This place stinks — literally.
New York City is home to one of the most nose-tickling range of scents known to man. Some are good (baking bread), some are baffling (maple syrup?) and others are enough to make you wish your schnoz could be magically shorn from your face (the inside of any subway-station elevator will do it).
On the pleasant side of things, the Museum of Arts and Design is currently offering “The Art of Scent: 1889-2012,” an odor-based exhibition that allows visitors to whiff 12 famous perfumes from history, including Jicky, the first to blend synthetic and natural ingredients, as well as the classic Chanel No. 5.
The exhibit’s curator, Chandler Burr, is an author and fragrance expert whose nose is as valuable to his career as J.Lo’s booty is to hers. So what odors does he find most interesting in Gotham? This is his smelly New York.
1. My mom’s apartment, 79th Street, at Park Avenue
“First, clean everything to spotlessness. Then, decorate the place with a tasteful cream-fabric-sisal-carpet-antique-wood elegance. Then, add the olfactory elements: MacBook; bittersweet chocolate; Eau des Merveilles, which Hermès commissioned from olfactory artist Ralf Schwieger in 2003; Lipstick Rose, which Frédéric Malle commissioned from Ralf; lemon; washed fabric; YSL makeup; Crème de la Mer.”
2. Pedestrian tunnels near Wollman Rink, Central Park
“The scent is strongest and richest in summer. It’s humidity, plus stone, plus asphalt, plus car exhaust, and all the other crap in the air. It’s just a terrific smell — insanely New York.”
3. Murray’s Cheese Shop, 254 Bleecker St., at Cornelia Street
“My God. Amazing. Beyond. Like a ripe European soccer team changing in the locker room after a hard game.”
4. Canal Street, between Mulberry and Mott streets
“I hate to be cliché, and you saw this coming, but Chinatown’s Chinatown. This block is, depending where you’re standing, the raw fish, the lacquered duck, the steamed rice, the mandarin orange, the rotting something, the cement of the sidewalk . . . I really like it. I lived in China, and olfactorily, if not visually or aurally, this is pretty much the real deal.”
5. La Colombe Coffee, 270 Lafayette St., between Prince and Jersey streets
“My buddy Jon Bresler [the owner of scent store Lafco] and I walk to La Colombe, where we don’t hang out because it’s irritatingly hipsters-er-than-thou, but where we get the Jon Bresler Special — that’s what they call it. It’s four shots of caffeine in iced latte format. They hand it to you without the plastic top. Lean over and smell the coffee and milk.”
6. Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway stop, Coney Island
“My favorite smell perhaps in the world is the smell of the ocean mixed with the smell of New York City. The Rome-plus-ocean is also great, but not as gritty as New York; there’s a huge amount of grit in the New York ocean version. When the doors of the D [train] open, it’s right in your face. If the wind is right you get a cotton candy and borscht angle.”
7. Exit 16E of I-95, New Jersey
“When it’s really frigid and you’re driving into the city, you smell the huge 18-wheeler-size dark gray rocks mixed with car exhaust. It’s the olfactory equivalent of Simon & Garfunkel’s music. I hate the music, but I’m awed by the scent.”
8. LaGuardia Airport, Flushing
“Call me crazy, I just really like the smell of jet fuel and air conditioning and the rubber on the luggage conveyor belt. I even love the airplane smell. Although for the past several years I’ve often brought a vial of Indian lemongrass essence or Haitian vetiver or Bulgarian rose absolute on board, cracked it open, then let it sit in the luggage compartment above me. It’s like a spa at 35,000 feet.”