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Updated today · Monday, October 5

Things to do in the Upper East Side

You can spend an Upper East Side afternoon with a Vermeer, a French novel or an Egyptian temple without trying to fit all three into the same outing.

What's happening in Upper East Side

5 events in the next 7 days

See all Upper East Side events
A man in a dark blazer stands mid-gesture on a small brick-walled stage under a neon 'The Comic Strip' sign and an 81st St subway plaque, speaking to an audience in the foreground.
Mon Oct 5

Comedy Classes

The Comic Strip, Upper East Side
A man in a dark blazer stands on a small stage holding a microphone in front of a brick wall lit by a red neon 'The Comic Strip' sign and an '81st St' street sign, with string lights overhead.
Tue Oct 6

DF Open Mic/Workshop

The Comic Strip, Upper East Side
A violinist and a cellist perform beside a grand piano in an elegant room with tall curtained windows, audience heads visible in the foreground
Wed Oct 7

Works by Ravel & More for Strings & Piano

Americas Society

A walk through Upper East Side

The Frick Collection

Vermeer, Rembrandt and Fragonard share a former home at The Frick Collection, where you encounter paintings alongside sculpture, furniture, ceramics and textiles. That arrangement is the particular pleasure here: the art remains in the historic rooms of a Gilded Age mansion, with small identifying plaques rather than large interpretive panels. The collection also includes Bellini and Turner, giving you considerable range within that focused format.

The mansion reopened in 2025 with restored first-floor galleries and former private rooms upstairs newly brought into the museum. For more about individual works, the free Bloomberg Connects guide adds commentary from curators. Between galleries, the Garden Court offers a change of surroundings; a coffee bar and the Westmoreland café give you somewhere to pause.

Ornate museum gallery with framed paintings, gilded architectural details, a chandelier, and polished wood floors.

Albertine

Albertine’s booksellers bring together contemporary and classic writing from 30 Francophone countries, with books in both French and English. You can browse translations alongside French originals, so the selection reaches readers well beyond those who speak French. Farther north on Fifth Avenue from the Frick, the shop occupies the historic Payne Whitney mansion.

There’s also a good reason to look away from the shelves. Designer Jacques Garcia gave the shop a hand-painted ceiling of constellations, stars and planets, inspired by the music room at Munich’s Villa Stuck. Busts of writers and thinkers, including Voltaire and Descartes, accompany the books; the entrance sculpture is a replica of Michelangelo’s Young Archer. Villa Albertine also hosts debates and discussions, extending the literary conversation beyond the shelves.

View through an ornate stone doorway into a wood-lined library with bookshelves, lamps, and a blue ceiling painted with stars.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The ancient builders of the Temple of Dendur left carved stone architecture that you can see inside The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Egypt gave the temple to the United States, and it was dismantled and reconstructed block by block at the museum. In Gallery 131, you’re looking at the temple itself. It’s a concrete place to begin a visit to a collection whose scope can otherwise make deciding where to start feel like the main task.

I’d pair the temple with one collection you’re curious about. Musical instruments offer historic keyboards and strings, with audio and video demonstrating how instruments sound. Arms and armor provide another distinct focus, or you can turn to paintings. Any of those pairings can be a complete museum outing. The Met’s collections extend from ancient to contemporary work, so there’s plenty to return for without making this visit an attempt to cover the building.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's columned stone entrance with broad steps and red vertical banners.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Frank Lloyd Wright made the route through the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum part of the experience of seeing art. You follow a spiral gallery around an open rotunda, with views across the central space changing as the curve carries you onward. The loops broaden toward the skylight, and artwork meets angled walls. For someone interested in architecture, those relationships make the building a substantial part of the visit, with the art and the route through it closely connected.

Exhibitions change how the ramps are used. The museum’s Thannhauser holdings add another dimension to its identity, encompassing Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early modern painting, including works by Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin, Monet and Picasso. That collection connects nineteenth-century painting with the museum’s broader interest in modern art and abstraction. Farther north along Fifth Avenue, the Guggenheim is an alternative museum anchor for an outing, especially if Wright’s building is what brings you here.

The Guggenheim Museum's white spiral building seen from across Fifth Avenue beneath a cloudy sky.

Logos Bookstore

Local cartoonist Peter Pereira puts Yorkville and the Upper Far East Side into his New York INTOON work, including Logos Bookstore itself. You can browse his work in the shop alongside paintings, prints and cards by Paul Morin and Sonia Grineva. It’s a particularly apt place to find a neighborhood keepsake: art depicting this part of New York, sold in one of the places it depicts. The independent York Avenue bookshop takes this guide east into Yorkville, away from the Fifth Avenue museums.

