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Manhattan, it's time we stop ignoring the hideously smelly elephant in the room. You stink. In fact, you don't just smell bad, you're the stinkiest borough in all of New York City. According to a recent NY Post analysis, Manhattan beat out all the other boroughs with a record 13,054 odor complaints over the past four years. But hey—Manhattan has much more than unbearably musty subways, stinky sidewalks, spoiled sushi, rotten apple and dead rat stench...and so on. We've got to give credit to some of the Manhattan spots that continue to save us from the brink of suffocation by stank.
Here are five spots we know will leave your nose happy.
- Magnolia Bakery (401 Bleecker St at W 11th St): Even if you don't have a sweet tooth, we recommend you enter Magnolia for temporary stench relief, especially in the mornings when a lot of the goodies have just been baked.
- Chelsea Flower District (75 Ninth Ave between 15th and 16th Sts): It's a bright and breathable marketplace with tons of exotic flowers. Mainly, it's a gigantic space that definitely won't give you a "this wreaks" headache.
- Sigmund's Pretzelshop (27 Ave B between 2nd and 3rd Sts): There's something about the delicious blend of salt, warm bread and butter that just eases the mind. Get a whiff of these pretzels and let your troubles melt away.
- Sabon (various locations); Sabon means soap in Hebrew, and what better way to protect yourself from the scent of hot urine on a humid summer day than walking into a shop that'll make you feel like you just took a fresh shower?
- Harlem Flo Boutique (2276 Frederick Douglass Blvd (Eighth Ave) at 122nd St); There are award-winning floral bouquets to look at here, but we know you're really just in it for the soothing smell of petals.
The most visited borough surprisingly beat out the infamously odorous Staten Island, which Urban Dictionary lovingly describes as the "large garbage dump located south of Manhattan." But if we're keeping it real, no spot in NYC really smells like roses. C'mon, Outkast will tell ya' "Roses really smell like poo poo," anyway. Who needs 'em? Overrated. Plus, between Central Park, tons of amazing museums, the best fashion and way too many other things to list in a mere blog, it's pretty clear why we all deal with the smell.