Braveheart Hackathon 2019 Celebration at the Aviary

November 8, 2019

Earlier this year, Grubhub had its first Hackathon. Our group (Team Braveheart) ended up placign second, which was an awesome thing to have happened. And part of placing second involved a significant cash award – which we used to fund a celebratory night out at The Aviary. Because why not?

Outside the entrance, circa 5:00 PM.

It was a slow start, as folks were trickling in. But we got a lovely intro cocktail (very warm, which helped after coming in from the cold). After that, our first drink was “Panic at the Pisco.”

This is jumping a bit. We had a lot of appetizers (steak tartare, fried pork skin, veggie chips, hush puppies, and truffle popcorn). This though, was the hands-down favorite: the truffle explosion. So amazing and so delicious (we were instructed to keep our mouths closed, once we bit into it).

Folks liked this so much, we ordered another round towards the end of the night.

Another delicious side: a banana dessert. There was an incredible mixture of sweet and salty going on here. I couldn’t even begin to tell you everything that was in here, but it was delicious.

Our second drink was “Jesus Can’t Hit a Curveball,” which I wasn’t a huge fan of. Although, I’m a fan of the pop culture reference.

This was our third drink: “Westward Expansion.”

The cocktail is heated from below, and moves upward to pull in flavors from the dry ingredients at the top.

On the left: “Panic at the Pisco.” On the right: “Jesus Can’t Hit a Curveball.” And in the middle: “Westward Expansion.”

We went a little crazy, and decided to order the “Wizard’s Staff.” Which was $85. Because when else would we ever drop that kind of money on a cocktail?

It actualy was four separate drinks, which we all shared.

The top cup was dry ice, and mostly for show.

While the drinks were (like everything) delicious, I don’t know that I could really advocate getting this. It was a novelty, but I’d say skip this one if you feel tempted.

Our last drink: “In the Rocks”.

A good team photo. L to R it’s Megan, me, Timo, Zohair, Luis, Shyamal, Stephe, and Anjana.

Side note: with a large group at Aviary, there are some limitations. To accommodate everyone, the drinks available are a limited selection of the main menu. We opted to have them pair our drinks and appetizers, but larger groups aren’t able to order a la carte off the menu. Which was a slight bummer.

Don’t get me wrong – everything here is delicious. But given our group size, we weren’t able to pick and choose individually off the menu.

After Aviary, we walked around a bit trying to find a hidden bar that Timo remembered was in the area. Eventually, we found our way down an allley at the entrance of Booze Box (the bar beneath Sushiu Dokku).

It was pretty crowded down here. We hung out for a bit, and when we realized all the tables were reserved… we opted to head out to Bar Siena nearby.

A quick group photo at Booze Box, before we departed.

Upstairs at Bar Siena. I hit the bathroom soon after we arrived, and on rejoining the group I was handed a small glass of water. Except it wasn’t water, it was Malört. Because my coworkers are crazy and have a penchant for Malort.

The whole night, I was really focusing on pacing myself (our package at Aviary invovled four drinks each). I didn’t want a repeat of last year’s holiday party, so I was quite cautious the whole night.

We got a table pretty quickly (for a random party of six at 8:30 PM on a Friday, on Randolph Street). And by the time we settled in, I was more comfortable putting down a few more drinks.

Fun night overall, bar hopping and hanging out with the team. I can’t even remember the last time I wandered around in search of an additional bar, so this was quite the novelty for me. Really fun time hanging out and chatting with everyone, and glad we all got to celebrate our work for the Grubhub Hackathon in serious style.