With the heat of the sun beating down on Lower Manhattan, I find myself looking for somewhere to cool off and indulge myself. Over the last two weeks, the Downtown team has had an amazing opportunity to visit shops all over Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs. Here’s a look at each of our favorite desserts from some of the best spots that we visited; we’ve got something for everyone to enjoy!
Hear me out when I say that ice cream is extraordinarily tastier on a warm, buttery bun. This sandwich is like no other; it consists of cold vanilla ice cream that is served on what is typically one of Ed’s signature lobster buns (just without the lobster). The dessert is then covered in little bits of shredded chocolate and chocolate sauce and is sure to help you beat the heat. Ed’s has been serving this signature dish since the shop opened, so they definitely have it perfected.
Ed’s Lobster Bar is located at 222 Lafayette St. Be sure to check them out for a unique treat you won’t soon forget!
These fresh little donut balls are the perfect dessert after grabbing brunch at Egg Shop. These warm, delectable pieces of dough are filled with confetti cake and taste unbelievably good. Each individual Brunchkin tastes like a carnival in your mouth! Not to mention they’ll make your wallet feel good since they’re only $6!
Egg Shop is in Chinatown at 151 Elizabeth St. You won’t regret checking out these bite-sized miracles!
The mastermind behind this beautiful dessert is Darryl Harmon. Harmon is an award-winning celebrity chef and is the executive chef for The Lure Group, which includes NYC’s Clinton Hall, Slate, West End Hall, and RFTP.
Clinton Hall was already known for their WTF Waffles, but this collaboration with Stuffed Ice Cream is surely the most beautiful and Instagrammable dessert-creation of all time. Stacked high with two waffles, four flavors of ice cream and a donut ice cream sandwich, this dessert is a miraculous work of genius. The ice cream flavors include Stuffed Snickerdoodle, Cookie Monster, Red Velvet Cookie Dough, and Ferrero Rocher and are topped with an ice cream cone on top to complete the aesthetic.
Flex Mussels specializes in a variety of amazing seafood entrees and appetizers. What many people don’t know is that they also offer some of New York City’s greatest donuts. Offering a variety of flavors from Smores to Fluffernutter (a combination of marshmallow and peanut butter), Flex Mussels only charges $10 to add four of these gooey, sugary delights to your dinner.
You can find Flex Mussels located at their Downtown or Upper-Eastside location!
Covered in everything from fruity pebbles to Oreo crumbles, “Julian’s Sundae,” which was designed by Jake’s 9-year-old nephew, is stand-out dessert on the menu of this amazing Italian restaurant. The waffle is easily pulled-apart and makes for the perfect spoon for scooping the mountain of whipped cream and chocolate ice cream.
Aunt Jake’s has two locations. One on Mulberry Street and one on 8th Street. To make a reservation, be sure to check out their website!
At the age of 6, Dylan Lauren set her sights on opening the modern-day equivalent of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, and in 2001, she fulfilled her dream by opening Dylan’s Candy Bar, which grew to be the largest candy emporium in the world. Dylan gave Downtown some tips for an Easter tablescape, egg hunt, basket, and more!
Tips for Making an Easter Tablescape
Photo Courtesy of Dylan’s Candy Bar
Easter is a special time of celebration with family and friends, and I love to make my guests feel special with personal touches. I love to create place settings with name tags that also double as party favors, and of course I incorporate sweets, such as mini chocolate bunnies or the perennial favorite, Peeps. To add a whimsical touch, I station a large chocolate bunny as the centerpiece, and usually by the end of the festivities, an ear or two may be missing due to the chocolate lovers in the room. In addition to decorating with confections, florals help bring the season indoors. Elegant touches like cherry blossom branches in a tall vase, fresh tulips in an Easter basket, or vintage ceramic bunnies on a mantel are the perfect finishing details.
Making the Perfect Easter Basket
Photo Courtesy of Dylan’s Candy Bar
I typically include traditional Easter treats in all the holiday festivities, whether they be as decor on my tablescape, as treats in my gift baskets, or as prizes in my esteemed Easter egg hunt. With delectable chocolate creme eggs and bunnies, you can’t go wrong!
