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How to Have the Best Day of Your Life: Williamsburg Wise Punch Edition

We recently moved into North Williamsburg and are loving it. Having lived in Financial District for the past 3 years, our New York neighborhood experience has been pretty much non-existent. The few restaurants and bars catered to the Wall Street douche crowd, and there were no good cheap eats or dive bars to be had.

Williamsburg, on the other hand, is stocked with awesome cheap eats, great dive bars, bespoke cocktail bars, and tons of bakeries.

To celebrate our new home, and our new neighborhood, we’re throwing a Wise Punch party to celebrate with our friends. To those of you new to the site, Wise Punch is a party thrown by Andrew Wise, Life Tailored’s founder, and @ThreadTherapy. We started doing these about two years ago as a way to spend time with new friends and old friends.

We’ve got an interactive map at the end of the article so you can recreate your own day. Hope you enjoy!

What Is A Wise Punch Party?

how-to-throw-a-party

There’s a couple things that make Wise Punch parties a bit more unusual than typical fares. For one, it starts at 1:30pm in the afternoon. Thread Therapy and I go to bed around 930pm on typical nights, and weekends are no exception. So by starting the party early, we can still get to bed at a reasonable time, and it means night owls have plenty of time to continue to rage. Also, for each party we like to get delivery/Postmates of our favorite foods in the city to share with our guests.

At past parties we’ve had sandwiches from Parisi Bakery, DKAs from Dominique Ansel, and dumplings from Prosperity Dumplings amongst other goodies and we serve a liquor punch that I create myself. It’s typically a gin based punch mixed with a bunch of liquers and liquors. The punch is designed to run out after about 3 hours, and after that we head out on a bar crawl. Things typically end up at a kareoke or a strip club or a kareoke strip club. Pretty fun affair.

How to Throw Your Own Wise Punch Party

best-williamsburg-food

Here is what we’re planning for our upcoming Wise Punch party and how you can throw one yourself.

Buy An Awesome Punch Bowl

silver-punchbowl

Nothing makes a better housewarming gift or anytime gift for a couple than a punchbowl. This set here is a vintage piece from the 1930s and is relatively affordable given the age and the quality. Buy it for $395 on Etsy.

Make An Awesome Liquor Punch

wise-punch

  • 6 navel oranges, cut into quarter-wheels
  • 6 lemons, cut into quarter-wheels
  • 3 limes, cut into wheels
  • 1 pint fresh raspberries
  • 1 pineapple, cut into 1-inch cubes
  • New Amsterdam 750 ml. bottle gin (New Amsterdam got a 96/100 from FindTheBest and is $13)
  • 1 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1 1/4 cup simple syrup (1:1)
  • 1/2 cup orgeat
  • 1 cup Massenez crème de framboise
  • 1 bag of ice
  • 750 ml. Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut (pour the champagne on top right as guests arrive)

To prepare: add the ice to the bottom of the punch bowl, and then add all the ingredients to the punch bowl and let it sit for 30 minutes. Once the first guests have arrived, treat them to a ceremonial bottle popping and then pour the champagne over top.

I suggest preparing a couple batches of this in a portable gatorade cooler so it’s easy to recreate this when you run out, and trust me, once you’re drunk, the second batch doesn’t come out nearly as well as the first so it’s best to take this extra step.

Hire a Photographer

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We hired a photographer from Thumbtack, and it cost about $100 for a 2 hour session. To get the best shots, I asked him to take candid photos when nobody is looking. This way you get people’s natural reactions and have photos worthy of framing, sharing, loling at.

The trick to getting the price down was I said we didn’t want any editing or post-processing. Once he finished, he sent us over a link to a dropbox where we could download all the shots.

Share Your Favorite Williamsburg (Or Your Hood’s) Cheap Eats

best-sandwich-williamsburg

  • Caprices by Sophie
  • Sandwiches from Graham Ave Meats & Deli
  • More Sandwiches from Meat Hook Sandwich

Lead Your Group On an Epic Bar Crawl

best-beer-garden-williamsburgThese are our favorite Williamsburg bars / dives

  • The Levee, excellent dive bar with cheese bals
  • The Woods, dive bar with frozen slushies and outdoor space (it’s cold out so maybe we’ll stay inside)
  • Radegast Beer Garden, awesome beer garden
  • PIPS, a ping pong bar with drinks and tons of space

You can check these all out in the map below.

Setup Awesome Outdoor Funtivities

how-to-make-smores

One of the main reasons we moved to Williamsburg was for entertaining. Our new apartment has a 500sq ft outdoor terrace and we’re all set to go. We’ve got a space heater, table setup, and a fire pit ready for smores that @ThreadTherapy is really excited about. Here’s hoping for good weather.

Why You Should Move to Brooklyn: Outdoor Space

  • Smores
  • Flip cup
  • Chatting fireside

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