A Week in the Life of Juicy NYC: 5 Nights, 5 Ways to Find Your People
From Nublu's legendary Producer Mondays to secret jazz lofts in Greenpoint, here's what actually happens when you say yes to a Juicy week in NYC. Stories, videos, and new friends await.
ISSUE 03 • JUICY WEEK RECAP • JAN 2026
What does a Juicy week actually look like? Not the concept - the real thing.
I don’t think we can fight NYC loneliness epidemic with an app. But I do believe we can fight it with presence, with joy, with co-experience. The map is just the beginning - the community and the movement is where the change actually happens.
Last week, we lived it. Here’s what happened.
Monday: Producer Mondays at Nublu 151
The week began where every good Monday should: on Avenue C, climbing the stairs to Studio 151.
For the uninitiated, Nublu is a New York institution. Opened in 2002 by Swedish-Turkish saxophonist Ilhan Ersahin, it was designed as a clubhouse where friends could just play music together.
Upstairs, Studio 151 is the vinyl-and-cocktail bar that feels like someone’s impeccably curated living room. Behind the sushi counter sits Kamui Sumida, a chef and DJ who most nightlife experts call out as a must-visit. His omakase is an experience unto itself.
Three Juicy community members - sisters, as it turned out - joined the event for the first time.. They found us through TikTok, showed up with open hearts, and instantly brought their own magic. We ended up filming a little video together - introducing each other, sharing how they found Juicy, and laughing like we’d known each other forever. It felt like friendship at first sight.
Moments like that are why this exists. I hope you all get to meet them at future events
Meet Taylor.
Meet Sigourney
As it turned out, one of the sisters had never tried the sushi. So we started at the bar, watching Kamui work.
And just as the last roll hit the plate…
Ray Angry sat down next to us
If you don’t know the name: Ray Angry is a Grammy-nominated keyboardist, producer, and composer who’s toured with The Roots, played on The Tonight Show, and collaborated with everyone from D’Angelo to Esperanza Spalding. He created Producer Mondays eight years ago as an open-format jam session where legendary musicians and up-and-coming artists share the same stage, creating original music in the moment. No covers allowed. Just pure improvisation - what Ray calls “a portal” that channels the spirit of 1920s Harlem Renaissance jam sessions into something new.
He was just having dinner. But he recognized Juicy, and he sat with us. For thirty minutes, my guests got to thank him for his music, and he told us about the philosophy behind Producer Mondays - why Monday, why Nublu, why original music only.
Then we went downstairs to experience it ourselves.
The jam that night was everything: groovy, unique, incredibly alive. My “Juicy sisters” (I can’t help calling them that now) made friends with nearly every musician in the room - Jermaine the percussionist, Camau the drummer, the whole Council of Goldfinger. By the end of the night, we were the last to leave. Taylor, one of the sisters, sang a gospel song to Ray as a token of gratitude.
This is exactly what a perfect Juicy night looks like. Deeper connection than you’d have alone - because you came as part of something, and that something made you braver.
Tuesday: Parlor Social Club’s Rapid Fire Networking at Skinos
The vibe at Skinos Parlor Event
Different energy. A Parlor event at Skinos in the Financial District: structured conversations, five to ten minutes each, creative people pitching and connecting.
What surprised me was how often I didn’t need to explain Juicy. When I mentioned the map, people immediately started recommending places. When I explained what J.U.I.C.Y. stands for—Joyful, Unique, Intimate, Communal, You-Focused - something clicked. Phones came out. Accounts were created on the spot.
We’re now showing live member counts on the main screen. Every time someone shows up to an event, records a video testimonial, or brings a friend, they earn Juice to their profile - which unlocks access to limited-capacity experiences and other perks down the line.
The idea is simple: showing up is our currency. Let’s keep squeezing the juice together.
Wednesday: Juicy Soul Discotheque at Ciao Ciao Disco
This was the one we’d been dreaming about.
