Unique walking tours of New York City. Exotic cuisine and ta**ry history. Eat like a New Yorker. (And learn something, too.) Custom walking tours of New York City.
03/31/2025
THIS SUNDAY! "Remnants of Gritty Old Times Square" Walking Tour
SUNDAY, APRIL 6TH, 11:00 AM-1:00 PM: Let us take you back to the halcyon days when 42nd Street was the Deuce, Eighth Avenue was the Minnesota Strip, the Great White Way was a red light district, and the Crossroads of the World was ###-rated. We will see former peepshows, grindhouses, adult book stor...
Small group walking tour taking you back to the halcyon days when 42nd Street was the Deuce, Eighth Avenue was the Minnesota Strip, the Great White Way was a red light district, and the Crossroads of the World was ###-rated. Get your tickets now!
03/18/2025
THIS FRIDAY! The Battle Over Burlesque at the 1939-40 World's Fair
'The Battle Over Burlesque at the 1939-40 World's Fair' Webinar
02/25/2025
THIS FRIDAY! "World War II Homefront: Spies, Saboteurs, and Sympathizers in NYC" Webinar
"World War II Homefront: Spies, Saboteurs, and Sympathizers in NYC" Webinar
02/24/2025
On Friday, Feb. 28th, from 5:30 to 7:00 PM, I will be presenting a webinar for New York Adventure Club on N**i activity in Yorkville in the 1930s and 1940s. Tickets are available here:
Can't make it live? Register and get access to the full replay for one week! New York Adventure Club | www.AdventureClub.com
02/15/2025
JUST ADDED! The Battle Over Burlesque at the 1939-40 World's Fair
'The Battle Over Burlesque at the 1939-40 World's Fair' Webinar
02/07/2025
Tonight, from 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM, I will be presenting a webinar on New York City in the 1970s and 1980s for New York Adventure Club. Tickets are available here:
Can't make it live? Register and get access to the full replay for one week! New York Adventure Club | www.AdventureClub.com
02/07/2025
TONIGHT! 'Fear City: New York City in the 1970s & 1980s' Webinar
FRIDAY, FEB. 7TH, 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM: Artists and arsonists. Punk rockers and panicky bankers. S*x workers and serial killers. New York City in the 1970s and 1980s was a tale of two cities — one of terrible economic and physical hardship, but also one of great artistic and s*xual freedom. This is t...
02/05/2025
CUNY The Graduate School and University Center issues digital credentials with Parchment. Click to verify my Diploma and see more about my accomplishment.
02/03/2025
THIS FRIDAY! 'Fear City: New York City in the 1970s & 1980s' Webinar
FRIDAY, FEB. 7TH, 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM: Artists and arsonists. Punk rockers and panicky bankers. S*x workers and serial killers. New York City in the 1970s and 1980s was a tale of two cities — one of terrible economic and physical hardship, but also one of great artistic and s*xual freedom. This is t...
01/27/2025
Can't make it live? Register and get access to the full replay for one week! New York Adventure Club | www.AdventureClub.com
01/27/2025
On Friday, Jan. 31st, from 5:30 PM to 7 PM, I will be presenting a webinar on the Everard, New York City's longest running gay bathhouse. Tickets are available here:
Can't make it live? Register and get access to the full replay for one week! New York Adventure Club | www.AdventureClub.com
01/18/2025
JUST ADDED! "World War II Homefront: Spies, Saboteurs, and Sympathizers in NYC" Webinar
"World War II Homefront: Spies, Saboteurs, and Sympathizers in NYC" Webinar
01/14/2025
JUST ADDED! 'Fear City: New York City in the 1970s & 1980s' Webinar
FRIDAY, FEB. 7TH, 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM: Artists and arsonists. Punk rockers and panicky bankers. S*x workers and serial killers. New York City in the 1970s and 1980s was a tale of two cities — one of terrible economic and physical hardship, but also one of great artistic and s*xual freedom. This is t...
12/30/2024
JUST ADDED! "The Everard: NYC's Longest Running Gay Bathhouse" Webinar
FRIDAY, JAN. 31, 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM: The Everard was New York City’s longest running gay bathhouse. Located in the Tenderloin (today’s NoMad), it opened in 1888, during the Gilded Age, and closed in 1986, during the AIDS epidemic. At its peak in popularity, it was frequented by gay male celebrit...
12/29/2024
New year, new webinar!
Can't make it live? Register and get access to the full replay for one week! New York Adventure Club | www.AdventureClub.com
11/15/2024
THIS SUNDAY! "Remnants of Gritty Old Times Square" Walking Tour
SUNDAY, NOV. 17th, 11:00 AM-1:00 PM: Let us take you back to the halcyon days when 42nd Street was the Deuce, Eighth Avenue was the Minnesota Strip, the Great White Way was a red light district, and the Crossroads of the World was ###-rated. We will see former peepshows, grindhouses, adult book stor...
