• by Kelly Samardak , December 10, 2010

Yelp NYC Snow Ball, 69th Regiment Armory, New York
December 9, 2010

Last night was a ball.  A snow ball.  A snow ball packed tight with delicious New York foods and drinks all rolled into the 69^th Regiment Armory, set to the crystal-clear voice and bawdy brass of Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds.  It was the Yelp NYC Snow Ball - stop #1 of my 3 party tour of the city last night. 

The VIP line started filling up before 6 p.m., and before the doors opened, the line wrapped around the corner of 25th Street.  The Armory is HUGE, HUGE I tell you.  I could have worn an army tank as a dress and trundled around effortlessly. 

Because I speak the truth, I skipped directly to the back of the venue, straight at Luke's Lobster.  While they didn't have lobster rolls, they did load up their deliciously buttered baby buns with a shrimp concoction to knock you on your tail.   Whatever they put in their shrimp roll, well, it would give Miley Cyrus hallucinations.  So good.  Sipping my ice-cold Peroni alongside the scrumptious roll was the way to go.

Yelp helpers were easy to spot among the dapperly dressed guests - where everyone opted for a pin-up/Prohibition style (did I miss that memo?).  I saw bowler hats, I saw slick shiny crafted waves, I saw heels with platforms to help the wearer peer over the Smorgas Chef line (holy Swedish meatballs and tongue-tingling Dijon sauce!)  Men in bowties crooked their arms to lead their stiletto-tottering ladyfriends to the Spotted Dessert Bar after popping crispy fried falafel and Ovelia meat pieces into their faces.

I spotted the Yelp NYC exec and sales teamers running around as well as their PR pep squad leader, Chantelle "don't call me Carl" Karl; Keri "the elf hat looked silly on me" Schundler, Strategic Ad Solutions master; and perfectly tanned, sassily swathed Yelp NYC Community Manager, Jane Kwett.  I also found Santa, and each time I saw him, he had a new empty beer in his hand.  Look out, kiddies, Santa might leave you a chunky surprise for Christmas!

Typical of a Yelp NYC event, where it's not just about YOU it's about the neighborhood -- even when the neighborhood is 22.7 square miles (thanks Wikipedia) -- donations were encouraged not only with RSVPs but also were taken at coat check, where the five bucks per person went to the NYC Coalition Against Hunger.  I have no problem paying for coat check when it's a donation!  Oh -- and hey, they ended up raising over $5K from the event. 'Tis the season!

And guess who else showed up? Mashable's Event Czar Brett Petersel; Adam Hirsch, Mashable's COO; and Stephanie Rennert, Mashable assistant to the stars.  Brett was all excited about the pizza, which broke my heart to talk about since I'm nearly halfway through my "3 weeks without pizza" bet.

I had to leave, Control Group's holiday party was calling, but not before ADA Music's David Factor got a special golf swing instruction from the Chelsea Piers Golf Club golf bubble.  Factor apparently leans back too far on the upswing, and doesn't follow through on the full swing. "I don't have enough polo shirts to go golfing, though," he later said.

Photos are up (way more to come, I'm buried!)

For a full list of participants: here!