Whatever treats I choose, I make sure they are bright and colorful. It’s no secret that I love color. If you look in my store, the hues of the rainbow are everywhere. Therefore, I go for the foiled wrap chocolate goodies since they come in bright blues, purples, pinks, greens and gold.
I also always include a novelty product. We sell so many at Dylan’s Candy Bar that it’s hard to choose just one! Top sellers include a mini surprise egg, an apothecary jar filled to the brim with gummies and chocolate, and a paint can with on-theme sweets.
For those celebrating Passover, we have fun takes on classic traditions, such as mini Matzos, a dark chocolate seder plate, “Ten Plagues Passover Finger Puppets,” Milk Chocolate Passover Ungapotchkies and more. If you celebrate both Easter and Passover, include these items in baskets to give a nod to both holidays.
Throw the Best Egg Hunt Ever
Photo Courtesy of Dylan’s Candy Bar
Keep Score With Color
If you’ve ever been to one of my stores, the first thing that catches your eye is a splash of bright colors. To rainbow-ify your hunt this year, come up with a points system for mini foiled chocolate eggs that you can hide in plastic eggs. Each color has a different value (ex: gold is 1 point, blue is 2 points, pink is 3 points, etc.), and the participant with the highest score at the end is the winner. You can hide the more valuable eggs in harder-to-find places for an extra challenge – totally worth the hunt!
Put a Spin on Prizes
Since you’re bound to find chocolate bunnies and foiled chocolate eggs in any traditional Easter egg hunt, I like to mix in nonedible prizes for the kids to collect (that are just as sweet!) One of the biggest hits was making coupons for family friendly activities and meaningful experiences you can tuck into plastic eggs for the kids to redeem later. Whether it’s a coupon to have ice cream for dinner or host a slumber party for friends, the excitement from Easter will linger on. It also doesn’t hurt to have an Easter Bunny costume contest. Not only will it layer in another fun aspect of the party, but the photos will be some of the best!
Photo Courtesy of Dylan’s Candy Bar
But Have Them for Everyone
Although the crux of any good Easter Egg Hunt is the competition aspect, it’s important to make sure everyone is happy and fulfilled at the end. In the days leading up to Easter Sunday, work on making prizes with your kids that all hunters can take home afterwards. Whether it’s making a homemade holiday card, or something more intricate like cookie decorating and Easter egg basket making, everyone is sure to leave with a smile on their face. And this activity also provides some special, one-on-one time with your bundles of joy, so who doesn’t love that?
Treat the Adults Too
While the kids hop into the Easter egg hunt, there’s no reason the adults can’t have their own celebration. Prepare a spread of spring treats, cocktails, and mocktails for everyone to enjoy while watching the action unfold – I love making Dirt Cake with an Easter twist, and everyone goes crazy over my candy cocktails. Once the hunt is over, the young ones can join in on the snacking – and enjoy an age appropriate treat by making their own version of Dylan’s Candy Bar’s Easter Peeps Shake! See the at-home recipe here.
Our favorite source of sweetness Dylan’s Candy Bar is now open on the fourth floor at the breathtaking new Hudson Yards development. In advance of their new store launch, we talked to regional visual manager Dina Rodrigues about setting up shop, what they’re excited about, and what being in Hudson Yards means for Dylan’s.
Dylan Lauren attends The Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards Vip Grand Opening Event Red Carpet Arrivals on March 14, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Related)
Downtown: What does a visual manager do?
Dina Rodrigues: Really my role is to take Dylan’s vision and create it, bring it to life. I create the displays and the moments that when you walk into the stores as a customer really wow you in the way that Dylan hopes all of our customers feel when they walk into any of our locations. A lot of Dylan’s vision is to inspire creativity, really getting at the inner child, and that’s what we try to do in terms of displays. We create that magic without necessarily having a sales associate walk you through it holding your hand, it’s really creating that magic without anyone having to tell you.
Downtown: How does one get to do that with candy?
DR: Honestly, I fell into it. When I was around 16 years old I started working at The Gap and I fell in love with doing merchandising in terms of apparel. I knew somebody who had worked at Dylan’s Candy Bar and told me, “you need to do this, you would be so good at it.” So I went from folding and merchandising jeans to the candy world and I’ve loved it ever since I’ve got here.
Downtown: What’s it like working with candy?
DR: People always look at it as Dylan’s Candy Bar, it’s just a candy store, it’s just gummy bears, your job can’t be that hard, but it’s so much more when you get here. It really is a lifestyle. We have apparel, we have bags, we have so many items, so what’s really great and challenging from my perspective and for my visual team is being able to create this lifestyle with it. So taking a Candy Spill Robe and being able to decide that as a gift you could put this with a pre filled gummy bear or you could do all these different things mixing in different textures of apparel and candy and bags and jewelry and really just playing off these bigger ideas of what you can do with candy.
Downtown: What are you most excited about with the new store?
DR: With Hudson Yards, the location is gorgeous. Our store literally faces the Hudson; you can see Hoboken on any clear day. It’s beautiful, and what’s really great is that we’ve been setting up for a week now and everyone is excited that we’re going to be there. We’re taking in shipments, bringing them from the loading dock at street level to our store on the fourth floor, and what we’ve seen is we’ll bring up our shipment and we’ll pass our fellow retailers or other construction workers and they’ll see Pez or they’ll see oh my god you have this or that, I haven’t seen this candy in a long time. They’re getting excited about it without our store being open, and it’s just so satisfying to know that we matter in the retail business. People get excited about these things, and we’re going to experience that in a new location.
The other thing with Hudson Yards is there’s a lot of luxury. There’s every brand that you can think of; the whole first floor is your Prada, your Tory Burch, Tiffany’s, everyone is down there and to be amongst those retailers is so exciting. We get to kind of showcase what we have to offer in terms of how you can turn candy from “I need a little snack from my desk, let me grab some Swedish Fish” to your corporate gift. How can we expand this and make it so much bigger and grander? I don’t want to say that people don’t necessarily think of us that way, but I think for people who are not aware of our brand they get so amazed. It’s really broadening our audience within Manhattan. Everyone has been super excited that we’re there, and they’re waiting for us to open so I’m very, very excited for the launch.
Downtown: What candies should we look out for at the Hudson Yards location?
DR: Dylan was very adamant about what the assortment contained, and we definitely have the best of the best. It’s not our flagship, so it’s not three floors, but we did make sure it’s the best of the best. We do have our full nostalgia section, we have our Chocolate Wall, we have our new Gold Collection, which is a beautiful black and gold fixture. We have all of that at the location and we really went big with the best of our Easter items.
Downtown: How important are trends for Dylan’s?
DR: You know, you always want to have your finger on the pulse of what’s going on out there. You have to stay relevant in retail, so it’s very important. We’re always looking for what’s new and what’s different, that’s really the most important part. You see all these commercials about products like Kinder Eggs and this is that and that’s important that we have it in our assortment, but we also want to be two steps ahead of it and that’s really what our Gold Collection did. We really took our time and sourced candy from around the world. These are things that you aren’t going to see at your drug store or any other type of candy retailer. We want to have that balance of having unique and interesting items while still being on trend so you can go shopping for yourself as an adult and get sophisticated candies from our Gold Collection, for example, and you can bring your five year old who wants the Kinder Egg he saw in the commercial. We kind of try to broaden it out for everybody, so it is important.
Downtown: How important is social media to Dylan’s Candy Bar?
DR: We are in such a social media heavy environment as a nation and as a world so we always we want to make sure that our social media is really focusing on what we are looking at and what we are really focusing on in the store. We want to have that connection that if we showcase an item on our social media page on our Instagram or Twitter that that’s what the customer is going to see when they walk into the store. For me, if I know our social media director is really focusing on the Gold Collection or our truffles, I want to make sure that all of my stores are going to showcase that as one of the first things so customers aren’t looking for it, they aren’t searching for it.
The last thing you want is for a customer to come into the store and look for something they saw on Instagram and not be able to find it anywhere because, just the way that retail in general works, that customer won’t stop and ask the sale’s associate or manager about what they saw on Instagram, they’ll look for it and if they don’t see it right away they’re going to walk out and that’s the last thing we want to do. We want to make sure that if we’re focusing on something on our social media that we are also focusing on it in the store and that it is present for the customer so there are no questions about it.
Downtown: What products could you never take off the shelves?
