Entertainment

Piper Perabo: My downtown New York

Piper Perabo shimmied her way into the pop zeitgeist as Violet Sanford in 2000’s “Coyote Ugly” — but these days, the East Village resident is better known for her role as CIA operative Annie Walker on USA’s “Covert Affairs,” which returned for a fourth season earlier this month. “The East Village has so many secret places,” says Perabo, 36. “I just feel comfortable there, and I’m never tired of wandering it.” Although she never hangs out at Coyote Ugly on 1st Avenue: “People get super drunk.” This is her downtown New York.

1. Team Gallery, 83 Grand St., at Greene Street

“I like the young artists who they represent. They represent Ryan McGinley, whose photographs I love, love, love. He did naked people with fireworks, which I feel like is sort of his core feeling about life. But they’re always totally naked and usually in a natural landscape. So even though they’re completely modern, they could’ve been taken at any time, because everybody’s naked with no marks, no jewelry, no shoes.”

2. Artichoke Basille’s Pizza, 328 E. 14th St., at Second Avenue

“Oh my God, the crab pizza and the artichoke [pizza] are my favorite. The good thing is the line’s usually a little bit long late at night, so in the time it takes you to stand in the line, you can think, ‘No, no, do you know how much yoga it’s going to take to work off this one slice of pizza?’ So my saving grace with Artichoke is I can usually turn and run in the opposite direction, because I’ve been waiting in the line long enough to talk myself out of it.”

3. Il Buco, 47 Bond St., at Bowery

“The food has always been so delicious, and the sommeliers — although they’ve changed a couple of times since I moved to New York — has always been so strong and so surprising in their recommendations. One of my favorite things is this dessert, [Panna Cotta all’ Aceto Balsamico]. It’s like a cold vanilla cream that has a very tart balsamic reduction on top in this little pot, like a little ramekin. You wouldn’t think cream and vinegar would be the thing you want for dessert, but it tastes amazing.”

4. Tompkins Square Park Dog Run, Ninth Street at Avenue A

“I can’t have a dog, because I travel so much, and I like big dogs. So I like to walk around Tompkins Square Dog Park. I just like all those crazy big dogs playing together. It’s sort of meditative. And Tompkins Square Park is totally insane with weirdos and music and street hockey and the basketball courts. It’s so loud, nobody will notice you. It’s just so nice to walk in circles around the dog park.”

5. Coyote Ugly, 153 First Ave., between 9th and 10th streets

“When we were preparing for the movie all those years ago, I went a bunch before we started shooting. I would sit there on the short end of the bar and watch the girls and listen to the guys and sort of soak in the whole thing. But since the movie, I haven’t gone back, because people get super drunk at Coyote Ugly, and I think it’d be a little confusing if I walked in.”

6. Jack’s Wife Freda, 224 Lafayette St., at Spring Street

“Jack and Freda are the maternal grandparents of [my friend and the owner] Dean Jankelowitz. [Perabo is an investor in the restaurant.] The menu is based on the recipes of [Dean’s] grandmother and his wife Maya’s grandmother. He’s from South Africa, and she’s Israeli. So it’s a combination of South African-Israeli-grandma cuisine. Their wedding photo is hanging over the cash register. They wanted a place where people sit at the tables — you can sit there for as long as you want, and drink your wine and write, and then order some food. Right now, [my favorite dish] is a tie between the rosewater waffles and the lavender yogurt with white grapefruit. Usually when I go for breakfast, I end up getting both.”

7. Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, 125 E. Seventh St., near Avenue A

“As soon as my brothers, friends and I heard [about it], we Googled and went running for the shop. The line was so long that we ended up talking to everybody who had already been there a million times. And they’re saying, ‘You have to get the Bea Arthur. And you have to get the Rue McClanahan,’ and all these hilarious things. If somebody tells me some insane combination they’re getting, I’ll do that, if they seem like a foodie and they might really have a good idea. But the Bea Arthur [vanilla ice cream, dulce de leche and crushed Nilla wafers] is my standard.”

8. Artifacts 20th Century, 125 Crosby St., at Jersey Street

“There’s a furniture store that I love called Artifacts 20th Century. It’s mostly American and Danish, mostly mid-century. They have a lot of textile art, which I’ve gotten really into recently. I like having art you can safely roll up and move to the next apartment — and that also dampens the noise from the neighbors. There’s one I almost bought the last time I was in there. There was this black-and-white abstract Danish that was really big and so easy to love. Ugggh, I should have gotten it. I don’t know why I was being so responsible.”