The Five Best Client-Charming Experiences in NYC

Is your favorite steakhouse Peter Luger? Your favorite pescadería Catch? Your favorite cocktail den the Dead Rabbit?

Doesn’t matter.

Your job is to please not yourself, but the most important person in the room: your client.

So since you have approximately two months to hit your quotas for 2016, we’ve rounded up five swanky wine-’em-and-dine-’em experiences for dealmakers.

Pick your poison.

The Happy Hour
Monday Night Football at American Cut Tribeca
You don’t want to be sitting at dinner with a client checking his fantasy score the whole time. So take him somewhere where he can get up close and personal with the game — on a giant projector in the smoky basement of one of NYC’s best steakhouses, no less. If it’s Monday Night Football they’re into, American Cut is delivering elevated takes on tailgate favorites, from chili lobster and wings to Wagyu sliders to Chef Marc Forgione’s signature pastrami steak. To drink? The Smoked Old Fashioned. Don’t ask. Just do.

The Big Entertain
The Private Bar Room at Analogue
The West Village’s home to craft cocktails and whiskey in droves hearkens back to the days of exclusive membership clubs and classic watering holes with their private bar room. Should you need to dazzle more than a few, the space can accommodate up to 50, with optional cocktailing lessons also on offer. The private room is outfitted with a handsome walnut bar, sound system, loads of leather lounge seating and walls adorned with Bowie, The Stones and Ray Charles.

The Nightlife
Ascent Lounge
People like to party. But first, business. For that, Ascent Lounge is your gateway drug. Situated on the fourth floor of the Time Warner Center, Ascent offers stunning small bites like miso butter lobster rolls, New Zealand lamb lollipops, Wagyu sliders and fish tacos. It’s intimate and magnetizing, with an extensive selection of whiskey for choppin’ it up while overlooking Columbus Circle and Central Park.

The Wine and Dine
CUT by Wolfgang Puck
If you’re going to go see Lynyrd Skynyrd, you expect to hear “Free Bird.” Point is, play the hits. And nothing opens more doors than Japanese pure Wagyu beef grilled over wood and charcoal and finished in a broiler from Miyazaki Prefecture. One of the most anticipated openings of the fall, Wolfgang’s CUT just opened its Four Seasons New York location, and all the major players are in attendance, from Maine lobster to Elysian Fields Double Lamb Chops, and of course a hearty wine portfolio.

A Little Something Different
Akashi
Kodawari is a Japanese idea that translates roughly to “an uncompromising and obsessive devotion to a craft.” At the newly opened Akashi, this is what you can expect. With more than 25 years of experience in Japanese cooking, Executive Chef Yoichi Akashi crafts a high-end, multifaceted dining experience that synthesizes the traditional and the modern. Exclusively serving an omakase kappo ($200+ per person), the multi-course menu is determined by the chef’s sensibilities and seasonal offerings. And it’s highly intimate, with only 10 seats at the sleek Hinoki-topped sushi counter, an additional eight table seats and a private dining room option with up to 10 seats. It’d be in your best interest to plan ahead for this one.