Awesome team outing in NYC?

December 13, 2017 9:22 AM

I’m looking for a good day-long winter outing for my small team of Creatives in NYC. We’re all fairly adventurous, but we can’t choose anything too physical, as one of us has a heart condition. So... things like an Escape the Room are out.

We want the day to follow this format:

+ Activity
+ Lunch
+ Day drinks

Previous outings that have been a hit:

+ The Internet Cats Exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image + Mexican food lunch + a dive bar

+ The Armory Show + (ironic?) TGI Fridays lunch

+ A day on the Hop On-Hop Off bus, with margaritas at every stop + Miss Lily’s lunch

Let’s pretend money is no option, because an idea that is too expensive might foment another idea that’s doable!

Thanks in advance.

posted by functionequalsform to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (8 answers total)

Have you done an escape the room before? They are generally not at all physical... Certainly less physical than walking to and from a hop-on, hop-off bus at each stop, or walking around a museum for a few hours.
posted by brainmouse at 9:27 AM on December 13, 2017 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: Apologies—to clarify, the team member with the heart condition is new to us, so the above "hits" are to illustrate our personality/silliness.

(Good to know Escape the Rooms aren't terribly strenuous, but it still doesn't seem very "us." Will keep it in mind tho!)

Thanks.
posted by functionequalsform at 9:30 AM on December 13, 2017

VR arcade? Private-room karaoke? Upscale bowling?
posted by xo at 9:30 AM on December 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Check out whatever's at the New Museum, and rent the Sky Room (it has amazing views) for a catered or takeout lunch.
posted by moonmilk at 10:12 AM on December 13, 2017

I'm not sure how big your 'small team' is, but Barcade does rentals for private parties and has a few different locations in the city, both Manhattan and Brooklyn. If I recall, they do have a minimum-guest-requirement for private parties, but if you're there in the early afternoon it'll likely be quiet enough that you'll essentially have the place to yourselves, even if you don't rent out the whole place -- and you'd only have to pay for tokens and drinks.
posted by halation at 11:41 AM on December 13, 2017

UrbanGlass (near BAM) can host groups for lessons in creative glass blowing/decoration, etc. Then lunch at any of the nearby Fort Greene restaurants then drinks at Black Forest.
posted by caek at 12:16 PM on December 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Improv class? PIT, upright citizens, Neo Futurists, I think there are probably at least 6 places around town. They probably have space during the day, and you could have lunch catered.
posted by bilabial at 12:32 PM on December 13, 2017

Heart condition may make this tough, but we’ve done “scavenger hunts” at the Met before. The idea isn’t to find specific artworks but to find things that match a word or phrase. So the general idea is:

1. Pick 10-20 words or phrases that each team has to match.
2. Divide your group into teams of 2-4
3. Each team has two hours to go through the museum, and take photos that match each word or phrase.
4. Afterwards, you meet up at a bar and each player votes on the photo that best matches the word or phrase (with the obvious restriction that they can’t vote for their own team’s photo).
5. Team that has the most points wins!

We’ve done this at the Met but you can do it at any museum that isn’t strict about photos (ie, the MoMA is out).
posted by thecaddy at 9:33 PM on December 13, 2017