--- description: Photographer Amber Asaly took to the New York City subway system for a decadent dinner to celebrate her birthday. title: Birthday Party Takes Over Subway and Yes, There Was Lobster image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Woman Takes Over a Subway for Her Birthday Party and Yes, There Was Lobster and a Piñata  by [Raisa Bruner](/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 9, 2018 4:32 PM CUT  by [Raisa Bruner](/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 9, 2018 4:32 PM CUT No dinner reservation available for a birthday? No problem — as long as an open New York City [subway car](http://time.com/3982289/bubonic-plague-nyc-subway/ "undefined") was on hand as backup. Photographer [Amber Asaly](https://www.amberasaly.com/# "undefined") celebrated a memorable 26th birthday this week when she and her friends set up a full dinner party on board the JMZ line of the New York City subway, complete with shell-on lobsters, bottles of white wine, “Happy Birthday” decorations and even a piñata, as her Instagram and videos can attest. “RESERVATIONS FELL THRU FAMILY CAME THRU. BEST BIRTHDAY EVER \[sic\],” she wrote on social media. According to [local news reports](https://abc7ny.com/society/woman-celebrates-her-birthday-with-a-lobster-feast-on-the-subway/4650598/ "undefined"), Asaly and her squad of birthday partiers, organized by [an event-planning cousin](https://www.instagram.com/ovation.bysamanthaseyfert/ "undefined"), boarded at the J train’s Myrtle-Broadway stop in Brooklyn, assembling their table, food and decorations at the end of one of the subway’s cars. (There were even pillows to add a little coziness to the car’s hard benches.) They proceeded to party all the way into Manhattan — and back out to Brooklyn — before breaking down their dinner setup and cleaning up after themselves before hopping off the train. Most New Yorkers may associate the subway these days with [pizza rats](http://time.com/4094627/doughnut-rat-new-york-city/ "undefined") and train delays, but pop-ups like this one prove there’s still some allure remaining to the city’s [public transit system](http://time.com/4862959/lorde-trapped-on-nyc-subway/ "undefined"). Still, here’s hoping that subway partiers stick to off-hours for their celebrations; there’s [plenty of congestion](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/nyregion/new-york-subway-system-failure-delays.html "undefined") on the trains already as it is. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5450407/subway-birthday-party/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5450407/subway-birthday-party/"},"headline":"Woman Takes Over a Subway for Her Birthday Party and Yes, There Was Lobster and a Piñata","datePublished":"2018-11-09T16:32:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:55:56.013Z","description":"Show time? More like party time","url":"https://time.com/5450407/subway-birthday-party/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Food & Drink","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5450407/subway-birthday-party/","name":"Woman Takes Over a Subway for Her Birthday Party and Yes, There Was Lobster and a Piñata"}}]}] ```