Team meeting location ideas across Manhattan

A good team meeting location in Manhattan sits a few minutes' walk from a station on the lines your team already rides. Choose the area by where people start, then pick a meeting room or a restaurant in it. Your team might be hybrid with no office of its own, or the office might be a long ride for half the people coming in.

This post covers which areas suit a team meeting, seven places across them, and when to book a room instead of a table. It is part of our guide to New York.

Which areas of Manhattan make a good team meeting location?

Lower Manhattan, SoHo, Broadway from Union Square to NoMad, and Midtown each have stations where many lines stop. The seven picks spread across all four, and each card gives the walk from its station.

Our picks in New York

Chosen by the Where2Meet team. Photos, ratings and addresses load live from Google Maps.

• The Capital Grille

  A fine dining restaurant in the Equitable Building at 120 Broadway, for a client lunch or a seated team lunch. Google lists it as taking reservations and good for groups. About a 2-minute walk from the Wall St station on the 4 and 5.

• The Farm Soho

  An event venue with meeting rooms and day offices on the second floor of 447 Broadway, for a workshop or a working day away from the office. About a 2-minute walk from the Canal St station, where the 6, J, N, Q, R and W stop.

• Balthazar

  A French restaurant on Spring Street for a team breakfast, or for lunch after a meeting in SoHo. Google lists it as taking reservations and good for groups. About a 2-minute walk from the Spring St station on the 6.

• Union Square Loft

  An event venue in a loft at 873 Broadway, for a workshop or a planning day that needs the whole team in one open room. About a 2-minute walk from the 14 St-Union Sq station, where eight lines stop.

• The Smith

  An American restaurant on Broadway in NoMad for a team lunch. Google lists it as taking reservations, good for groups and moderately priced. About a 1-minute walk from the 28 St station on the R and W.

• Blender Space

  An event venue on the eighth floor of 135 Madison Avenue, for a booked meeting room or a presentation to the whole team. About a 3-minute walk from the 33 St station on the 6.

• OASIS by Workville

  A conference center and event venue on West 35th Street near Penn Station, for a meeting with teammates who come in by train. About a 1-minute walk from the 34 St-Penn Station stop on the A, C and E.

Google Maps

How do you choose the area when the team is spread out?

Start from where each person rides in, then pick the area most of them can reach without changing trains.

Lower Manhattan. Fulton St has the 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C and J, and PATH trains from Newark, Hoboken and Jersey City end at World Trade Center. Our only pick here is a restaurant, so for a room downtown, search around Fulton St in Where2Meet. For dinner afterward, see our group dinner spots in Lower Manhattan.

SoHo. The Canal St complex joins four stations, and the N and Q reach it across the Manhattan Bridge from Brooklyn. A few blocks north, Spring St has the 6 and Prince St has the R and W.

Union Square to NoMad. This stretch of Broadway runs from Union Square at 14th Street to about 31st Street, passing the Flatiron Building where it crosses Fifth Avenue. Hoboken and Jersey City PATH trains run up Sixth Avenue, with stops at 14 St and 23 St.

Midtown. Of the four areas, Midtown has the most lines, at Times Sq-42 St, Grand Central and Herald Square. For rooms and lunches there, see where to hold a team meeting in Midtown. Our one Midtown pick is for people who arrive at Penn Station on LIRR, NJ Transit or Amtrak.

Should you book a meeting room or a restaurant table?

Book a room when the agenda needs a screen, a whiteboard or a closed door. Book a table when the meeting is mostly talk.

The Farm Soho rents its rooms by the hour, as its site says, and Union Square Loft takes bookings on its own page.

Balthazar and The Smith open at 8 a.m. on weekdays, early enough for a breakfast meeting. The Capital Grille opens at 11:30 a.m., so save it for lunch. To keep the team off the train between the meeting and the meal, book both in one area. The Farm Soho is about a 6-minute walk from Balthazar, and Blender Space is about an 8-minute walk from The Smith.

A Saturday meeting narrows the list. Google lists Blender Space as closed on weekends, and The Capital Grille opens at 4 p.m. on Saturdays. The W doesn't run on weekends either, so look up the MTA's planned service changes for that weekend.

How to do it in Where2Meet

Where2Meet lets the whole team choose the location from one link, with no accounts.

1. Open Where2Meet, choose the Team meeting chip, and set the date and start time.
2. Send the link to the team. Everyone enters a starting point, either an address or just an approximate area, and you can enter it for anyone who doesn't.
3. Look for meeting rooms and restaurants near everyone's starting points, or find a specific place by name.
4. Open a place to compare everyone's travel time by transit, car, walking or bike, with each route on the map.
5. Let the team vote. The organizer makes the final pick, and everyone sees it update live.

Common questions

How close to a station should a team meeting be?

Within a few minutes' walk. Every pick in this post is within a 3-minute walk of a subway entrance, by Google Maps walking times.

Which area works if most of the team rides the L?

Union Square. The L runs there directly from Williamsburg and Bushwick in Brooklyn, and the same station has the 4, 5, 6, N, Q, R and W.

Can a team meet at a restaurant instead of renting a room?

Yes, if the meeting needs no screen. Book ahead, and say how many people are coming.