seinfeld titles and the inside is a normal Columbia diner with booths and a counter. Breakfast runs all day.

Daily, 7am to 10:30pm

Vincent and Tony Curcurato opened V&T in 1945 at 122nd Street after coming back from the war, and moved it to this block of Amsterdam Avenue in 1951. The crust is thin because the brothers learned to make it in an East Harlem bakery. Red booths sit under checked tablecloths. Baked ziti comes alongside the pizza.

Daily, 11:30am to 11pm