The Meat Packing District

For nearly a century, this industrial western edge of downtown Manhattan by slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants, blood-splattered cobblestone streets, and men lugging carcasses into warehouses way before dawn.

But in the 1990s the area between West 14th street, Gansevoort Street, Hudson street, and 11th Avenue speedily transformed into another kind of meat market. Many of the old warehouses now house ultrachic shops, nightclubs, and restaurants packed with angular fashionistas. Jeffrey, a pint-size department store, was an early arrival, followed by edgy but established designers like Stella McCartney and a few lofty furniture stores. Despite the influx of a few chains--albeit stylish ones like Scoop--eclectic boutiques keep popping up. The one thing it's hard to find here is a bargain.

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