Manhattan is a nice place to visit, not to buy food

On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Fairway Market is offering wild salmon fillet for $39.99 a pound, two to three times what the fish will cost when it appears in a few weeks at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. 

Organic garlic from Peru, left, and organic bananas are displayed on the second floor of the Manhattan store, along with many other organic items. The upper level also has a cafe and steakhouse, but the public bathrooms are on a hard-to-find third level.

On Saturday, conventional Calimyrna Figs were $6.99 for 12 ounces at Fairway Market, compared to a 40-ounce bag of organically grown Calimyrna Figs for $10.99 from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. The Manhattan store is the first and smallest Fairway Market, which has an outpost in Paramus.

Red snapper from New Zealand ($11.99 a pound) trying to look cool at Citarella, the gourmet market next door to Fairway on Broadway in Manhattan. The two food stores occupy the entire block between 74th and 75th streets.

Part of the fish counter at Citarella, which had lower prices than Fairway for wild salmon ($34.99) and boned shad fillet ($6.49). Both stores offer far more variety in seafood than Costco Wholesale, and Fairway not only offers the Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix you'll find at Costco, but other salads from the California-based organic grower you won't find in the warehouse store, including baby arugula and kale. 

The Ansonia on Broadway is a former hotel that occupies the entire block between 73rd and 74th streets, above and below.

The ornate, 110-year-old building has both condominiums and apartments.

Caruso, Toscanini, Stravinsky and Ziegfeld lived there.