Photo: Pfala

For a new generation of New Yorkers, vintage is a way of life. Thrift shop suits and dresses are not nearly enough. They want to bed down like a pioneer, cook like a 1950s housewife, dance like a flapper and drink like a Victorian man-about-town. But if you think old = cheap, think again. Manhattan and Brooklyn are packed full of places that cater to a luxe vintage crowd - the sort of people who wouldn't be caught dead going through the rails at the Salvation Army. Even if you don't have the cash to flash, these joints are worth checking out. Step and inside, and it's like going to a museum without all the boring bits. Or travelling back in time without all that cumbersome technology.