A popular food-tasting event is returning to the Upper West Side.
Bloomingdale Bites: Game Nite, hosted by the Columbus-Amsterdam Business Improvement District (BID), will take place November 7 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the NYC Youth Hostel Ballroom at 891 Amsterdam Avenue (between 103rd and 104th streets).
Advertisement
The event will feature food from eight area restaurants and trivia hosted by Dive 106 beginning at 7 p.m.
According to Erin Caylor, Program Manager at Columbus-Amsterdam BID, this event is designed to expose local restaurants to customers who might not be familiar with them.
Participating restaurants include Dive 106 (938 Amsterdam Avenue), Crepes on Columbus (990 Columbus Avenue), Coma Bueno (944 Columbus Avenue), Pico de Gallo (768 Amsterdam Avenue), Amity Hall (982 Amsterdam Avenue), Bosino (201 W 103rd Street), Super Nice Coffee and Bakery (196 W 108th Street), and Calaveras Corner (936 Amsterdam Avenue).
Restaurants donate platters of food that they want to showcase, and attendees pay a flat fee at the door to sample the offerings. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for children. The entrance fee gets you access to food from all eight restaurants.
“We have a couple of repeats from last time,” Caylor said. “We try to give new restaurants more of a chance to sign up. We have five that have not participated before.”
If you plan to attend, it’s important to get there early. The event is first come, first serve, and it reached capacity the last time they held it in June.
At the time of the June event, Caylor said they didn’t know what to expect, but they saw a great turnout from the community with around 150 attendees.
The June event included a talk by the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group about the history of food in the area. At Thursday’s event, a neighborhood historian will work with the trivia host from Dive 106 to put together a list of questions about the area, and the winner will receive a gift card for a meal at one of the participating restaurants.
Caylor said Dive 106 has been a great partner to the Columbus-Amsterdam BID and has been especially helpful in organizing trivia for the event.
Advertisement
Caylor said the Columbus-Amsterdam BID has done a lot of work with restaurants this year and despite the BID only covering a small area, they have a ton of diversity in the neighborhood eateries.
“This area is not as corporate as other business districts,” Caylor said. “So we are trying to give more attention to the mom-and-pop shops because I think that is what brings people to the neighborhood.”
Want free entry to the event? Dine at any of the participating restaurants between now and November 6 to waive your entrance fee. DM a picture of your receipt to @cabidnyc on X / Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook before 11:59 p.m. on November 6. One receipt is equivalent to free entry for one person. Take note: this does not guarantee entry to the event because of limited capacity.
More information about the event can be found here.
Have a news tip? Send it to us here!
