Every Manhattan neighborhood has its own rhythm. This one just doesn't have a publicist yet.
NoMad (North of Madison) came into its own over the last decade as a handful of design-forward hotels — the NoMad, the Ace, the Renwick — anchored a genuinely great restaurant and bar scene around Madison Square Park. Hotel lobbies here double as some of the best bars in the city, less velvet-rope than West Village, less corporate than the Midtown towers just north. Eataly and the park itself draw a daytime crowd; at night the neighborhood fills with a mix of finance types, media people, and anyone chasing a good cocktail in a beautiful room. It's compact — a dozen or so blocks — but dense with exactly the kind of understated, expensive-feeling spots that reward knowing where to look.