Lunch is one thing New Yorkers won’t dare zoom through.
As the Big Apple’s workforce continues to scurry back into their skyscrapers and offices, many are taking a solid hour for their midday meals — without the fear of being caught offline.
“Face time is different now with hybrid work. If anything, there’s less pressure nowadays to be seen in the office,” said Mike B., a banker enjoying a meal with his colleague, Gil R. on a sunny afternoon in Bryant Park earlier this week.
“We don’t feel pressure to rush back,” Gil added after the two wrapped up their meals but continued to enjoy the weather and some conversation.
Other finance folks, like Bruno Lamarre, and his pal Andy L. said higher-ups are even encouraging workers not to chain themselves to their desks since returning to their office three days a week at the end of March.
“We definitely feel a laid-back approach to things like lunch breaks. We’re even being told to not stay on late when we can,” Lamarre said while eating a wrap in the park.
With many returning to the office on a hybrid schedule, lunching with colleagues is a way to ensure seeing them in-person. That’s the case for Sommer Howard and Mariana Lee, both 25, who work for Estee Lauder enterprise marketing and data. They returned to work part-time in April; their designated team day is Thursday, and they often make use of it by getting a meal together.
“We’ve had a number of team lunches,” Howard told The Post while grabbing a bite at Amali on East 60th Street and Park Avenue. “We try not to have a lot of calls on these [in person] days and spend time with each other … It’s the one day a week where we can take a pause and say ‘we’re taking this lunch hour.’ “
Restaurants in Midtown are also seeing more office folk coming in for midday meals.
“There’s been a dramatic difference in lunch crowds” since that late March period, said James Mallios, the owner of Amali. He noted a 20% increase in lunchtime weekday eaters from this past April as opposed to 2019 — and his crowd is mainly “the worker bees” of NYC rather than the top brass.
And just like the city’s weekday brunch crowd, workers aren’t afraid to get boozy on the job. Mallios said he’s selling more wine bottles at lunch than almost ever before.
“Beverage sales doubled this April, from April 2019, and you don’t get that from iced teas,” he joked. “People are using these lunches to enjoy reconnecting with each other, with their clients and customers.”
Michelin-starred chef and NYC restaurateur Daniel Boulud said this “office momentum” is inspiring the return of power lunches, because people can once more “just get together, be social and work.”
“We see it. We see New York coming back very strong. I see it also on the Upper West Side. Now, as Lincoln Center is coming back, there’s definitely more affluence there. Also, Broadway is coming back strong,” he told Fox Business.
And employees appear to be using their full lunch hour, down to nearly the minute.
“Our average [weekday] lunch turnaround nowadays is 55 minutes and 41 seconds,” Christopher Feeney, general manager of Greek restaurant Nerai on East 54th Street and Madison Avenue, told The Post.
Feeney anticipated the lunch rush will come back in full force as the weather keeps getting nicer.
“In the upcoming weeks we’re expecting 250 to 300 [daily] table flips for our weekday lunches,” he said. “It’s simple: People want to get out, they want to spend time with each other.”
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
