As Andy Warhol put it, living in New York City gives people real incentives to want things that nobody else wants. Like, for instance, a collection of late-19th-century abalone shell buttons chronicling railroad development in France. At Tender Buttons (143 East 62nd St., near Lexington Ave.), you'll find everything from the practical (that is, 400 different models of blazer buttons) to the extravagant.
Named after Gertrude Stein's legendary culinary essay, Tender Buttons is a narrow, ivy-cloaked store stacked with box upon box of the world's most imaginative and historically significant buttons, from the jewel-encrusted to the nautical to the George Washington inaugural (at $1,200, no less). Hand-classified into categories like material, period and subject, its museum-like collection is nothing short of mesmerizing.
A few blocks from Tender Buttons, you'll find another hidden gem worth checking out. Founded in 1901 in a refurnished carriage house, the Society of Illustrators (128 East 63rd St., between Park and Lexington Aves.) features work from the greatest names in American illustration, from Chris Van Allsburg to Jules Feiffer to our own Dr. Suess. If you make your visit Tuesday or Thursday, head upstairs between 6:30-9:30 p.m. to the bar with your sketchbook for live jazz and models who appear "nude with an occasional accessory."
Speaking of which, while you're in town, you might start thinking about that measly hat collection of yours. Chances are, it pales in comparison to what milliner Ryan Wilde serves up at his Williamsburg boutique Tria, where exotic materials like coral and quail wings call themselves hats alongside less-decadent basics like fedoras, cadet caps and derbies. (Ryan Wilde Millinery, 135 Grand St.). Whatever you find you're sure not to find elsewhere. A Ryan Wilde chapeau is not just any old hat. It's a handmade, one-of-a-kind, sculpture of whimsy, maybe only on par with the company it keeps, provided by Georgia Varidakis and Valerie Bowers the other parts of the Tria trio. Varidakis, a jewelry designer, constructs earrings and rings out of old watch parts while Bowers expertly curates an impressive collection of vintage regalia.
After leaving Tria, take a quick look around Williamsburg and head back to Manhattan for a dinner of details. At Flex Mussels (174 E. 82nd St, between 3rd and Lexington avenues), you'll taste everything from chorizo to star anise to country ham. Furnished with oil paintings from mussel-heaven Prince Edward Island, this eatery dishes out mussels steamed twenty-three different ways and a good selection of Quebec beers to match.
