Universal News
50 W. 23rd St., nr. Sixth Ave.; 212-647-1761
There are nine branches of this magazine and newspaper boutique in Manhattan, but the West 23rd Street location has the most appealing vibe for a Saturday-afternoon pause. It has 6,000 titles in the store, so you can hit pretty much every topic and every country. But it also has floor-to-ceiling windows, so there’s plenty of natural light and small tables at the back. The fact that there’s a café with decent baked goods and coffee to keep your energy level up is tacit recognition of the fact that management knows you’re leafing through that $15.95 French Vogue with no intention to buy. Proximity to the Sixth Avenue big-box stores (Home Depot, Circuit City, etc.) means you can take care of onerous errands after you’ve filled up on international trends.