The Longest Table Brings UWS Neighborhood Together to Feast
The annual ‘Longest Table’ event on the UWS, which is in its second year, was a smashing success, as neighbors from all walks of life came to connect over homemade food and a shared love of the community.
| 15 Jun 2026 | 12:17
Neighbors brought a huge array of dishes, silverware, and table decorations to the event, sharing food from a variety of cuisines. (
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Neighbors showed off their culinary and baking skills with the dishes they homemade to bring to the event. (
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Hedy Campbell, chair of the West 102nd andWest 103rd block association, helped run and organize the event, which spanned the length of the neighborhood street. (
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Members of the W 102 and 103rd community gathered along the street connecting Broadway and West End for the annual UWS ‘Longest Table’ event June 14. (
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Dogs and young children were also among those who attended the event, running up and down the street as the evening went on. (
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Neighbors of the West 102nd and West 103rd Street community took to the streets for a block-long potluck at the annual ‘Longest Table’ event on the UWS, featuring two tables and dishes of all cuisines.
The Longest Table, an initiative co-founded in Chelsea by Maryam Banikarim and Andrew Lerner in 2022, originally began as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, to inspire connection. For the UWS iteration of the event, which is in its second year, two long tables were set up to connect W 102/103rd from Broadway to West End in the evening of June 15. Neighborhood residents then signed up for a spot at the table and brought different dishes and silverware to share with family, friends, and other community members.
The event not only welcomed the UWS neighborhood, but politicians and community organizations. Among those who were present included Gale Brewer, NYC Council Member for District 6; Nina Schwalbe, a public health expert and candidate for NY-12’s Congressional Democratic nomination; and Eli Northrup, a public defender campaigning for New York State Assembly. The community group ‘Bloomingdale Aging in Place,’ which seeks to connect older adults in the UWS neighborhood, also had a table at the event.
Debbie Goetz, who is on the board for the West 102nd & West 103rd Street block association and coordinated the event with the The Longest Table initiative, said the event encourages spontaneous interaction and connection with strangers from your community.
“It is the most basic bringing together so people just enjoy each other,” Goetz told The Spirit. “There’s no agenda by design, there’s literally no agenda, and our hope is that people sit and meet and enjoy their time with each other and meet new people.”
Goetz said the organization and planning of the event was helped greatly by members of the UWS community.
“It’s magic actually, because you have this idea, and you have no idea how you’re going to go about doing it, until you talk to someone else who connects you to someone else: ‘I know who can help with tables chairs,’ ‘I know who knows how to do the permit,’” Goetz said. “One person leads you to another, and it becomes a group effort, which is the spirit of the longest table.”
Goetz said one of the highlights of the event is the different food people bring to the potluck.
“What happens is you start with maybe a friend or two, and then you meet the people to the left and you try the Persian rice dish that you’ve never heard of, and somebody else has homemade chocolate chip cookies,” Goetz said. “It’s just a joy of sharing food.”
Bryson Kernan Clark, a volunteer for The Longest Table and founder of Home in Hell’s Kitchen, said the event helps to connect communities within the bustle of the city.
“I think that connection, or a lack of connection, underlines a lot of our broader societal issues today, so being able to connect with people in real life and feel a sense of belonging, even if just for a few hours, it can be really transformative in other ways,” Clark told The Spirit. “It makes a lot of ripple effects.”
Izzi Budetti, who brought chips and guacamole and cookies to the event, said it’s important to meet new people at community events like The Longest Table, for human connection.
“I feel like there’s a lot of bad things going on that you can’t necessarily control as one individual person, but you can control connecting the community, finding like-minded people,” Budetti told The Spirit. “Going about it that way is something that we can all do in our everyday lives.”
JJ, who attended the event with Budetti and Clark, said the event was a success, due to how many people showed up: with the two tables completely full.
“It’s cool, it’s nice to see everyone, I’ve never seen such an event as this,” JJ told The Spirit. “I knew that Bryson was involved in such a thing, but this is awesome just to see how many people made it out here, and I love that they closed off the street.”
Guillermo Nasiff, a resident who lives in the neighborhood, said he came after being invited by another neighbor.
“I was like, ‘That sounds good, that’s fun to meet new people,’” Nasiff told The Spirit.
Nasiff, who brought Hawaiian spam musubi and chilled Argentinian wine for the potluck, said the event provided an opportunity to connect with other neighbors.
“Meeting new people, that’s a main goal,” Nasiff said. “It’s really fun, you never know who’s gonna sit next to you, what experiences you’re gonna hear about. So mostly [I came] for that, to socialize with people from the neighborhood.”
Goetz said the event differs from its other NYC iterations, such as the annual Chelsea Longest Table, because of what each neighborhood brings to the potluck, in both food and people.
“The similarity is people coming together and enjoying each other, but every neighborhood has its own character,” Goetz said. “I’ve been to Harlem, I’ve been to Washington Heights, Lower East Side, Gotham Park.”
“West Side is very West Side, it absolutely has a feel of its own,” Goetz added.