[Trip Report] NYC for Work, July 2023
At the initial time of writing, this is the last report I have to do (minus day trips) to get on top of my backlog. Going to NYC for work would not be my first choice in July, when the weather in Seattle is phenomenal and the weather in New York is terrible! Ryan stayed home with the cats for this trip. I battled jet lag, worked all week long, tried to beat a bomb, and eventually made it back home to Seattle. This was a work offsite with a focused purpose for a small group of people, so we knew we were in for a week of hard work and productivity. I still managed to have fun and take care of myself, while getting done everything I needed to do.
You can see all the pictures from this trip here.
Day 0
I left for New York late on Saturday night, thinking the red eye flight would help me adjust to the new time zone while optimizing for time spent at home. Boarding was delayed, but Alaska was fairly proactive about letting us know. I got upgraded to first class and enjoyed a sandwich and some chips before taking a nap.
We landed without incident, and I took a taxi from JFK to the Sheraton Tribeca. The Sheraton was very busy all week long - lots of families and groups were checking in and out. I set my stuff down and took a moment to unpack before going down for a nap.
After napping, it was time to run errands. I knew it was going to rain, so I asked a local friend what I should bring. They recommended an umbrella, and I didn’t really have an umbrella for traveling, so I bought a compact one at the drugstore.
Using my strategy that I formed on my trip to Australia, it was time to beat jet lag by going to exercise. I walked a few blocks to the New York Pilates studio. As I left, it started pouring rain. I stopped by a cafe for a bottle of kombucha and tried to stay dry as I waited for class to start.
The class was intense and not my usual style, but the studio was fancy and the instructors were nice. After going back to the hotel to shower, I set about finding some places to eat and drink. My first stop was Terra Wine Bar for a glass of wine and a salad. I sat and read my latest management book and planned out what I wanted to see next. I wandered around the neighborhood, turning back towards Soho, and browsed the shops from outside.
When I started to get hungry again, I turned into Blue Ribbon Brasserie - I enjoy eating as much fish as possible when traveling alone. I got another glass of white wine, half a dozen raw oysters, and spicy fish soup. After a little more wandering around, I decided to turn in for the night so I could get plenty of rest for the week ahead.
Day 1
Monday was a hit-the-ground-running sort of day at work. I got up early to take another pilates class (excellent life choice) and had to come back to the hotel to shower before work. I had to run a personal errand that required coordinating across time zones, so I checked in at the office, then ducked away to make phone calls. While I was on the phone, I managed to sneak in a cold brew and a financier at Butler. I also checked out some of the stores around the block. It was painful to be surrounded by such excellent shopping in Soho but have no time to enjoy it. I grabbed a vegan lunch, read my book, worked, and finished my errand in time for the offsite to begin in earnest.
After work, we went to Pig and Khao for dinner. We tend to be an indecisive bunch of food lovers, so we order family-style often. On this night, we got pork belly, duck, shrimp, khao soi, coconut rice, and donuts, which were all excellent. I also ordered the Spicy Pakwan cocktail, which was really refreshing and not too spicy. A couple of my coworkers got the Pineapple Mustache, which looked excellent. After dinner, we all went back to our hotels. I tried to catch the end of Monday Night Raw but the remote to my TV died and someone had to come replace it.
Day 2
For the rest of the week, I would grab drip coffee and an office snack for breakfast so I could catch up on Slack before offsite activities. Since my group was in town, a bunch of people came in to see us, so we went to Gelso and Grand for a big lunch together. We got a bunch of appetizers - the bone marrow was a standout. I got the campanelle alla vodka, which I would eat for lunch every day if I could.
In an interesting twist of planning, dinner was also Italian. We went to Max Restaurant, where we all ended up ordering negronis (except for one rogue cosmo). I got to live the dream and eat pasta for two meals in one day with the strozzapreti alla boscaiola, which was also delicious. I just really like pasta. The crème brûlée had great surface area for cracking with a spoon, and was nice and light - I surprised myself by scarfing it down.
Day 3
On Wednesday, we had probably the best lunch we ate all week at Shuka. The fried halloumi was probably my single favorite thing I ate in New York. The service was also excellent, highly attentive, and unobtrusive, even by NYC standards (contrast to Seattle where sometimes I have to flag someone down to get a drink at an empty bar). We shared a bunch of dips, and for my entrée, I got the sirloin steak kebab - perfect portion size for a lunch, and the beef was juicy and well-seasoned. We stopped by Butler today and the next day after lunch for a pick-me-up. I’ve been watching my caffeine intake, so I got a ginger turmeric oatmilk latte each time.
We pre-agreed to make this night a “recharge night,” so dinner was on our own. I met up with friends at Casa Carmen, which started out a little confused, service-wise, but the food was delicious and we had a nice, leisurely meal. I had the huarache de ribeye, and we also enjoyed guacamole with chips and chicharrones, fluke ceviche, and esquites.
Day 4
We had lunch at Thai Diner on Thursday. I’ll admit that I was in the middle of a heated conversation when we left the office, and that conversation continued all through lunch, and I forgot to take a picture of my tom yum shrimp dumpling soup - which was tasty and light even on a hot day and perfect for lunch.
We left work early to play Beat the Bomb, an immersive “escape room” type experience. We played the Cyberbot mission, which took us through 4 rooms, each with a 10-minute game inside. We excelled at the “hacking” mission (as a group of cybersecurity professionals might hope to do), but we found that the following 3 missions required quite a bit of coordination and we didn’t do as well at the rest. In the final room, our exhaustion was showing as we tried to pilot a robot around a maze, each person holding a different control (like “aim,” “shoot,” “left,” “right,” “forward,” “map”). We did not succeed at the final mission, so they shuffled us into another room to get blasted by paint cannons. Neither of the final mission/paint cannon rooms were really working, apparently, because only one cannon fired in the room, spraying just one person with pink paint that somehow made its way into the boot covers and onto her shoes. We walked off our defeat with a scenic stroll around Dumbo, where one of my teammates pointed out local hotspots for this newsletter.
We had dinner at Añejo back in Tribeca, where we enjoyed some fancy-flavored guacamole, and I had the carne asada at the server’s recommendation (better than the carne arrachera). We ended with flan (flavored with tequila and sprinkled with a little cheese) and churros.
Day 5
On the last day, we had lunch at Canal St Market after wrapping up our week. All the food stalls looked so good and I had trouble choosing one, but I ultimately went for pancit and lumpia from Kabisera. We took our food back to the office to eat.
I left for JFK right after lunch. Traffic was a challenge from Manhattan. According to my coworkers, it sounds like Laguardia is actually the best airport choice in NYC these days! JFK seemed pretty under-construction when I was there (but in fairness, so is SeaTac). I sat down at a busy wine bar where I had a cocktail with malibu rum and sparkling wine, and some potato chips topped with parmesan cheese and truffle oil. I arrived home in Seattle after reading The Culture Code on the plane. Ryan came to pick me up at the airport, and the cats were happy to see me when I got home!