NYE in NYC

The loft, pre-party

When I decided to spend my first-ever New Year's Eve in New York, I vowed to stay as far away from Times Square as possible.  The ball drop did not interest me so much as warmth, available bathrooms, and personal space did.  What to do, though? Plenty of bars host parties which promise entertainment, bottomless drinks, etc., but the reality is that they're often overcrowded, understaffed (making it difficult to access those bottomless drinks) and overpriced. It sounded as bad as Times Square, and I had some serious responsibilities to consider: my friends Mark and Shelly were going to be in the city and I had to find a great way for us to ring in the new year. Luckily, Maggie and Leonard came to the rescue with a rented loft in midtown. They invited Ed and me to buy some of a limited number of tickets to help control crowds and cover expenses, and we were relieved to accept.

Before heading to the party, Mark, Shelly, Ed, and I went to one of my favorite restaurants in the city for some tapas. Socarrat, the name of the place, is almost next door to Ed's apartment. I'm not the only one who loves it, and so we weren't able to get a reservation (on New Year's Eve in New York City? Yeah, right.) but luckily they had a spot for us at the bar. The restaurant is a paella place, but they have lots of great tapas to pick from, too. We'd consumed more wings and fried pickles than any cardiologist would be comfortable hearing about while watching part of the Vanderbilt football game that afternoon, but we found room somehow for the stuffed dates, grilled zucchini, fried artichoke hearts, and other tasty plates we ordered.

Wall of Veuve boxes

The loft was designed for parties and was not residential - apparently it is a hot spot for bar mitzvahs - and Maggie and Co. outfitted it with a light-up bar, a beer pong table, and lots of beverages. Ed picked up a bottle of Veuve champagne to contribute, but when we got there, we saw that our hosts had beat us to it. In fact, there was literally a wall of the stuff - more than enough for midnight toasts, plus general drunkenness all evening long and morning-after hangovers. Liquor and mixers, wine, and even cheap beer (mostly for beer pong, but available to those with less refined tastes) were also on hand and all included in the ticket price; we just bellied up to the bar and helped ourselves. Also included was a hired doorman, who checked our names off the list, handed us each personalized sunglasses, and told us to enjoy ourselves when we arrived. 

Looking down from the second level

Beer pong champs

And we did. I learned that in addition to Ed's many talents, he is a fine beer pong player, and he and Mark enjoyed beating the pants off several times in a row before they threw in the towel and came to hang out with us girls. The sound system was on the blink and so while we had music, it was not loud enough (and we were not drunk enough) for dancing, alas. We all toasted, blew noisemakers, and hugged and kissed each other at midnight. And when it was finally time to go home, we stepped out into a remarkably warm night (for New York in January anyway) and went back to Ed's apartment, which was so close we didn't even need to fight the crowds of people on the sidewalks for a cab.

All in all, it was a pretty great start to what I hope will be a fantastic year!