Ciao Ciao Disco is a 1970s-inspired cocktail lounge and discoteca in Williamsburg, complete with a light-up dance floor that makes you feel like you’ve stepped into Saturday Night Fever—or better yet, the Soul Train set.
Our DJ that night was Smurfo, whose lineage runs deep: his grandmother was Terry Pollard (jazz pianist who collaborated with Dizzy Gillespie), and his father helped shape P-Funk. He’s also a graffiti artist, which is why the first hour wasn’t dancing at all - it was arts and crafts. Everyone came with creative ideas, sat at tables, drew, doodled, and exchanged inspiration.
Here is the vibe before we even started dancing
Then the music started. Then the dancing started.
The room was intimate, which meant strangers became dance partners instantly. We danced, we talked, we danced again. It felt like a private party we threw just for ourselves. I introduced Juicy members to each other. We’d dance together, then go talk, then dance again. People had dressed up. The lit floor glowed beneath us like something out of a dream.
This was the first attempt at what I’m calling the Juicy Soul Discotheque. It worked. So now it becomes a residency - a reliable place to come dance every Wednesday. We’re bringing back the Dance Line. We are developing new Juicy Moves that everyone can learn before the party starts: “Juicy Slide”, “Squeeze The Juicy Papa”, “Down With The Juicy Simpleton”, “Creative Juices Flowing”..
Social dancing used to mean something. We’re bringing it back.
Thursday: WonderWheel
A quieter night. A storytelling game called WonderWheel - one of those magical tools that actually does what it promises.
The game works like this: you tell a story, and you map the emotions. Not just “happy” or “sad” - you track the journey, the turns, the moments when feeling shifts. Someone in the community called it an “empathy machine,” and I can’t improve on that description.
We left that night feeling genuinely close. Something about unpacking your real feelings in a structured, playful way creates a bond that small talk never could.
Hear it from Pirlo, one of our community members
Saturday: Dada Strain at the Secret Greenpoint Loft
The week ended with something truly special.
Dada Strain is a project run by Piotr Orlov, a music journalist who’s written for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and The Village Voice, and served as senior editor at NPR Music and editorial director at MTV. For years, he’s been curating events around what he calls “Rhythm, Improvisation, and Community”—the idea that free jazz is dance music, that drum machines are tools of improvisation, and that audiences gathered around such sounds create temporary autonomous communities.
His events take place at Light & Sound Design Studio, a private Greenpoint loft with a vintage four-point Klipsch sound system, comfortable seating, and a rooftop. The address is only shared after you RSVP. No phones allowed. No talking during sets. You sit under blankets in a beautifully lit space and just... listen.
Saturday’s concert featured improvisational sets from extraordinary artists, the kind of thing you can only experience in a room of forty or fifty people who came specifically to pay attention. The last set was dancing, which felt earned after all that focused listening.
It was intimate. It was unique. It was exactly the kind of experience that makes New York magical.
Why We Do This
Here’s what I want you to understand: the real power of Juicy isn’t just the map, or the juicy ratings, or even the recommendations.
It’s going together.
When you show up to a Juicy event, you’re immediately surrounded by people who are looking for the same thing you are. You don’t have to explain yourself. You don’t have to prove you belong. The only requirement is showing up.
The loneliness epidemic is real. I see it everywhere. But in the Juicy world, it doesn’t have to be that way.
I’ll be at every event I can. I want to meet you, see you, appreciate you, get inspired by you, co-create with you. I want to hear your life story. I want to have fun.
The next week’s events are already listed in the app. RSVP. Show up. Get Juice to your profile. And let’s build this thing together.
Because showing up is our currency.
May all be juicy.
🍊 - Fedor
Create your Juicy profile, earn Juice, and become part of the movement.
Juicy NYC is map curated by artists and a community for connection-worthy experiences. We host IRL adventures, earn Juice Karma together, and create meaningful co-experiences across the city. This is our weekly recap. 🍊
Explore the Juicy NYC map at juicy-nyc.com