How fitting that we should be meeting Chris Lehault the publisher of FreeNYC, the online guide to free and cheap events in NYC, just as Wall Street was revving up for the worst day ever just a mile away in downtown Manhattan last Friday. It was a busy day by any standards, but the spectre of economic apocalypse stalked all our conversations as we caught up with Dandy and Wit and Not For Tourists (already contributors), uber-mom blog Mommy Poppins, the extraordinary Rachelle Hruska of socialite blog Guest of a Guest, and artist and blogger Sharon Florin.

Chris Lehault, publisher of FreeNYC

As it happens FreeNYC got a shout in this timely NY Times article Frugal New York yesterday. Free NYC is already really successful, but ‘cometh the hour, cometh the blog’. London and New York have become synonomous with absurdly conspicuous consumption but they are also generous cities with plenty to offer the budget metropolitan (i.e. all of us). Here comes the big correction.

FreeNYC was born from a realisation that will sound familiar to many of us: no matter how much money you earn, you’re always broke. Chris started the blog in 2001 with the aim of providing citizens with a daily dose of culture that promises not to break the bank: “from bars and booty shakin’ good times to museums, performances and gallery openings.” He does it on the side – in real life he runs a cool design studio called Defined By Media. FreeNYC is clearly a ‘calling’ for Chris, not a job.

We asked Chris a few of the questions we’ve been asking other bloggers we’ve met:

Metrotwin: What do you love most about New York and London?

Chris: Just about anything you could possibly ever want is within your grasp. We take it for granted that there are 25 concerts to go to every night of the week, and that every band on earth comes here.

Metrotwin: What’s your favourite place in New York?

Chris: The Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art

Metrotwin: What would you recommend for a first-timer?

Chris: Go to Williamsburg. Everything that’s happening at the cutting edge is happening in Brooklyn.

This recommendation was echoed by many of the people we met last week. The phrase ‘Deep Brooklyn’ came up again and again – the further into Brooklyn you go the scarier/cooler it gets, like a Melvillian river trip into the hippest, darkest heart of the metro scenester. Could you say the same thing about the Dalston Road? Hmm. Anyone?