Upper East Side The Longest Table dinner fed “craving for community”

More than 1,000 Upper East Side neighbors shared a meal together this summer breaking bread with new and old friends alike.

To make this possible, 60 tables occupied the stretch of East 70th Street between 1st and 2nd avenues on the evening of July 29.

The event was put on by the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House in partnership with NYCNext’s The Longest Table initiative.

Part potluck part block party, The Longest Table idea started in Chelsea thanks to a 2022 vision from co-founders Maryam Banikarim and Andrew Lerner in hopes of reuniting neighbors post pandemic.

According to The Longest Table website, “it started with a simple idea: pull up a chair.”

Now, the same vision has expanded outside of Chelsea making its way to hundreds of U.S. cities and dozens of countries around the world.

Chelsea continues to keep the local tradition alive by hosting a community meal each fall. This year’s annual potluck is expected to take place from 12 to 2 p.m. Oct. 5 on West 21st Street between 9th and 10th avenues.

The Lenox Hill Neighborhood House caught wind of The Longest Table’s success over the years and became interested in bringing the idea to their own neighborhood.

“We wanted to be part of that, to bring people together, to help create community,” Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Director of Communications Lily Niska said.

According to Niska, Joan Benefiel, the neighborhood house’s Events and Partnerships Manager started working behind the scenes with The Longest Table team months ago to bring an event to the Upper East Side.

“People are really intrigued by the idea, it’s kind of a block party, but it’s not” Niska said. “It’s a shared meal. People want to get to know their neighbors, so interest was really high.”

After more than 1,500 RSVPs, Benefiel’s seven months of planning paid off as people of all ages shared food, laughs and stories around the table.

“It indicates that there really is this craving for community, particularly on the Upper East Side,” Niska said.

From pizza and shrimp cocktail to pasta and hamburgers, Upper East Siders brought a variety of food to share with plenty of homemade dishes and favorites from local restaurants.

Even with the event being centered around sharing a meal, Niska saw plenty of people playing musical chairs and trading seats to mingle.

A “kids corner” was popular among the group’s youngest dinner party guests as some of the neighborhood house’s art teachers kept little ones busy with sidewalk chalk and bubbles.

Despite anticipatory social media call outs and physical fliers throughout the neighborhood, some neighbors managed to miss the memo.

Niska noticed several people unaware of the event walk by during what was intended to be an evening stroll that quickly turned into much more.

“They came in and found an empty seat somewhere along the block, sat down and made a whole table full of new friends,” Niska recalled.

On top of leadership from the neighborhood house and The Longest Table team, the meal was largely made possible by table captains.

Serving as “mini hosts” of the evening, table captains volunteered to not only decorate a portion of the table, but to bring along eight to 10 people to sit with. Some table captains volunteered to foster new connections and sit with people who came alone making sure there was a warm welcome waiting for everyone.

Ultimately the Upper East Side’s first block-wide dinner was a success as neighbors walked away from the evening with full hearts and bellies.

Niska heard from many attendees who were grateful to find a third place that did not require payment or membership to attend.

“Many people asked if we could do this every week or every month, which you know obviously in an ideal world that would be possible,” Niska said.

While putting the event on as frequently as requested might not be realistic, Niska said the neighborhood house remains hopeful about hosting another meal and “chances are likely” that it could happen again next summer.

Until then, the neighborhood house will continue to serve their community as they have for more than 130 years with free daily farm-to-table meals, programming for all ages and a variety of fitness, art and language classes.