All night in Manhattan? Suggestions please for teens!
 

My son's friend is visiting from the UK in June. It's his second visit to Boston and he really wants to go to NYC.
Both boys are well traveled, independent, street savvy and nocturnal energetic teenagers.

They intend to pull an all nighter in NYC!
They've done this in London and my son and a GF enjoyed watching the sunrise after an all nighter in Paris last April so you get the picture.

My son's been to NYC a few times so has some ideas for showing his friend the city by day. They'll either take the Staten Island ferry or walk the Brooklyn bridge and will get tickets for the Top of the Rock. My son likes art so might persuade his friend to go to the Met or MOMA but it's more likely they'll walk around Central Park, eat pizza, etc.

I need some suggestions for what they can do at night. I'm concerned that at 18 they're going to struggle to find places to go after dinner. They both love music (jazz especially) but they're open to anything except cruising 24 hour convenience stores in the wee hours!
I wondered if they could walk the Brooklyn Bridge at night safely... take the subway to Brooklyn and walk back towards the city lights?
A good place to get a hearty breakfast that opens very early or stays open all night?

They wanted to just go on their own by bus but to prevent that I've offered to drive them to NYC and will stay in a hotel overnight so there's somewhere for them to crash but I fully do not expect them to return before morning.

So ideas please?

BTW, Please don't tell me to not let them do this... at this point I've learnt to state my concerns, point out any foreseeable dangers and hope for the best! I admit I'm doing this research for them for my own peace of mind and I'll let you know how it went.

What night of the week do they plan on visiting?

Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday ... is one better than the other?

No I would not walk over the Brooklyn Bridge in the middle of the night. But if they head out that way in the morning, Juniors is a great place for breakfast. We used to go there after drinking all night in Brooklyn.

The Apple Store on 5th is open 24 hours, so that could be good.

Menupages.com has an option that allows you to search for restaurants that are open 24 hours. Off the top of my head, I know that Cafeteria on 7th and 17th is open all night and is decent -- though I've never eaten there at 3 in the morning:)

Sounds like an adventure!

The Apple store on 5th avenue is open 24 hours. That should kill some time.
There are 24 hour diners and other places to eat (e.g. French Roast on The Upper West Side and in the village, and some places in Chinatown)

Well some places are open later Friday or Saturday so I thought I'd check..

Do they have any plans after dinner? I'd maybe go see a concert--some clubs/music places in the city are 18+ depending on who is playing...like Webster Hall or Terminal 5.

I like Esperanto Cafe in the West Village for a late night caffeine break. (24 hours)

They could go bowling at Bolmer Lanes if they do go on a Tues, Wed, or Thursday (it's 21+ over the weekend).
http://www.bowlmor.com/location_info.php?id=1

If they wanted to visit the Empire State Building late they could--it closes late...

I think there are several places in Koreatown that are open 24 hours; I've been to one in particular late late but I can't remember the name.

My favorite place to see jazz is 55 Bar in the West Village; I'm not sure they have any 18+ shows though. Worth a call.

I wouldn't recommend walking across the bridge extremely late (or extremely early). I've never had a problem walking across at night but I wouldn't walk across it after 11 or so personally due to potentially low foot traffic. Maybe they could catch the sunrise? Be curious to hear other New Yorkers' experiences...

If for some reason you don't end up doing the hotel thing...they could take a Bolt Bus or Megabus to/and from. There are early buses back to Boston in the morning (7/7:30). I only mention this option as I had a very good experience recently taking the Megabus to Philadelphia. Fares are extremely low.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. :)

They will definitely want to hang out at the Apple store. Does it have a cafe? They might need a caffeine fix in the form of Coke but neither drink coffee...

I'll check out the bowling link that sounds like a good option and also the concert idea.

No cafe at the Apple Store on 5th.

http://www.fatcatmusic.org/gaming.html

There are lots of restaurants that are open 24/7. Wo Hop in Chinatown is one student haunt. Veselka in the east village is another. Menupages.com will have a feature menu on open 24 hrs.

Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but I was with a group of teens a couple months ago who enjoyed just hanging around Times Square late into the night. That was on a weekend, though.

mclaurie, Student haunts would be ideal and both boys love Chinese food. After a busy day of sightseeing they'll be happy to shop, browse and eat. Thanks for the links!

beachbum, I'm sure they'll check out Times Square at some point but I don't think just hanging out there will interest them for long unless there's a small group of approachable teenage girls hanging out there too ;)

Fatcat sounds like their kind of place! It's inexpensive too which will definitely appeal to these cash strapped teens.

I've run the Brooklyn Bridge at sunrise (stunning) on multiple occaisions and was surprised at how many other walker/runner/bikers were on the bridge.

I wouldn't do it at 2AM.

Times Square is usually busy all night long.

GoT, sunrise sounds like a great time to me but I think even these energetic boys will be looking for some downtime by then.. but I've been wrong before!
This trip will be right on the heels of a few high school graduation parties plus an overnight on Cape Cod and one of them with be on GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) or thereabouts!

I'll suggest they avoid the bridge between 11pm and 5am (or whenever sunrise is in NYC in June).

Meant to add that so far my son is excited about fatcatmusic (and has checked the site), the Apple Store, generally exploring and all the food recs. Not so interested in bowling as he's done extreme bowling locally...
They'll do Top of the Rock provided I pay for tix

I'd go Thursday - probably more events going on. There are 2 24 hour Starbucks - Union Square and Columbus Circle. Penn and Grand Central stations are always a hoot in the wee hours to people watch, but you could easily walk all night around the Lower East Side, NYU, SoHo and meat district area.

Turns out we are going Thursday (hotel booked)and the friend will fly home from JFK on the Friday night. It'll be a long night!

Isn't the Virgin Records Megastore on Broadway in TS open 24hrs?

I thought that Virgin had closed all their US stores.