The shelves mix current bestsellers, fiction and nonfiction with religious books, history, psychology and music. Children’s and young adult books have a place here too, alongside cards and gifts. Its community programming has included the Kill Your TV book group, poetry read-alouds and interfaith Sacred Texts discussions. Musical children’s storytime brings books together with guitar, another expression of a shop where reading can be a shared activity.

Street view of the Logos BookStore storefront beneath a dark awning, with books displayed outside and cars along the curb.

Brandy’s Piano Bar

The waitstaff sing at Brandy’s Piano Bar, and customers join in with performers and a professional pianist. You can listen or add your voice to familiar show tunes and standards. The music is a shared part of the room, with staff, performers and patrons all contributing.

The East 84th Street bar sits west of Logos and offers a late-night destination in the same neighborhood. Its intimate scale suits an outing with a partner or a couple of friends, especially if singing together is part of the appeal. Performers appear every night, with the piano backing the voices around it.

A singer performing with a pianist before patrons inside a dimly lit piano bar.

Suggested walks

A mansion and French books

Pair The Frick Collection’s paintings and decorative arts with a browse through French originals and English translations at Albertine farther north on Fifth Avenue.

Modern art and Yorkville browsing

Start with the Guggenheim’s spiral galleries, then head into Yorkville for books and neighborhood artwork at Logos Bookstore.

Explore Upper East Side programs

Browse upcoming Upper East Side events for an exhibition, discussion or performance to build your outing around.

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What's happening in Upper East Side

Find upcoming exhibitions, talks and live music on the Upper East Side.

A man in a dark blazer stands mid-gesture on a small brick-walled stage under a neon 'The Comic Strip' sign and an 81st St subway plaque, speaking to an audience in the foreground.Mon Oct 5

Comedy Classes

Develop your own stand-up act through joke writing, revision and practice with D.F. Sweedler.

The Comic Strip, Upper East SideA man in a dark blazer stands on a small stage holding a microphone in front of a brick wall lit by a red neon 'The Comic Strip' sign and an '81st St' street sign, with string lights overhead.Tue Oct 6

DF Open Mic/Workshop

An open mic and workshop at The Comic Strip.

The Comic Strip, Upper East SideA violinist and a cellist perform beside a grand piano in an elegant room with tall curtained windows, audience heads visible in the foregroundWed Oct 7

Works by Ravel & More for Strings & Piano

Hear music by Ravel and other composers for strings and piano.

Americas SocietyString players performing in an ornate salon with a crystal chandelier, tall draped windows and a gilded mirror, watched by a seated audience seen from behindThu Oct 8

Contemporary Works for Strings & Piano

Hear contemporary music for strings and piano at Americas Society.

Americas Society
All Upper East Side events

5 things worth doing in the next 7 days · Monday, October 5th – Sunday, October 11th

Comedy Classes

Develop your own stand-up act through joke writing, revision and practice with D.F. Sweedler.

Mon Oct 5 · The Comic Strip, Upper East Side · Manhattan · Price not listed

🚇 86 St (Q) · 5 min walk

🍴 Eat nearby · 4 places, closest 2 min walk

More info ▾

DF Open Mic/Workshop

An open mic and workshop at The Comic Strip.

Tue Oct 6 · The Comic Strip, Upper East Side · Manhattan · Price not listed

🚇 86 St (Q) · 5 min walk

🍴 Eat nearby · 4 places, closest 2 min walk

More info ▾

Free

Works by Ravel & More for Strings & Piano

Hear music by Ravel and other composers for strings and piano.

Wed Oct 7 · Americas Society · Manhattan · Free

🚇 68 St-Hunter College (6) · 2 min walk

🍴 Eat nearby · 4 places, closest 5 min walk

More info ▾

Free

Contemporary Works for Strings & Piano

Hear contemporary music for strings and piano at Americas Society.

Thu Oct 8 · Americas Society · Manhattan · Free

🚇 68 St-Hunter College (6) · 2 min walk

🍴 Eat nearby · 4 places, closest 5 min walk

More info ▾

New Talent Show

New comedy talent takes the stage at The Comic Strip.

Sat Oct 10 · The Comic Strip, Upper East Side · Manhattan · Price not listed

🚇 86 St (Q) · 5 min walk

🍴 Eat nearby · 4 places, closest 2 min walk

More info ▾

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