NYC Restaurant Week

January 16 – February 4

Not willing to spend a month’s rent on dinner, but dying to try that restaurant everyone is talking about? Forget $30 appetizers and an entrée that costs more than a shopping spree at Bergdorf’s: NYC Restaurant Week has you covered. Happening twice each year, Restaurant Week (which actually spans an almost three-week period), is your chance to sample all those seemingly out-of-reach hotspots. Restaurants throughout all five boroughs offer special multi-course menus at a fixed price, helping diners expand their gastronomic choices while bringing in new business. Note that not all restaurants participate in both lunch and dinner menus, and Saturdays are typically excluded. You can check back here on January 9 to see which restaurants are participating, browse menus, and find out how best to snag that corner table. But first, let us give you a little inside scoop. Multiple Rockefeller Center restaurants will be participating, including 5 Acres, an American spot with to-die-for burgers and all-day comfort food, and Le Rock, a buzzy brasserie from the team behind Balthazar and Frenchette.

New York Public Library’s Polonsky Exhibition

Ongoing

The New York Public Library is a treasure trove of educational artifacts with 56 million wonders to explore — more than even the most inquisitive of scholars could browse in a lifetime. The Polonsky Exhibition offers the rare opportunity to see its most impressive items curated into one mind-boggling display, divided into meaningful themes. The exhibition includes artwork, photographs, rare books, historical documents, and recordings that tell stories of the past 4,000 years, all with the goal of bringing great minds together and forming a clearer understanding of the path toward a brighter future. There are special sections dedicated to work created by women and the global influence of New York City through the centuries, and a free audio guide is available in multiple languages.

Madonna: The Celebration Tour at Madison Square Garden

January 22, 23, and 29

The Queen of Pop is back in NYC celebrating four decades of music with her rescheduled summer tour dates. Madonna brought The Celebration Tour — which eventually kicked off in London in October and made its way through Europe — to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in December for a sold-out crowd of 14,000 fans, but it’s not too late to score the hot ticket at MSG. This is 65-year-old Madonna’s first-ever retrospective tour, focused on fan-favorite hits instead of a new album, and her lifelong followers are loving indulging in the nostalgia of it all. Expect fashion, drama, steamy dancers, tributes to other iconic performers, and truth bombs about the singer’s complicated path to superstardom.