"I get The New York Times and spend the morning laying in bed reading. Then I get up, take a stroll through Central Park, and go to Harry Cipriani for lunch. You need a jacket for this one, even at lunch. It's really ridiculously expensive. But if you're in New York, I hope you'll shell out a couple of shekels. You're going to get good stuff for your money."

ONE GREAT NIGHT IN NEW YORK

"One night around Christmas 20 years ago, I was doing a recording session at A&R Studios in Hell's Kitchen. We had just finished the session, and my producer and I decided to get some food. It was fairly late at night, and we ran into Paul Simon and Steve Martin at the restaurant. We had a little bit of wine, and then we had a little more wine. Nobody was feeling any pain. We got a brainstorm that we would go back to the studio and record a Christmas record. It must've been about midnight at this point. So we go back to the studio, and Paul Simon and I are singing in the background that Christmas carol 'Silver Bells.' We're harmonizing, and Steve Martin starts into this soliloquy 'What Christmas Means to Me,' with these hysterical descriptions of the secretary sitting on the copying machine, all these very risqué scenarios. And Paul and I are just trying to keep it together. We did this maybe in one take and we had a Christmas single. Now, it was never given to a record company, but there's a copy of it floating around somewhere. Stuff like that happens in New York. It's a small town."

BILLY JOEL'S NEW YORK ESSENTIALS

LODGING
The St. Regis
New York; $490-$11,500
(212) 753-4500

DINING
Bice
Italian; $25-$34
(212) 688-1999

Castellano
Italian; $17-$26
(212) 664-1975

Coco Pazzo
Italian; $17-$40
(212) 794-0205

Da Silvano
Italian; $14-$50