When I was working in the restaurant industry some odd years ago, I relished the time just before opening. Servers and managers went out back to smoke and bitch and I would stand in the dining room looking out over the polished silverware in the fading afternoon light. The room looked like an empty, half-lit stage just before opening night. Wijnanda Deroo’s third solo exhibit, Inside New York Eateries, presently showing at the Robert Mann Gallery, articulates this moment in a photo series that documents New York’s culinary institutions as they sit empty, before the evening’s cast has taken a seat. Along with views of Milon and the Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant—all standing eerily silent—the series also captures beloved, now-shuttered venues.

The holiday season means higher-than-usual tourist density in New York City, and naturally, that spike in traffic is due in no small part to your own eager friends and family, who descend on the city for an authentic, fairy-lighted experience of the Big Apple in winter. But after a day at Macy's, an evening at Rockefeller Center, and a dinner somewhere "New York-y," as per their request, where do you, their trusty tour guide by default, take them for a night on the town? Here are a few crowd-pleasers that will still earn you some street cred, whether that crowd involves your boyfriend's distant Uncle Larry, Mom and Dad, long-lost friends who've emerged from the woodwork, hard-to-impress rubberneckers, or your old high school mates. A comprehensive list of the best yuletide boîtes to celebrate the new year - and the best of NYC.

Where to find the most authentic shucking in town

New York's worst attractions and better ideas.

We spent a pleasant Saturday at the 'Roo under blue skies and only a moderate amount of mud and standing water. Right in the middle of some dedicated people-watching, when we thought life couldn't possibly get any better, we snagged a few treasured minutes with Chris Keating, lead singer of Brooklyn-based band Yeasayer, and Gregg Gillis, the sometimes controversial mash-up DJ known as Girl Talk. Gregg attracted a monstrous crowd for his 2:30 a.m. set on Friday night, and Yeasayer, directly followed by MGMT, filled the house and killed it at their late-night Saturday show. Luckily for those in attendance, they threw in a few very catchy tracks from their soon-to-be-released album. MGMT followed suit, and although every single one of the festival's pseudo hippies/wannabe hipsters was there to pay tribute, no one was feeling their new tunes.

Just in time for Valentine's Day, award-winning food critic Robb Walsh rolls out a thorough history of oysters. You could say he's more than just a casual fan -- he eats them every morning in a a scrambled-egg dish called Hangtown Fry. Every morning! I love oysters, but they aren't on my mind when I wake up. Going to bed is another matter, nyuk nyuk. Anyway, Walsh's Sex, Death & Oysters: A Half-Shell Lover's World Tour is an exhaustive but pleasurable take on five-year global trek in the name of oyster research, from plump Blue Points to briny Chincoteagues. From Texas to London to New York's Grand Central Oyster Bar, Walsh wrings out a definitive primer on the subject while dispelling myths and offering recipes and valuable shucking tips. Plus there's a whole lot of advice, like what drinks pair well with particular oysters.

The annual Oyster Frenzy is upon us again. This Saturday, join chefs Peter Fu of St. George, Staten Island, and Anthony Walton of The Boathouse in Central Park, as they slurp, shuck and suck oysters at the all day Oyster event in Grand Central Oyster Bar. Hosted by Fine Living’s Stephen Phillips, it will be a veritable cornucopia of oysters: cooking demos, 16 varieties of oysters to taste, and a frenzied Professional Oyster Shucking Contest at 1pm, to be followed with a Beer Shucking Competition at 2:35pm. And for those who like to get sloppy with it, there is a “Slurp-Off,” open to anyone who wants to down a dozen as fast as possible. The prize—12 oysters in your belly.