DR: There are so many ways I could answer. Every season has its hero item, so that’s always important. Right now we’re getting ready for Easter, and our hero item is 100% our Chocolate and Vanilla the bunny plush. Our bigger stores do have Chocolate the bunny who greets you when you walk into the store. We carry both Chocolate and his sister Vanilla year round, they are brother and sister, but it’s really Easter time when they get showcased. So this time of year as stores were getting their transfer orders of Easter products I had to make sure everyone has bunnies everywhere because we want to showcase this item.
In terms of everyday, there’s two items that I really think I use in almost every display. One of them is our signature hat box, and it’s just an empty vessel. It’s a hat box, if you remember from the ‘80s when that was a big deal, it has our signature stripe on the sides and it comes in two sizes: there’s the small, which then has the black top, and then the large that has a turquoise top. The reason why I love that item so much is it just kind of goes back to the idea that you can gift anything at Dylan’s Candy Bar and it creates that sensibility that, okay it’s a fillable or it’s a chocolate bar, I’m just going to hand it to somebody, but you can make it so much more, and I think doing it in a hat box as opposed to our shopping bag with tissue paper just elevates a gift so much. Again, it just becomes that silent sale’s associate, so when you add it to a display it just kind of entices customers to say, “Oh, I can do this, I can make my own,” which is so important to what we do.
The other item that I love and I don’t think I could ever, ever take off the shelf, and it’s in every single store assortment, is our signature chocolate wheel. It’s just all of our signature candies in a wheel, little bite sizes of it. It’s such a great gift, we always call it our sharable gift, so when offices call and say they need something that’s chocolate and that’s sharable it’s our go to item. It’s just a visually stunning item. It sits in our chocolate wall, which is a brown wall that has chocolate drip and so much going on and so many other visual elements, and that’s the one item that always sticks out. I think that speaks such volumes, there are so many great things going on and then you have this one little circle that just takes everything away. It’s one of my favorite items, it’s all of our signature bars, so it’s little squares of our milk chocolate, s’mores, almond and other flavors, you get six squares of each of our signature bars.
Downtown: What are some of your favorite candies?
DR: We just introduced back our dirt balls, which was one of my favorites and then they went away for a little and now they’re back. It is a cookie crumble malt ball almost, it’s so good. I also love our OMGS, specifically the vanilla. They are crushed up graham crackers with almonds dipped in chocolate, we have a peanut butter based one. They are just absolutely delicious. Starburst are an oldie but a goodie, and everyone makes fun of me for eating them, everything except the orange, I do not like the orange one. I remember when I used to get two pinks I was like, “Okay, today’s going to be a good day guys.”
Downtown: How do you decide what to put together? Are you looking for color, texture, or flavor more?
DR: It’s kind of a combination. When we do any type of display, we try to keep the flavor profile similar, really more like chocolate items always together versus non chocolate items. Then it’s kind of a mix of if you love a biscuit tin here’s also these chocolate dipped crack cookies, for example, and we would merchandise something like that together. The packaging is very similar so you want to pay attention to what the packaging looks like. There is kind of a sense of just flavor profiles, so if this customer likes this they will also like this. Unfortunately, I have a terrible habit of trying everything. You just want to have an idea of what everything tastes like! Also for my role, and what I think is very helpful, is I love to actually be in the store and just see and talk to customers and see what they react to, what they like, and how they shop. All of our locations obviously have a different customer, and they all react differently, so it’s just important to see what they’re looking for. That’s a lot of how I build a display as well, taking that into consideration.
When we open up Hudson Yards, besides it being a beautiful complex, I will definitely spend a lot of time there just to see how people are shopping because there is kind of this unknown with Hudson Yards, if it’s going to be more of a tourist destination or it’s going to be more locals and the businesses that are close by. I personally think that it’s going to be a combination, and a lot of corporate business are moving in to Hudson Yards or are already there, and I think we’re going to get a lot of business. We’re going to have a great opportunity to really showcase what we can do as a company and what we have to offer to those businesses. I also think you’re going to have people who are going to the observatory deck or just walking the mall and are going to lose their minds because you walk in, we’re a corner store and you see all of our bulk against one side of the glass. You see our lollipop tree, you see all these iconic pieces to Dylan’s Candy Bar, and it’s just going to be this wow moment, so I think we are going to have a great combination, it will be very interesting to see.
Downtown: How do you keep sugar interesting?
