Top Things To Do And See In South Street Seaport

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One new interesting aspect of the South Street Seaport is the Seaport Culture District, a program that brings together a bunch of NYC’s most influential organizations that focus on showing art exhibitions and installations in addition to offering lunchtime and after work events and talks. October, or Archtober, is Architecture Month in NYC and this year marks the fifth annual festival celebrating the importance of design in our City with lectures, films, exhibitions, and special tours. This festival is organized by 60+ designers and architectural organizations.

Taste of the Seaport is an annual festival showcasing the best in Lower Manhattan. It features over 40 food and beverage vendors so you can excite your taste buds while you delight in musical entertainment. It’s a great date night idea, or, if you’re looking for a treat for the little ones in your family, there’s activities for children as well. Anyone can attend the festival but ‘taste tickets’ are on sale now to sample treats. Proceeds from ticket sales will go to two elementary schools, PS 343 Peck Slip School and PS 397 Spruce Street School.

There’s no better crab than a Maryland crab and the Seaport’s got them! Known as one of the top NYC boils, The Hideaway Seaport has crabs flown in weekly from the world famous Chesapeake Bay from May through September. They offer dining packages for two, four, or eight people and larger parties are able to sit in the upstairs dining lounge, equipped with a 94-inch television screen so you can enjoy a little sports viewing with the shell cracking. Be sure to enjoy their Brazilian Jazz Night on October 30th and November 20th!

Featured at the Seaport Studios, Art Start is a program that celebrates families experiencing homelessness through workshops, interviews, and portrait sessions. This year, Art Start connected with 20 families to create family portraits along with interviews, and will have its opening and gallery reception in November. The goal of this exhibit is to shed light on the homelessness problem in NYC, all while highlighting the strong families dealing with their hardships.

Who doesn’t love a good party? On Halloween night from 6-8 pm, you can be a kid again and indulge your need to play dress up and hop on down to the Seaport for a night of fun. There’s a family costume parade, trick or treating, and plenty more. After you’ve stocked up on all of the sweet treats by participating stores, you can hop into any of the cool bars and restaurants for more savory bites.

Hornblower Cruises has made Pier 15 at the Seaport its second home. Hornblower offers happy hours, entertaining cruises, and even sightseeing tours during the day, which is a perfect choice if you will be playing host to visiting family and friends. For Halloween, check out the Rock the Yacht party from 9-12 am, and if you don’t feel like cooking for Thanksgiving, Hornblower’s next cruise is on Thanksgiving! So you can leave the dirty dishes to them while you enjoy the music and delicious holiday fare.

You can’t go to visit the seaport and not stop for good food and drinks, so stop by The Black Hound when you’re finished shopping and sightseeing. This speakeasy serves elevated bar foods in addition to the local brews and specialty cocktails, all in an intimate setting. It’s a great place to go when you want to wind down after a long day. Try one of their matured cocktails, such as the 100 days old Manhattan, aged 100 days in Rittenhouse rye, Antica Carpano, and leather bitters.

There’s plenty to see at this museum, but a highlight is the Gus Wagner Collection, which chronicles the career of Augustus ‘Gus’ Wagner, a pioneer in tattooing and key player in the transformation from manual to electric tattooing. Reservations and tickets are required for this collection, but it’s definitely worth it if you’re a fan of tattoo art. Other collections include ship models, paintings, and navigational instruments, as well as archives that include ship plans, photos, and ships’ logs.

There’s one more bar and lounge that needs to be mentioned and that’s the Watermark Bar and Lounge. What makes this place special is its location: at the end of Pier 15, giving visitors gorgeous views of the Brooklyn skyline. There are also the historic ships docked nearby, but if you happen to tire of the view, you can watch one of the eight HD TVs for entertainment as you sip your cocktails.