young married couple, second trip to nyc
(on 1st trip saw statue of liberty, ellis island, st. paul's chapel, battery park, rockefeller center, times square, empire state building, grand central station, fao schwartz, katz deli, seredipity, st. patrick's cathedral, washington square)
WEDNESDAY
-fly into laguardia at 1pm
-taxi to gershwin hotel 5th ave at 27th
-light snack and explore local neighborhood possibly madison sq park, flatiron bldg (any suggestions here?)
-dinner at 6pm (lattanzi or chez josephine)
-"the producers" at 8pm

THURSDAY
-breakfast (anyone have a rec for a good bagel place either near hotel, lower manhattan, brooklyn across bridge)
-green 4 or 5 train to bway/nassau station then blue A or C train to High street and walk back across brooklyn bridge
-city hall park
-federal reserve bank
- wall street
-museum american financial history
-lunch fraunces tavern
-brown J or Z train at broad st to chambers st station
-walk chinatown from chatham square to canal via mott
-walk canal street to broadway then north to prince street
-take yellow line back to hotel
(or should we take a cab from fraunces tavern to mulberry at broome, walk down mulberry through little italy then walk west on canal through chinatown then take the yellow line from canal street station back to hotel)
-dinner (any recs for a small bakery/deli/cafe on a street with after dinner shopping/wandering)

FRIDAY
-green line to union square (any recs for breakfast)
-green line up to lexington ave switch to blue E train going west then south to spring street
-nyc fire museum
-(what would be a good soho shopping route leaving fire museum-not looking for anything in particular just mix of clothing boutiques and the more mainstream banana republic/jcrew/h&m)
-mulberry/mott/elizabeth at houston for more shopping
-lunch at balthazar's bakery or other sidewalk cafe/bakery that catches our eye
-F train from broadway/lafayette to delancy/essex
-orchard street
-lower east side tenement museum
-dinner at shun lee palace
-8pm ballet at the met (manon)
SATURDAY
-yellow line to times square
-walk to annex/hell's kitchen flea market
-blue C train to columbus circle change to red 1 to 79th street
-h&h bagels
-walk down broadway to zabars
-cross to central park west on the way south to 72nd st dakota apt (anyone have a favorite cross street broadway to cpw) then cross central park at strawberry fields and up to met museum of art
-dinner: cafe grazie madison @ 84th

For a snack on your first day, the Shake Shack is IN Madison Square park.
http://www.menupages.com/restaurantd...taurantid=5545

For breakfast nearish your hotel, Ess-A-Bagel on 21 st & 1st ave(You can pick up the subway at 23 st & Park Ave south) Gramercy Bagels gets good reviews on menupages but I've never tried it.
http://www.menupages.com/restaurantd...15&cuisineid=8

FYI, we don't use the colors to designate subway lines, just letters or numbers. If you start talking colors to a NYer they won't know what you're talking about. Before walking back to Manhattan, you might want to have a walk along the Promenade in Brooklyn Heights for some great views. Also, Grimaldi's for pizza and the Brooklyn ice cream factory are popular stops on the Brooklyn side of the bridge.

Not sure what you're asking at the end of the day on Thurs. There is little to see in Little Italy apart from restaurants which tend to be touristy. It's only 2 blocks. But there are some nice shops in Nolita (north of Little Italy) on Elizabeth, Mott and Prince.

There are also some shops on Crosby.
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/...495/index.html
There are also a few different mini malls for lack of a better term with young new designers things. One's on Mulberry and the other's on Bleecker here
http://www.edgeny.com/about.php

And for earlier in the day, here's a shopping map (these maps may not be totally up to date) of Crosby st.
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/...ds/maps/10117/

If you want a small dinner place with shopping around you'll find that in the village (Greenwich Village) or Soho. Since you're doing some Soho on Fri., why not head to the village which you've basically skipped? Amy's bread is a bakery that has sandwiches and other things. It's at 250 Bleecker st. If you walked from EdgeNY Noho straight on Bleecker (heading west) it's not that far.
http://www.amysbread.com/
There are tons of other places too. Otto's is terrific for pizza at 1 Fifth Ave. just north of Washington Square Park. If you had the energy, on a walk up Fifth Ave. from there to your hotel you'd pass a lot of stores in the teens and 20s.

If you decide to head back toward your hotel, the Old Town Bar on 18th st. would be a good place for a casual dinner. Their burgers are good.
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/listings/bar/old_town_bar/

For breakfast near Union Square, the Coffee Shop
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/listings...t/coffee-shop/
OR head to Chelsea Market (there's an Amy's there if you didn't hit it the night before).

FYI, you're going to Shun Lee Cafe or Shun Lee West. Shun Lee Palace is not the one near the Met.

Have a great trip.

Quite ambitious... more than I would attempt in four days.

Leave yourself some time to relax and just sit and watch the local color walk by.

For Balthazar, make sure you have reservations.

thanks for the great advice, amy's bread seems exactly right, do we need reservations for the balthazar bakery and do they offer sandwiches?

Thursday and Friday look exhausting. I'd cut out a few things, so you can actually enjoy the Ballet without falling asleep from exhaustion.

Unless you think you'd be just too tired, I'd recommend changing Chez Josephine to after the show. (They serve late). That way, you can really enjoy your dinner, along with the wonderful live music. We love to sit around after dinner with coffee/drinks listening to the music. And, the place is much more romantic later than pre-theater.