DR: You know, I always say you can never be upset when you work with candy. It’s just mixing things up, trying new ideas. I think again, going back to how customers shop, you get a lot of inspiration from customers, just talking to them and seeing what they’re looking for. If they’re looking for one thing and they also pick something else that maybe I would have never thought of merchandising together and it kind of prompts a new task of let’s try it, let’s see and maybe it resonates with somebody else as well.
Downtown: What other Dylan’s projects are you excited about?
DR: Treat Yourself is something that we’ve been working on. It is a collaboration that we did with Whole Foods. We are featured in a bunch of Whole Foods across the country. I think what’s interesting about that program is I think that there is a negative connotation when you think of candy, you know it’s diabetes, it’s sugar, it’s going to rot your teeth, it’s all these things and everything in moderation is fine, you know we should say that because everyone should be able to indulge a little bit, but with Treat Yourself it really looks at allergens and healthier options to candy so you can indulge a little bit and not feel as guilty. We have had our bulk items, so you can scoop them and put them in your bag and take them home, but we have also created these “good to go” bags, so we have them in chocolate and regular gummy and we are now going to introduce them in Treat Yourself. It kind of just takes it to another level, you can be health conscious and you can not worry about calories or sugar and still have fun with your candy. I love to sample that program because every time people taste it they’re like, “Ugh it doesn’t have milk in it, it’s going to be disgusting,” then they try it and go back for a whole handful.
DR: We launched that at the end of December with great results so far. There are four tiers to everything, so we have these little guys called tiny treasures and they’re all gummy based. They’re all just very interesting different types of gummies, so we have a mojito gummy, gummies that are in the shape of Eiffel Towers, gummies from Spain and from all over Europe. Then we have truffles, and then we have our classic bites, which are just elevated versions of bulk candy but you will never see it in our bulk walls. Lastly, we have duos which brings together a pairing of very interesting candy.
Today marks a particularly sweet Sweet 16, as the popular candy store, Dylan’s Candy Bar celebrates 16 years of sweetening the lives of those around it.
And how are they celebrating, you might ask? In the sweetest way, they know how; by paying it forward.
By Jessica Biel
The birthday bash tonight will feature candy mosaics designed by celebrities as such Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba and Michael Strahan, to name a few.
These candy mosaics will then be auctioned off. The full sales from each mosaic will benefit charities of each celebrities’ choice.
“We wanted to commemorate our “Sweet 16″ in a fun and meaningful way: working with talent from the worlds of art, fashion and pop culture, who embody the spirit of Dylan’s Candy Bar, to ultimately inspire and awaken the creative spirit and inner-child in others,” Lauren explained.
Back in 2001, Dylan Lauren opened up the doors to her first candy store on Third Ave. in NYC. But she started dreaming up the sweets shop long before.
“When I was 6 years old, I knew I wanted to open the modern-day equivalent of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory,” Lauren said.
Photo: Mike Coppola, Getty Images
“I have been a lifelong candy lover, even comparing myself to an everlasting gobstopper in my college admittance essays, and with my father in the fashion industry, I knew my mission was to create the world’s largest candy store that merged the worlds of fashion, art and pop culture with candy,” she added.
And so she did. With vibrant decór, colorful touches, beyond mouthwatering sweets, and fun collaborations with Terez, Mean Girls and The Mindy Project, Lauren has made life sweeter for so many throughout the past 16 years. And that deserves a big hurrah!
Charities and Candies
That the Sweet 16 comes with a charitable component is no surprise. Lauren is always looking to give back. Dylan’s Candy BarN has long supported animal organizations by hosting fundraising events, encouraging adoption, assisting rescue efforts and highlighting the value of formal pet training and proper pet care.
Additionally, Lauren became involved with Heifer International earlier this year, where she went with them to Ecuador.
“Here, I saw first-hand how the organization helped Heifer farmers lift themselves out of poverty and hunger by providing tools and agricultural training. After being so inspired by my trip, Dylan’s Candy Bar will be releasing a special edition Heifer International chocolate bar that will benefit the organization next year,” Lauren revealed.
By Ralph Lauren
However, first up are the candy mosaics for the sweet 16 birthday celebration, and Lauren couldn’t be any more excited.
“Every participant created stunning pieces of art, and I’m thrilled that each one will benefit a worthy cause,” she explained.
