• Harry’s LIC Bar & Grill at Water Taxi Beach

  2-03 Borden Ave., Long Island City

  If you crave a taste of South Florida without leaving the five boroughs, you could go to Nikki Beach, the cheesy South Beach–based franchise that recently opened in Manhattan. Or you could chill on the 15,000-square-foot beach that New York Water Taxi created last year by dumping 400 tons of fine white New Jersey sand on a Long Island City pier. Okay, there’s a fence around that sand, but come May 27, when the bar reopens for the season, there are picnic tables, a volleyball net, and at night, a bonfire, D.J., and tiki bar reminiscent of an Art Basel after-party. And it’s all just a breezy boat ride from midtown: This is waterfront redevelopment at its finest.

From the 2006 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine