Plan

A husband and wife who met in Ethiopia run this, and the coffee comes from small growers there. This Pinehurst Avenue shop is the original of their three uptown cafes, tucked on the quiet side street above the 181st Street elevators. Bennett Park is a minute away if you want to drink it outside.

Mon to Fri, 7am to 5pm. Sat and Sun, 8am to 5pm

The park runs along the cliffs above the Hudson, with the George Washington Bridge and the New Jersey Palisades in front of you the whole way. The three-acre Heather Garden holds about 660 varieties and is open to anyone without a gate or a ticket. Linden Terrace at the high point is where people end up sitting.

Daily, 6am to 1am. The Heather Garden has unrestricted access

A multilingual bookshop at 165th and Amsterdam run entirely by volunteers, most of them people who live in Washington Heights and Inwood. Books in Spanish and English sit on the same shelves and the back doubles as an event space. Nobody here is paid to sell you anything.

Tue, noon to 8pm. Wed to Sat, noon to 6pm. Closed Sun and Mon

Open every hour of every day since 1995, two doors up Broadway from the United Palace. The Dominican breakfast of mangu or yuca runs a little over seven dollars and the pressed hero sandwiches a little over nine. Meal-sized soups come down in price at lunch.

Open 24 hours, every day

An Irish pub on 181st Street with twelve taps, a proper spirits shelf and a kitchen that runs all day. Live music turns up a couple of times a month without anyone making an event of it. The name is Irish for together, which is roughly how the place operates.

Mon to Wed, 11am to midnight. Thu to Sun, 11am to 2am

This opened on the corner at 175th Street in 1987 and was one of the first Dominican restaurants in Washington Heights. The rotisserie chicken is what everyone orders and it comes with rice, beans and the garlic sauce. It faces the United Palace across Broadway.

Sun to Thu, 9am to 11pm. Fri and Sat, 9am to midnight