Historically the epitome of the American melting pot, the Lower East Side is one of Manhattan's most enthralling downtown neighborhoods. A little-known quarter that began to attract attention toward the end of the nineteenth century when it became an insular slum for over half a million Jewish immigrants - and the most densely populated spot in the world. Coming here from eastern Europe, refugees sought a better life, scratching out a living in the neighborhood's sweatshops. Since then, the area has become considerably depopulated and better maintained, and while up until recently the inhabitants were largely working-class Puerto Rican or Chinese, these days you are just as likely to find students, artsy types and other refugees from the overly gentrified areas of SoHo and the nearby East Village. Below Houston, today's Lower East Side is one of the most hip areas around for shopping, drinking, dancing and (what else?) food. Along East Broadway or Grand Street, how ever, it is still a bit seedy.

To reach the Lower East Side, take the #F, #S or #6 train to Broadway-Lafayette Street, or the #F or #V to Delancey Street

Explore Lower East side

Between Delancey and East Broadway
Although the southern half of East Broadway is now almost exclusively Chinese, the street used to be the hub of the Jewish Lower East Side. For the old feel of the quarter - where the synagogues remain active - best explore north of here, starting with Canal Street . The recently renovated Eldridge Street Synagogue on 12 Eldridge St, built in 1886, was in its day one of the neighborhood's most grand with its brick and terra-cotta hybrid of Moorish arches and Gothic rose window.

Houston Street to Grand Street
In the first half of the nineteenth century the streets immediately South of Houston were known as Kleine Deutschland , home to the well-off German merchants and then, as they moved away, the poorest of the Jewish immigrants fleeing poverty and pogroms in Eastern Europe. Even now it still holds the remnants of its Jewish past, such as the area's homemade kosher cuisine and its ritual bathhouse for women who are "unclean." Some outsiders are drawn to the area for the bargain shopping. You can get just about anything at cut-price in the stores: clothes on Orchard Street , lamps and shades on the Bowery , ties and shirts on Allen Street, underwear and hosiery on Grand Street , textiles on Eldridge. And, whatever you're buying, people will if necessary haggle down to the last cent.

Explore Houston Street to Grand Street
 

Lower East Site Tenement Museum
Tues, Wed & Fri 1-5pm, Thurs 1-8pm, Sat & Sun 11am-4.30pm; tel 212/431-0233, www.tenement.org. #F or #V to Delancey Street.

If you haven't got the time to tour the Lower East side extensively, make sure to visit the Lower East Side Tenement Museum , at 90 Orchard St, a fully intact and wonderfully preserved 1863 tenement which does a rilliantly imaginative job of bringing to life the neighborhood's immigrant past and present. Guided tours are available ($9) on the hour and half-hour, but come early on the weekend as they often sell out.

Ludlow and Orchard Streets
Ludlow Street , where a half-dozen or so bars, such as the popular Local 138 at no. 138 and Max Fish at no. 178, sparked the hipster migration south of the East Village, dot the block. A number of secondhand stores offer kitsch items - especially retro furniture - and slightly worn treasures. Around the intersection of Allen and Stanton streets are several bar/performance spaces.

On the corner of Ludlow and East Houston you'll find Katz's Deli , a delicatessen famous for its assembly-line counter service and lauded by locals as one of the best in New York. If it looks familiar, don't be surprised: this was the scene of Meg Ryan's faked orgasm in When Harry Met Sally . There are a variety of Jewish delicacies available on East Houston: Russ & Daughters , at no. 179, specializes in smoked fish, herring and caviar, and Yonah Schimmel , further west at no. 137, has been making some of New York's best knishes since 1910.

Continue east on Houston and you'll arrive at Orchard Street , center of the so-called Bargain District, which is filled with stalls and storefronts hawking discounted designer clothes and bags.

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