“From our work with Dylan’s Candy BarN and most recently with Heifer International, charity has always been important to Dylan’s Candy Bar, and it’s fantastic to see everyone come together to celebrate art and creativity, all while benefiting these amazing charities,” she added.
A sweet future
As always, a birthday is both for looking back – and looking ahead. And it looks like the future will be just as bright and sweet as the past.
“As we’re celebrating the past 16 sweet years, I’m also excited to look ahead to what’s next for the company, from international expansion to more fun partnerships,” Lauren said.
International expansion? Why yes! Dylan’s Candy Bar is going abroad.
“After 16 years in the U.S. and millions of international tourists visiting our flagship stores over the years, we’re ready to bring Dylan’s Candy Bar to the rest of the globe. We have our sights set first on the Middle East, with plans to expand to Canada, U.K. and Asia in the coming years,” she said.
Happy birthday, dear Dylan’s Candy Bar. We can’t wait to taste… We mean, see what’s next!
Check out the mosaics, full list of participants and how to bid here.
This week on Monday, June 26, the beloved Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling turned 20. The first book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” was released in 1997, and incited 20 years of magic, friendship and Butterbeer.
If you can’t make it to London this week to celebrate with a tour of the Warner Bros. studio or to Florida for a traipse through Diagon Alley at Universal Orlando, you may still be able to find solace here in New York City. Downtown’s looked into the beyond to find five places in NYC that channel serious Harry Potter vibes. These are the next best thing to Hogwarts, Hogsmeade or the Forbidden Forest. Muggles: it’s time to grab ‘yer broomstick and go.
One of NYC’s often-forgotten-about gems is this branch of The Met museum located in northern Manhattan in Fort Tryon Park, overlooking the Hudson River. This museum, dedicated to medieval artwork, artifacts and architecture, conjures up some serious images of Hogwarts.
The sweeping grounds overlooking the churning river brings a taste of the Scottish Highlands, where many landscape scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed, to New York. Peek around the ornate columns of the centuries-old cloisters and you’ll expect to see an ecstatic Hermione rushing through a Hogwarts courtyard with a ramble-shank Crookshanks in tow.
Or, peer into the gallery which houses the famous Unicorn in Captivity tapestry, whichmarks one of the entrances to the Room of Requirement in the “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” film. The whole place has a castle-like feel to it, and you’ll be smitten with the Hogwarts-esque landscapes.
Fred and George Weasley’s over-the-top joke shops are part of a fantasy world, but Dylan’s Candy Bar is 100% real. Unlike Harry, you don’t need a permission slip to visit the village sweetshop (see book three, for the stress-inducing struggle of making it to Hogsmeade).
Waltz on over to the ever-colorful and waggish Dylan’s Candy Bar where you can purchase the sweets of your dreams. Selections of gummies, sours, chocolates and sweets of all kinds line the walls.
The candy is even in the floor. Sounds pretty magical to us.
Throughout the series, Harry and his lackeys spent a lot of time at a few different magical eateries and hangouts: The Three Broomsticks, Hog’s Head and The Leaky Cauldron (that’s in London). NYC now has its own version of a wizarding world dive: a Harry Potter-themed pasta restaurant.
The pasta bistro in Williamsburg is decorated with candles, chandeliers, books lining the walls and even a Sorting Hat. They serve organic, healthy and customizable pastas like spaghetti and “Magic Meatballs.” However, unlike those in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, the plates and goblets don’t magically clear themselves.
This is NYC’s very own miniature Hogwarts. Belvedere Castle is one of the five visitor centers in Central Park and, from the top, boasts one of the best views in the park. This mystical structure, nestled among the trees and greenery of the park landscape, feels otherworldly in the city. While we’re still waiting for our Hogwarts acceptance letters, no pass is required to visit this charming castle. Enter at 79th Street and journey mid-park to experience the spell-binding views.
For those who always rooted for Harry, Ron and Hermione to venture into the Restricted Section of the library, this room may offer a certain air of intrigue. The historic space reopened in October after a two-year restoration period and now serves as a gathering place for a community of students, teachers, readers and scholars.
If you’re looking for a quiet place to read (or re-read) a favorite book in the series, make your way to the New York Public Library to experience this beautiful room with its soaring ceilings and bewitching lights. No invisibility cloak required.
