The actual history
As recently as the 1990s, the neighbourhood functioned as an active meatpacking district, with refrigerated trucks and wholesale operations running through the night. The cobblestones weren't put there for aesthetics — they're original, worn smooth by a century of heavy vehicles. Most of the former packing houses are now restaurants, boutiques, and hotels.
The High Line's southern entrance
The most-used entry point to the High Line sits at the Gansevoort Street end of the Meatpacking District, which makes the neighbourhood a natural starting point for a walk that runs north through Chelsea. See our things to do guide for the full High Line overview.
What it's actually like now
Expensive restaurants, high-end fashion flagships, and hotel rooftop bars aimed squarely at a spending crowd. Genuinely buzzy at night; relatively quiet during the day outside of tourist foot traffic to the High Line. The Whitney Museum of American Art sits at the neighbourhood's southern edge and is worth a visit regardless of what you think of the rest of the block.
Getting there
The A/C/E trains (14th St) and the L train (8th Ave) both drop you within a short walk. It connects directly on foot to Chelsea to the north and the West Village to the east.
The High Line entry point
The Meatpacking District sits at the southern entry point of the High Line, the elevated park built on a former freight rail line running from Gansevoort Street to 34th Street. Entering the High Line here gives you the most dramatic initial view — looking south over the neighbourhood's low rooftops toward the Hudson — before the park rises through the increasingly dense building corridor further north. The Gansevoort Street entrance has a plaza-style landing area with seating; it's the least crowded entry point except on summer weekends.
What it's like now
The Meatpacking District's current character is dominated by high-end fashion retail (Diane von Furstenberg's flagship, among others), rooftop bars, and the Standard Hotel's pedestrian bridge over the High Line, which has become one of the more photographed architectural moments in the neighbourhood. The nightlife here skews expensive and velvet-rope-adjacent compared to the East Village or Bushwick; the restaurants are strong but priced for a neighbourhood where a basic brunch for two is unlikely to come in under $80.
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney's Renzo Piano–designed building at the foot of the High Line (opened 2015) is the neighbourhood's most significant cultural institution and an excellent museum — strong permanent collection of 20th-century American art with a particular depth in Edward Hopper and mid-century figurative work, plus strong temporary exhibitions. The rooftop terrace has views across the Hudson worth the admission alone on a clear day.