There’s no one taste or flavor to define a neighborhood, especially one like the iconic Lower East Side. Explore over 150 years of history through the stories of immigrant and migrant communities and the unique food cultures that defined life in New York City’s tenements through our guided food experiences.
Food experiences are available for individual visitors and private groups.
Make your group visit to the Tenement Museum more memorable with a food experience! Pair your tenement apartment tour with a curated 45-minute program of local tastings. Explore how tenement residents both preserved and adapted the food traditions of their homelands, and how generations of street vendors, restaurateurs, home cooks, and grocers sustained communities while shaping wider ideas of American cuisine and identity.
Explore the importance of small tenement businesses through the stories of Schneider’s saloon, opened by a married couple during the height of the Civil War and an auction house, inherited by Max Marcus during the Great Depression.
After learning about John and Caroline Schneider’s experience operating a lager beer saloon, explore the history of the neighborhood with a taste at a local restaurant. Café Katja, located in the heart of New York City’s Lower East Side, offers contemporary Austrian and American food.
Visit the Levine family’s tenement apartment, where Jennie Levine managed a household and oversaw family finances while her husband ran a garment factory in their front room. Then, learn where and how women organized the Kosher Meat Boycott of 1902, led by women like Jennie, who both divided and united Jewish Lower East Siders.
After learning about the Levines, explore the history of the neighborhood and hear about the vibrant history of pushcart vendors on the Lower East Side, with a stop at The Pickle Guys. The strong Jewish population on the Lower East Side once boasted more than 80 pickle vendors across the city, but the Pickle Guys are the only one that remains today.
Support the power of storytelling by joining as a Tenement Museum member today! Members receive free admission to tours, invites to exclusive events, access to specialty content, and more.
Give the gift of history! Tenement Museum Gift Cards can be used for tour tickets, a new Museum membership, and donations.
The Tenement Museum reserves the right to refuse or revoke the admission of any visitor whose conduct violates our guidelines. Please contact Visitor Services at [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns relating to your visit.
