From London to Rome on a MetroCard

By SETH KUGEL
Published: April 20, 2008
Correction Appended

SURE, you could visit Europe, but it’s just so darn inconvenient. The exchange rate turns you into a pauper, portions are minuscule, people smoke a lot, good bagels are practically nonexistent. Neither Greyhound nor Amtrak stop there. What kind of a tourist attraction is that?
So consider the advantages of a European weekend in New York. The city is more European than you think: where else could you dine on Bosnian sausage in (the Cevabdzinica) Sarajevo (restaurant), then take a 20-minute train ride to (the) Paris (Theater) for French film? A MetroCard costs a tiny fraction of what a Eurail pass does, but lets you visit most major tourist destinations in Europe (O.K., places named after them) without leaving the city.

First, a hotel: At the London NYC on West 54th Street, where the formal restaurant is called Gordon Ramsay at the London, the London suites start at $399 a night and the London atrium suite is $3,999 a night. Are those prices London enough for you?

Staying there for the Travel section last year, the Times’s restaurant critic Frank Bruni was impressed by the size of the rooms and the “smartly and indulgently up-to-the-minute space” (and the mirrored French doors — a bonus country!). In a separate review, he gave the restaurant two stars.

It’s only a short walk from the London to the Paris, where French movies attract a French and Francophile crowd that knows how to throw around a “formidable” or two and is clearly no stranger to the accent aigu. Now playing is “Flight of the Red Balloon,” which won a gleaming review from the Times’s Manohla Dargis. If you disagree and get bored, slip into the lobby and try to name the French actors (Bardot, Depardieu and the like) pictured there.

From the theater, it’s a pleasant walk along Parque Central to the Shops at Columbus Circle, where you’ll find Face Stockholm, the Swedish cosmetics store, and Davidoff of Geneva, which hawks cigars and even provides a minilounge to smoke them in.

Though it might be tempting to stop by a frankfurter salesman on the street corner, just head down 10th Avenue a few blocks for dinner at Hallo Berlin, an informal beer-guzzling place where the pork chops are tender, the tablecloths are gingham and the beer garden is open. If you don’t like their great beer selection, you can always order from their fun-to-pronounce list of brandies: Kirschwasser, Himbeergeist, Pflumi.

To loosen your tongue after this polysyllabic meal, it’s a quick walk to the Barcelona Bar, an otherwise ordinary watering hole that offers over 100 specialty shots, something like what you might find in Barcelona itself. If you are willing to sacrifice taste to keep the European theme going, try las Ramblas (grenadine, lime and tequila) or the Mussolini (Southern Comfort and Amaretto). Or just have a Peroni beer.

There’s lots more downtown. Cafe de Bruxelles on (bonus) Greenwich Avenue is a mussels-and-fries-with-no-ketchup kind of place in the West Village that attracts a crowd of regulars, including a high ratio of adorable elderly couples who look as if they’d have grown plump on the mayonnaisey dip and the crème brûlée tart.

You’ll no longer be able to visit Provence in Greenwich Village, which is closing Sunday (the owners plan to reopen the restaurant in May as Hundred Acres, serving rustic, farm-focused food). But you can try Régate, a little bistro on the Lower East Side named for France’s Île de Ré. You can try the mouclade de la couarde (mussels with saffron and cream) or the bourride rétaise à la lotte (monkfish), near replicas of the traditional dishes you’d find on the real island. (Or maybe not, but if you make a comment like that, few will be qualified to call you on it.)

If Italy’s more to your taste, you might head to Old Venice, actually Antica Venezia, a restaurant in the far West Village, or Firenze on the Upper East Side.

Afterward, you could check out Dublin 6, a West Village bar with a nice beer selection (little of which is Irish). But for those hankering for the Swiss Alps, there’s Gstaad, where skiers zoom down treacherous slopes (on a video projected on a wall in Chelsea), and the good-looking crowd lounges on minimalist ski-resort furniture.

Finally, for that classic combination of rock music and kielbasa, head to Warsaw, a cavernous club in the Polish National Home in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

If you’re still around on Monday morning, how about one more touch of Italy. The Rome Fastener Corporation showroom on West 25th Street may be short on the farfalle, but you won’t find grommets and eyelets like these on the Adriatic. And you won’t pay in euros, either.

NO EUROS NEEDED (OR ACCEPTED)

Cevabdzinica Sarajevo, 37-18 34th Avenue, Astoria, Queens; (718) 752-9528.

London NYC, 151 West 54th Street; (866) 690-2029; www.londonnyc.com.

Paris Theater, 4 West 58th Street; (212) 688-3800; www.theparistheatre.com; tickets $11.

Face Stockholm, 10 Columbus Circle, Ground Floor; (212) 823-9415; www.facestockholm.com.

Davidoff of Geneva, 10 Columbus Circle, Ground Floor; (212) 823-6383; www.davidoff.com.

Hallo Berlin, 624 10th Avenue at 44th Street; (212) 977-1944; www.halloberlinrestaurant.com.

Barcelona Bar, 923 Eighth Avenue near 55th Street; (212) 245-3212; www.barcelonabarnyc.com.

Cafe de Bruxelles, 118 Greenwich Avenue at 13th Street; (212) 206-1830; www.cafedebruxelles.com.

Régate, 198 Orchard Street at East Houston; (212) 228-8555; www.regate-bistro.com.

Antica Venezia, 396 West Street at 10th Street, (212) 229-0606; www.avnyc.com.

Firenze, 1594 Second Avenue at 82nd Street; (212) 861-9368.

Dublin 6, 575 Hudson Street near West 11th Street; (646) 638-2900; www.dublin6nyc.com.

Gstaad, 43 West 26th; (212) 683-1440; www.gstaadnyc.com.

Warsaw Bar and Bistro, 261 Driggs Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn; (718) 387-0505; www.warsawconcerts.com.

The Rome Fastener Corporation, 24 West 25th Street; (212) 741-9779; www.romefast.com.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: April 20, 2008
The Weekend in New York column on Page 11 of the Travel section this weekend, about finding places in the city that evoke Europe, carries an outdated reference to the restaurant Provence in Greenwich Village. After the article went to press on Monday, the restaurant announced that it is closing today. (The owners will reopen the restaurant in May as Hundred Acres, with a rustic, farm-focused menu.)
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