Bryant Park, behind the main branch of the New York Public Library, is a popular spot for lunch.

the new york times / HIROKO MASUIKE

NEW YORK — Fashion Week has come and gone. The tents that announced Bryant Park as the city’s temporary center of culture have been struck, and the media spotlight has moved on. The park, that seven-acre swath of green nestled between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas between 40th and 42nd streets, has slipped back into the shadow of its gargantuan uptown cousin, Central Park.

It’s a good time to pay it a visit.

Bryant Park has come far since it was rescued from urban decay in the 1980s. There’s the vast green lawn, the shade of London plane trees, plentiful green chairs and tables you can move as you’d like, an outdoor Reading Room, a carousel playing French music and the Manhattan equivalent of a Saharan oasis: public bathrooms so clean and attractive that you’ll think they must be a mirage. (The private organization that runs the public park, the Bryant Park Corp., should give classes on urban bathroom management.)

The park is mostly known as a place of respite for lunching Midtown workers and for Monday night outdoor movies in the summer — and come winter, holiday shops and an ice-skating rink set up shop. But it makes for a great base of weekend operations, either at the Bryant Park Hotel if you can afford the $400-plus room rates, or at one of the other, cheaper hotels in surrounding blocks. Tucked as it is between Broadway theaters and Fifth Avenue’s department stores, it’s missing the oppressive bustle of either.

One block away is a spot that even regular visitors who consider themselves avid museum-goers may have inadvertently left off the list: the International Center of Photography. An exciting series of exhibitions started last week, with works from Susan Meiselas (known for her photos in Central America in the 1970s and ’80s), Cornell Capa (who established and directed the center for years and died in May) and W. Eugene Smith (who photographed World War II for Life magazine).

The other main cultural attraction is staring you down at the eastern end of the park: the main branch of the New York Public Library. The library is as much museum as repository of knowledge these days, as witnessed by its current exhibitions: “Art Deco Design: Rhythm and Verve” and “The Stadium: Daily News Photographs of the House that Ruth Built,” which coincides nicely with the final games being played at Yankee Stadium and provides a counterpoint to the Mets Clubhouse Shop across the street on the north side of the park.

When it comes time to eat, you’ll notice that unless you count the Bryant Park Grill, which looks out over the park but generally gets mediocre reviews, or Koi, the pan-Asian palace attached to the Bryant Park Hotel, which couldn’t muster even a star in a 2005 review by The New York Times’ restaurant critic, Frank Bruni, the area does not lend itself to higher-end sit-down dining. So make the park your permanent picnic spot.

You can pick up a good sandwich or salad at the ’Wichcraft stand in the park, but that’s hardly the end of your choices. Tucked just south of the park on the gritty block of West 39th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues is the beginnings of one heck of a multiethnic picnic. The Kati Roll Co., which also has a branch in Greenwich Village, serves its Indian flatbread wraps — from mutton to paneer cheese to chicken and eggs, all under $6 — to Midtown-worker mobs during weekday lunch hours, but is calm on weekends. And just down the block is Szechuan Gourmet, which won an unlikely two stars from The New York Times food critic Frank Bruni in July.

Just south of the park is an odd choice for Italian: Simply Pasta. Even the most barely honed Manhattan restaurant instinct will tell you to shy away from this place, which has an awful name and a worse slogan (“A nice place to mangia”). But the place is surprisingly popular at pre-theater time, and with careful take-out ordering, you’ve got the makings of a great picnic. (The $11.95 orecchiette pasta with chicken, sausage and broccoli rabe comes with plenty of Parmesan and a big chunk of bread.)

And here’s something that might come as a bit of surprise to wanderers: a virtual Little Tokyo in the area. The block of East 41st Street just across from the famous lions has several informal Japanese spots that attract little hoopla and a solid Japanese customer base. They’re all satisfactory and cheap — and the food counter at the currently signless Yagura Japanese Market is particularly charming in its cafeteria-like charmlessness. There are also a few Japanese shopping stops. On that block is the Japanese chain bookstore Book-Off, specializing in used books. But more entertaining is the Kinokuniya store across the street on the other side the park, which carries everything from a book of Chinese propaganda posters to a 3-D eyeball jigsaw puzzle, a guide to Creepy Cute Crochet (Zombies, Ninjas, Robots and More) and a 2009 Welsh corgis calendar — and that’s just the window display.

There are even night-life options. For partying types, the Cellar Bar at the Bryant Park Hotel caters to a young, energetic, occasionally good-looking crowd. If you’re just in the mood for an early-evening drink, you can stop by the outdoor Bryant Park Cafe at the northeast corner of the park. In the warm weather it’s always buzzing with a homogeneous after-work crowd on weekdays, and a touristy bunch on weekends. The crowd in the park itself includes a number of couples drinking glasses of red or white beverages, which obviously must not be wine, because that would be illegal.If you go . . .

Bryant Park Hotel, 40 W. 40th St.; (212) 869-0100; www.bryantparkhotel.com.

New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street; (917) 275-6975; www.nypl.org

International Center of Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas (43rd Street); (212) 857-0000; www.icp.org.

Kati Roll Co., 49 W. 39th St.; (212) 730-4280; www.thekatirollcompany.com.

Szechuan Gourmet, 21 W. 39th St.; (212) 921-0233.

Simply Pasta, 120 W. 41st St.; (212) 391-0805; www.simplypastanyc.com.

Yagura Japanese Market, 24 E. 41st St.; (212) 679-3777.

Kinokuniya Book Store, 1073 Avenue of the Americas (40th and 41st streets); (212) 869-1700; www.kinokuniya.com.