Manhattan has a hip new 'hood

A sexy conflation of grit and glam, the Lower East Side is the last bastion of downtown cool in Manhattan.

Where its neighbours, including SoHo and Nolita, have become thoroughly gentrified and increasingly homogenous, the Lower East Side remains an intriguing urban experiment, a place where it's possible to discover a lesbian sex shop, an Indian deli, a synagogue and a humming boite on the same street.

Bounded by Houston Street, Canal Street and FDR Drive, the Lower East Side displays its polyglot status proudly. More than a century ago the locale was a springboard for migrants from Ireland, Germany and Italy.

But it's the Jewish diaspora of the 20th century that has shaped the area most resonantly. Places such as Katz's Delicatessen on East Houston Street, the oldest deli in New York, offer arguably the best pastrami sandwiches, pickles out of a barrel and bialys, or onion rolls.

The current ethnic mix also includes Hispanics, Asians and the droves of artists, musicians and other urbanites that arrived in the 1980s to take advantage of cheaper rents. For better or worse, centuryold tenements are being gradually converted to swanky apartments. Discount-shopping addicts flock to Orchard Street on a Sunday afternoon for bargains.

The growing band of nascent designers and alternative-music venues attracts more discriminating types. The Mercury Lounge on East Houston Street spawned cult New York rock acts The Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. For the hipoisie, there is the added allure that comes with a formerly seedy area; it wasn't that long ago that the Lower East Side played host to heroin trafficking and prostitution.

The cult of anonymity means cachet. It's attached to the private bar with no name (Milk and Honey on Eldridge Street), the chi-chi gallery atop a Chinese hardware store (Point on Allen Street), and the hair salon only locals know about (Valerie's on Ludlow Street).

"The bar business is not always a nice one," says Milk and Honey's TJ Siegal, explaining why the members-only bar has an unlisted number. The neighbourhood is pulsating-with a host of new culinary additions. Clinton Street has been remade as a gustatory destination, attracting limos from all over town. The catalyst was 71 Clinton Fresh Food, which opened in 1999 near Rivington Street under the auspices of sisters Janet and Marybeth Nelson.

The intention was to create a neighbourhood restaurant with snappy food at moderate prices. "But 71 grew into something larger than that, it became a destination restaurant," says Janet Nelson.

The Nelsons have expanded their sovereignty with two other eateries. In the meantime, 71's fÍted chef, Wylie Dufresne, is opening his own restaurant, WD50.

Accessible commercial rents have made the Lower East Side the leading showcase of indie entrepreneurs in Manhattan. "It's the only cheap rent downtown," says Adam Glickman, publisher of the magazine Tokion, who moved the journal's headquarters here from LA a year ago. "And because it's affordable, it's possible for younger people to get something started here and try something new."

There are those who believe that even the Lower East Side has lost its bohemian spirit.

Performance artist and longtime resident Penny Arcade is one of them. "I used to tell people there's SoHo and NoHo and that I lived in Oh-Oh," says Arcade, whose last show, New York Values, lamented the loss of edgy Manhattan.

"If there's a bohemia now it exists in cyberspace."

Still, there are advantages to the hood being polished up. Says Glickman: "Everybody likes it better when you don't have to look over your shoulder because you're afraid of getting mugged."

Inside guide to Lower East Side