Yesterday, I wrote about suburban summer barbecues, yet there’s no need to maneuver into the wilderness to enjoy a fiesta with charcoaled hotdogs and toasted buns (hee!). Central Park’s Tavern on the Green launched its first garden party of the season last Thursday, an event which will continue every Thursday 6pm – 2am for the remainder of the summer. This isn’t news as they held the same weekly soirée last year and got me complaining about their depleted staff and inefficient drink ticket system.
Any savvy city promoter buses their entourages up to Tavern on the Green’s pre-party since it allows them to get paid for an extra gig before herding everyone to whichever club they’ve previously contracted their soul to. Tavern’s outdoor party is a no brainer for
- promoters,
- anyone who lives uptown and
- any mid-town business person craving a happy hour
resulting in ridiculous crowds, made bearable by the fact that they’re staggered throughout the lengthy evening. Five dollars gets you in, then it’s up to you to use deductive reasoning and brute force to navigate the drink ticket system and battle towards the teeny-tiny bar.
This party attracts an older generation because of its early start time and location in prehistoric Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Nix the option of getting drunk since the crowd and obstacle course of a bar set-up make alcohol wholly inaccessible. But that doesn’t mean you’ll go thirsty. Last week, a new energy drink called Verve promoted itself by providing much appreciated free samples. I slurped their pomegranate flavored health beverage the entire night while gazing at the hanging lanterns and silver stars, finding myself 100% relaxed and content.
Sure the median age may be forty, the music somewhat cheesy and drink line atrocious, but what other outdoor New York venue could create an aura of such intense tranquility? At Tavern, you’ll be dancing under the stars with a freshly grilled burger in your hand. If that’s not a stellar summer combination, I don’t know what is.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 2:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
