Welcome to Goings On, our weekly guide to life in New York City. In our centenary issue, we asked writers to share “Only in New York” spots—places you’d miss if they were gone.

On the Upper East Side, Schaller & Weber has served German delicacies since 1937. An elder butcher once greeted customers as “junger Mann,” and today you can taste tongue in aspic and double-smoked bacon.

Église Française du Saint-Esprit has offered free French classes since 1884. Rector Nigel Massey quipped, “I will be holding communion until Christ returns to Earth,” to teach the subjunctive tense.

In Red Hook, Bene Coopersmith’s Record Shop is a vinyl refuge where neighbors gossip, clap along to jazz, and “come join the party.”

On Brighton Beach, Hazel Chatman has turned a public bathroom into a cathedral of posters reminding us, “We all bleed the same.”

That’s this week’s Only in New York. I’m [Host Name]. See you next time.
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