Rivington St, Lower East Side

I love Rivington as far as things to do and living off of Rivington is great as far as my sister says. There are tons of great restaurants, shops, bars, galleries, etc. But, it's one of the busier streets in the LES so I don't think I'd want to live on it. It's a little loud and all of the bigger streets in the neighborhood converge onto Rivington so there's all kinds of traffic and punk hipsters at every turn.
Rivington starts out in a very Lower East Side fashion, in my opinion. The first block of the street houses an AIDS facility, an art gallery and a French restaurant. If you don't know what neighborhood you're in from a block like that, you don't know New York . . .kidding . . sorta.
The next block houses University Settlement Houses. It was built to bring University graduates to live in the low income part of town as a social work. I don't understand that at all, but what do I know. There's also a church on this street directly across from a synagogue (typical New York) and a couple of restaurants next to both of them (also typical New York).
Once you get to Rivington and Allen, it's pretty much all eateries and apartments. The apartments pretty much consist of the former tenement buildings cum kind of expensive units that are typical of the neighborhood in general. The next block has eateries mixed in with another church and more than two sex / fetish shops. I will say that two of the restaurants on this block are great even if you don't want to fetish shop afterward. 'Inoteca is a fantastic Italian joint with a great brunch and Moby owned teany has great vegan pastries and I'm not even vegan.
Once you cross Ludlow, there's another great restaurant / bar called Spitzers. They have community style tables, great burgers and great beer. But, Spitzers isn't even the best of this block -- Ludlow and Rivington is probably my favorite part of Rivington. There's a giant candy store called Economy Candy, a bar called Verlaine that has an endless Martini list with a really happening happy hour, a fantastic Puerto Rican restaurant, and another bar called Fat Baby. If you're hungry or want a cocktail, this is the block to hit on Rivington. You really can't go wrong here.
The block past Essex is the typical Lower East Side resident's dream: it's almost entirely booze. There's a bar called Essex, a bar called The Magician, a wine store, a liquor store, a Mexican joint, and one of my favorite spots in the city: Welcome to the Johnsons. Welcome is one of the divest of dive bars and I love it. It's old and dirty and one of the bartenders is one of my best friends. This is one of the few places in the city where I have emerged from the place and it's already light outside. Not one of my proudest moments but definitely one of my most memorable.
Across Norfolk . . .you guessed it, another great bar. Schiller's isn't my favorite place in even the neighborhood, food-wise, but you hardly care when you're here. Schiller's a great spot to grab an appetizer and drinks with friends and I don't even care that it's one of Keith McNally's places. I love it.
Across Suffolk, there's more food and booze, but I don't ever go to these places for some reason. The bakery smells fantastic though. Oh, if you're a guy that loves sneakers, though, there's a place called Alfie Rivington on this block that you have to hit, apparently.
Once you get past Attorney, it's pretty much residential and predominantly public housing at that. So, I think I've only walked down this far twice in my life. I suggest the same approach for everyone else. It's kind of scary.