Village geography is as nonconformist as its residents. En route, take a few detours into cross streets. There's plenty of excitement here. Once an industrial and artists' enclave, SoHo is now filled with trendy restaurants and shops. Tuesday through Friday tend to be quiet.
Nothing much opens before noon.
This area has outgrown its original boundaries to become, along with Battery Park , one of the city's most rapidly changing areas. There is still a sense of frontier in TriBeCa, though it has become the city's hottest address for new restaurants. The Lower East Side is roughly a rectangle defined by Houston Street on the north, Bowery on the west, and the East River to the east and south. The area seems as hurly-burly and rundown as ever, except now Latinos and Asians have begun moving into what was once known as the city's Jewish quarter. Visitors flock here from all over the country for discount shopping on Orchard Street.