Lunch Break Ragers Are Totally A Thing In New York City [PHOTOS]
Lunch Break is a one-hour, full-on dance party that brings the free spirit of nightlife culture to the middle of the day.
This one's for the salad warriors — for the people who normally spend their lunch hour munching on chickpeas, replying to clients' e-mails, or fiddling with their excel models.
Lunch Break offers an alternative. It encourages you to once in a while get out of your seat, bypass your usual chopped salad spot, and go to a rager for an hour. Have one drink. Dance. Then go back to work, sit in your seat, and get back to your normal routine.
How's that sound?
That's what Flavorpill has been trying to get workers around NYC to do since last summer. The media company has been planning some of the most innovative parties in the country for the last 12 years. They like mashing things up — having dancers in the Guggenheim, putting house DJs in the MoMA. Unique experiences are in their DNA.
Business Insider checked out the last edition, which was held Thursday afternoon in downtown New York City. Questlove, as you probably know, DJ'd.
Questlove is a serious DJ. Lunch Break's spinners have all been top quality. Flavorpill has picked serious New York City nightclubs as the venues. Lunch Break isn't an amateur attempt at a gimmick party, it's the real deal.
Founder Sascha Lewis explained that the combination of aesthetics is an important part of the experience of escape. At the party, he's everywhere — part host, part hype man, dancing hard and moving incognito among the crowd.
Flavorpill is trying to use culture to transport you to a different place where all that matters is the party, he explained in a phone interview.
The music wakes people's bodies up.
"That's part of the mission of Flavorpill," said Lewis, "to get people off the couch and away from their computers and out having amazing cultural experiences."
Lunch Breaks are an idea that may have come at just the right time as more and more workers have flexible schedules and can work remotely.
Nate, a 38-year-old ad salesmen we met at the party said plainly: "As long as I get my work done, my boss doesn't care."
Nate has been to Lunch Break parties before. As he flirted with us, he said the concept was good, the music was always top notch and the women were always good looking.
It's light-hearted fun in the middle of a work day. There were suits and creatives there. We met lawyers and even a banker, and no, he wouldn't tell us what he does. At the end of the party Flavorpill sends partiers home with a brown paper bag lunch.
Lewis is now working on expanding Lunch Break to Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.
Think it'll catch on? We think it just might. See you at the next one!