Lower East Side old and new: History and hipsters

For waves of immigrants to America, the Lower East Side was a place of first settlement. Today it’s one of the city’s trendiest neighborhoods. But it’s easy to find history amid the hipsters.

Some shops sell pickles and knishes; some sell tapas and tattoos. A grand building with arches and columns at 175 E. Broadway, which once housed the Yiddish Forward newspaper, is now home to $3 million condos. And a museum that tells the story of immigrants is a few blocks from a museum of contemporary art.

“This is the quintessential old neighborhood, where tradition meets the cutting edge,” said Holly Kaye, founding executive director of the Lower East Side Conservancy.

Kaye’s organization was part of a coalition that persuaded the National Trust for Historic Preservation in May to declare the Lower East Side an “endangered historic place,” citing new hotels and condo towers “looming large over the original tenement streetscape.” The city Landmarks Preservation Commission has designated 25 historic landmarks on the Lower East Side and is reviewing another 2,334 buildings to see if any more might qualify for protection from development.

For anyone interested in history and architecture, or even just food and shopping, the neighborhood makes a fascinating destination. Big Onion Walking Tours of the area include “The Multi-Ethnic Eating Tour” ($20), “The Jewish Lower East Side” ($15) and “Immigrant New York” ($15); http://bigonion.com or 212-439-1090. The Lower East Side Conservancy also offers monthly tours, $18, http://www.nycjewishtours.org.

Or create your own adventure. Take the F train to Second Avenue, then wander south from East Houston Street. But don’t wait too long. The old places may not last forever.

FOOD: Perhaps the best way to experience the Lower East Side is by noshing, the Yiddish term for snacking. It’s easy to eat here on a budget — just don’t try doing it on a diet. Start with an empty stomach and bring a friend to share. (Note that many of these purveyors also offer Web ordering.)

Get a filling knish (potato, mushroom, spinach, veggie and more) for $3.50 at Yonah Schimmel’s Knishes, established 1910, 137 E. Houston St. Old Yonah’s photo hangs in the window.

Russ & Daughters, established 1914, 179 E. Houston St., offers the perfect Lower East Side breakfast: bagel with cream cheese and lox (smoked salmon), starting at $8.45.

For lunch, get a pastrami on rye to go, extra mustard, at Katz’s Deli, established 1888, 205 E. Houston St. It’s $14.95, stuffed with enough meat to cater a bar mitzvah, and comes with several pickles.

For a bigger selection of pickles, visit the Pickle Guys, 49 Essex St. Nearby Kossar’s Bialys, 367 Grand St., makes handrolled bialys (onion rolls) and bagels. (The pickle and bialy shops close Friday afternoons and Saturdays for the Jewish Sabbath.)

The Essex Street Market at Delancey Street is an indoor market where you can buy everything from fresh produce to gourmet products (closed Sundays). “Mayor LaGuardia created the market in 1939 to get the pushcarts off the street,” said Jeffrey Ruhalter, a fifth-generation butcher who says he is the market’s last original tenant. “It was New York City’s first supermarket.”

More recent market tenants include Saxelby Cheesemongers, which specializes in regional cheeses, and Roni-Sue’s Chocolates. Owner Rhonda Kave made chocolates as a hobby for years before opening the shop a year ago. Specialties include a cocktail collection of chocolates named for mojitos, mimosas and Manhattans; chocolate-covered bacon; and tea-and-honey lollipops.

Any culinary tour must acknowledge the expansion of Chinatown into the Lower East Side. One favorite among New York foodies is Vanessa’s Dumpling House, 118A Eldridge St. No table service, but it’s worth standing on line for eight spectacular dumplings, a mere $4.

The Lower East Side has numerous upscale sitdown restaurants. Zagat’s top picks include Stanton Social, 99 Stanton St.; Falai, 68 Clinton St.; and the Clinton St. Baking Co., 4 Clinton St., a charming cafe with outstanding cherry pie.

MUSEUMS: The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, 97 Orchard St., http://www.tenement.org, is a must-see (open daily 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and until 7:15 p.m. Thursdays; adults, $17, students, $13).

The building dates to 1863, but its apartments were sealed in 1935 because the landlord could not comply with new housing laws. When the museum acquired the building in 1996, it was a time capsule.

Apartment tours reveal stories of real people who lived there. One family crammed 11 people in their 325-square-foot unit; another apartment housed a sweatshop in addition to a family of five. Residents hailed from Ireland, Germany, Italy and Eastern Europe. One tour offers audio recordings of an Italian-American woman who lived there as a child and came back to share her memories.