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Pig Feet Walking Tours. Small, custom, private walking/subway tours lovingly handcrafted to your exacting specifications. You pick the neighborhood(s) and/or cuisine(s), and your tour guide constructs a bespoke walking tour geared to your precise interests. Chinatown, Little Italy, Lower East Side, East Village, West Village, Soho, Tribeca, Chelsea, NoMad, Murray Hill, Hell’s Kitchen, Times Square, Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Morningside Heights, Harlem, Spanish Harlem, Washington Heights, Jackson Heights, Woodside, etc., etc., etc. Adventurous explorers/eaters preferred. $50 per person per hour, all food included. Don’t know where to begin? Check out some sample tours below:
Dirty Old Times Square. In the 1970s, Times Square was a dangerous, exciting, gritty, intense, racially and s*xually diverse neighborhood frequented by both locals and tourists. Love it or hate it, you couldn’t ignore it. Most of old Times Square has been carefully obliterated by soulless office buildings and Walt Disney musicals, but there are still a few vestiges of its seedy past—if you know where to look. So let your guide take you back to the halcyon days when 42nd Street was the Deuce, Eighth Avenue was the Minnesota Strip, the Great White Way was a red light district, and the Crossroads of the World was ###-rated.
Swimming Across Canal Street. Today most people think of Canal Street—if they think of it at all—as the shortest distance between the Holland Tunnel and the Manhattan Bridge. But Canal Street is also a living remnant of New York City’s gritty, industrial, vice-ridden past. In the 1970s, it was an exciting milieu of artists, punk rockers, hip hoppers, squeegee men, s*x workers, Jewish radicals, and Chinese housewives. Though it’s gentrifying rapidly, there are still traces of its seedy history—if you know where to look. Along the way, we will make brief side excursions into Soho, Tribeca, Little Italy, Chinatown, and the Lower East Side. We will finish up with an (optional) sit-down meal in a Chinese restaurant with a shocking past. And we will answer the timeless question: was Canal Street ever really a canal?
Koreatown, Curryhill, And Beyond. Everyone knows Chinatown, Little Italy, and the Lower East Side. But how well do you know some of New York City’s more obscure dining destinations? In this walking tour, we will explore midtown’s surprisingly rich and varied cheap ethnic eating options, including Italian prosciutto, Russian pelmeni, Japanese musubi, West African cow feet, Korean fried chicken—and blood sausage, for the daring!—Indi/Paki chaat, and of course, Chinese pig feet. ALL FOOD INCLUDED.
Satan’s Circus. Not a heavy metal band. In the late 19th /early 20th century, the neighborhood now known as NoMad (“North of Madison Square") was a world-famous red light district filled with saloons, dance halls, gambling dens, and houses of ill-repute. The area has been expurgated by the passage of time and a succession of reformers, but there are still remnants of its licentious past, if you know where to look, including: The alley where American popular music was born. The hotels where Diamond Jim Brady, Lillian Russell, Samuel Clemens, Oscar Wilde, and Nikola Tesla hung out. A gay bathhouse with a tragic history. A police station disguised as a medieval castle. A music hall with a scandalous VIP backroom. And the flower district where you could purchase more than just orchids.
Pastrami: The Most Sensual Of All The Smoked, Cured Meats. Everyone loves pastrami, but what exactly is it? This food walking tour of the East Village and the Lower East Side will explore the history of pastrami, what is and is not pastrami, pastrami and Jewish identity, pastrami in pop culture, and, yes, pastrami and s*x. Along the way, we will sample the delicacies of half a dozen different purveyors of fleysh. ALL FOOD INCLUDED.
About your guide. Robert Brenner is a licensed New York City tour guide, a member of the Guides Association of New York City, a docent for the Municipal Art Society of New York, and an almost lifelong New Yorker. He has led walking tours for the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, Google, Jane’s Walk, Local Expeditions, the New York Public Library, the 34th Street Partnership, the Times Square Alliance, Untapped Cities, Urban Sustainability, the Urbanist, and the Van Alen Institute. A survivor of the 1970s, he has witnessed many of the city’s vicissitudes firsthand. He specializes in the offbeat and the obscure—in neighborhoods, history, architecture, and food. He has a B.S. in technical writing from Carnegie-Mellon University, and a certificate in creative non-fiction from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York; his writing has appeared in New York Magazine, the Huffington Post, and many other publications. He lives in Chelsea with his wife, and teaches in Downtown Brooklyn at CUNY.