Daily Kos meetups are one of my favorite things about this community. Meeting with members in person has deepened my connection to Daily Kos, and I've made many friends talking politics over brunch and happy hour.
Some of you may remember my initial information & interest diary from back in early August. Also, if you frequent the New Day diary series, you'll see it has been posted each day.
I want to do one last broadcast for our Philly/NJ/NYC Mega Meetup before giving a final reservation total to our location of choice.
If this is the first time you are hearing about this planned Mega Meetup, follow below the fold for the details.
For logistical purposes, a MEGA meetup location for Philly/NJ/NYC people has to be equidistant from Philadelphia and NYC, easily accessible by public transportation, and big enough to host a potentially large group of people. After some discussions with sidnora and belinda ridgewood, and using my own knowledge, I think we've found the perfect spot. Here's the details:
Where: New Brunswick, NJ. A bar/restaurant called Stuff Yer Face.
When: Sunday, October 20th. 12:00pm - 4:00pm (tentative; we can stay longer if we want, but I'm conscious that people may have some lengthy travel).
Who: Any and all local (or traveling!) Kossacks who want to get together over "Boli's and Beer!"
Why Stuff Yer Face? First, it's a fantastic restaurant of Rutgers University fame. Second, Food Network star chef Mario Batali had his first cooking job at Stuff Yer Face many years ago. It's located in a college town, so there are certain idiosyncrasies that come along with that, but by going on a Sunday afternoon we should be able to avoid this type of crowd (trust me, as someone who went to Rutgers University for undergrad, we're too hungover to be up that early on a Sunday!). Third, they have
75 beers. And last, it's really easy to get to via public transportation (or otherwise).
Public Transportation Directions:
From Philadelphia: From 30th Street Station (or Suburban or Market East for Center City residents), take the SEPTA R7 Trenton regional rail line to Trenton. Switch to the NJ Transit North East Corridor line and go to New Brunswick. Sunday SEPTA R7 trains leave every hour on Sundays from 30th St. Station. Total travel time on train is about 95 minutes (does not count time needed to get to 30th St. Station).
From NYC: From NY Penn Station, take the NJ Transit Northeast Corridor line to New Brunswick, NJ. Trains leave every hour in the morning and every 30 minutes in the afternoon. Total travel time on train is about 55 minutes (does not count time needed to get to NY Penn Station).
From the New Brunswick, NJ train station, Stuff Yer Face is a quick five minute walk away.
I want to gauge interest in order to give the restaurant a good estimate of attendees. If we get one of the upstairs rooms we can do ~20, if we get both we could do ~40 (or maybe a few more). As long as we're ordering lots of beer and food, I think reserving the entire upstairs is possible. We already have a solid Yes and Maybe RSVP list (see below). We'd love for you to join us!
Here's our current RSVP list:
RSVPs:
1. mconvente
2. belinda ridgewood
3. thankgodforairamerica
4. gchaucer2
5. sidnora
6. rubyr
7. mattc129
8. hayden
9. mallyroyal
10. Avilyn
11. blue jersey mom
12. ericlewis0
13. Rogneid + husband
14. aoeu
Maybees:
aravir and son
ask
Cinnamon
No Exit
andgarden
asterkitty
pfiore8
joanneleon
renzo capetti
MRA NY
Please comment in this diary AND send me a Kosmail if you are interested in joining - this way I can keep track of our attendee list and give as precise a numbers estimate as possible.
Hope to see you all there!