Review: Off the Beaten (Subway) Track

When Shoestring's editors head to a new city or country, the first thing we do is hit up the grocery stores — we find they're great indicators of local culture, how the locals actually live and what they find important, as unusual as it might sound.

Which is why we love Suzanne Reisman and her recent book, Off the Beaten (Subway) Track: New York City's Best Unusual Attractions (Cumberland House). In this unique neighborhood by neighborhood guide, Reisman uncovers the fabulously fun (often times free) things to do and see, which generally go un-covered by the mainstream guides.

Her inspiration? "A few years ago, my husband and I drove around upstate New York and saw the 'World's Largest' this and that, and went to the Jell-o Musuem," Reisman said. "We had so much fun and I wanted to do those kinds of things more often, but we don't have a car. Then it occurred to me that there must be just as many awesome things to see in NYC and looked for a guide book, but there wasn't one, so I decided to make one."

In one of the world's most famously and simultaneously elite and eccentric cities, even lifelong New Yorkers are sure to find a thing or two they've never seen or heard about before — though they'd never admit it.

"Don't be afraid to really get out there and know a neighborhood by foot," Reisman urges. "People have misconceptions about what certain neighborhoods are like, especially in NYC. Have some common sense about it, pay attention to what you're doing — I don't just get off the subway at any stop at any city and walk aimlesslly around." Reisman encourages those in search of affordable adventures to do their homework ahead of time, by asking local experts, the local chamber of commerce, and local bloggers, and to ask lots of questions. "If you just ask for a recommendation, they'll send you to the tourist spots, but if you ask more specific questions, people will start to really think about where they would go themselves."

Here are some of Suzanne's favorite spots, broken down by borrough:

BROOKLYN

The Enrico Caruso Museum of America
1942 E. 19th Street (Q to Avenue U)

"[Aldo Mancusi] was an Italian-American immigrant and his father was an opera lover," Reisman mused. "Not only do they have antique phonographs but recordings and costumes and big necklaces, and one of only three existing death masks in the world. The best part, however, is that [Mancusi, the museum's founder and curator] is a total NYC buff and has parts of the Brooklyn bridge as well as costumes from the Metropolitan Opera and other local memorabilia."

Plan ahead: appointments are required. (The museum is housed in the second floor unit of Mancusi's two-family home.)

BRONX

Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto at St. Lucy's Church
833 Mace Avenue, Bronxdale (2 or 5 to Allerton Avenue)

"Edgar Allen Poe's cottage is a cool thing to have in the middle of the Bronx," Reisman said, "but I really love this church called St. Lucy's. There's a replica of the grotto in Lourdes, France that people swears heals their ailments with its waters. If you can't make a pilgrimage to Europe, it's the next best thing."

MANHATTAN

Masonic Hall, Library & Museum of Grand Lodge
71 West 23rd Street

"There's a Mason's Hall of Fame and an upstairs library, where you can look thorugh books that take a tour through all the various lodges," Reisman said. Plus, it's free to take a tour. We always wondered what those curious masons were up to...

QUEENS

Louis Armstrong's House
34-56 107th Street (7 to 103rd Street - Corona Plaza)

"It's open to the public and you can see how his wife decorated the house and see how musicians lived back in the '60s and '70s compared to how they live now," Reisman said. The jazz crooner and trumpeter apparently lived very humbly right up until the end — Satchmo was a shoestringer, natch.

STATEN ISLAND

Staten Island Museum
75 Stuyvesant Place (Staten Island Ferry to Staten Island)

"The Staten Island musuem is like a mini version of the Museum of Natural History," said Reisman. " It has all sorts of oddities — bugs, taxidermied animals, etc." Some of the more unique, additional curiosities Reisman lists in her book are "a solid hairball from a cow's stomach, a four-legged chicken...and a matchbox from the 1940s filled with rabbit turds." Perfect for kids of all ages and the kid in all of us.

Copyright 2009 Shoestring, LLC. Photo: iStock