There are evenings for behaving beautifully in a dim restaurant, discussing life with measured restraint. Then there are nights when two grown women grip buzzers, shout increasingly questionable answers at a 40-foot screen and become far too emotionally invested in defeating strangers. A much-needed girls’ night on the Bowery, fortunately, left room for both.
I met my girlfriend—a fellow Texan transplant—for an evening devoted to competition, cocktails and the increasingly precious luxury of catching up properly. Our first stop was Game of 1000 Boxes, New York’s immersive live game-show experience at 302 Bowery. Created by interactive entertainment designers Dave Rife and Gabe Liberti with television writer and New York Times Crossword constructor Josh Knapp, it translates the delightful absurdity of a televised competition into something one can enter without acquiring an agent or inventing a tragic backstory.
The hour-long experience unfolds before a billboard-sized LED wall, complete with studio lighting, cameras, a live host and enough polished production to make everyone briefly believe they have been discovered. Up to 32 players are divided into teams of four, each represented by its own mascot and armed with single-button buzzers. The technology may be elaborate; the qualifications are wonderfully democratic. Essentially, anyone capable of pressing a button may experience athletic delusions of grandeur.
The games move quickly through trivia, puzzles, reflex tests, social strategy and gloriously ridiculous challenges. One moment rewards obscure knowledge; the next exposes who cannot follow simple directions under pressure. Every participant eventually finds something at which she is unexpectedly brilliant—or, at minimum, something she can blame on the buzzer.
Perhaps that is the charm. Game of 1000 Boxes requires no preparation, specialized ability or willingness to take oneself seriously. It gives friends permission to become competitive children beneath very flattering studio lights. The cameras capture the evening’s victories and minor humiliations, producing personalized highlight clips afterward. One may therefore relive the triumph while quietly deleting all evidence of less distinguished moments.
Afterward, still exhilarated and perhaps slightly too confident in our reflexes, we continued downtown to Ainslie Bowery at 199 Bowery. The restaurant occupies a sprawling 20,000-square-foot setting filled with warm wood, greenery and the convivial energy of a room designed for people who intend to stay awhile. Executive Chef John DeLucie oversees a menu of Italian favorites and wood-fired specialties, while the sheer scale makes the place feel suitable for anything from an intimate dinner to a birthday party with a suspiciously ambitious guest list.
We began, as women of sound judgment occasionally do, with ice-cold martinis. Few things restore equilibrium after an hour of public competition quite like a properly chilled glass arriving at the table with immaculate timing. The martini was crisp, dangerously easy to drink and precisely what the evening required.
The wood-fired rosemary chicken wings were exceptional: crisp on the outside, juicy within and satisfyingly unapologetic. They disappeared with the efficiency of a winning round. Burrata followed, creamy and generous, alongside an arugula salad offering brightness, bite and the comforting suggestion that we had made at least one responsible choice.
More important than anything placed before us, however, was the catch-up itself. Fellow Texas transplants possess a particular understanding of one another. We know the strange distance between where we began and the city we chose, the ambition required to remain here and the usefulness of humor when New York becomes needlessly theatrical. Somewhere between the martinis, the wings and several stories that absolutely cannot be repeated, the evening became less about what we were doing than the pleasure of having time to do it together.
That is the secret of a successful girls’ night: it should offer enough entertainment to pull everyone out of her own head, followed by a table comfortable enough to let the conversation wander. Game of 1000 Boxes supplied the adrenaline, ridiculousness and fleeting glory. Ainslie delivered the cocktails, crisp wings and room to exhale.
In a city overflowing with serious cultural obligations, there is something rather essential about choosing uncomplicated fun. Press the button. Defend the answer. Order the martini. Then sit across from a friend who knew some earlier version of you and laugh until neither of you remembers who actually won.
Game of 1000 Boxes: 1000boxes.game
Ainslie Bowery: ainsliebowery.com
