lunch. MTV style.

hey! who's hungry?

me too! let's go to The Lodge!

what's The Lodge you ask?

awwww yeah, it's the cafeteria for MTV and the rest of Viacom (which owns MTV/Nickelodeon/CBS/everything else you can think of). most importantly though, IT'S THE CAFETERIA FOR MTV.

if i could go back in time to tell my early teen self that my older, almost thirty self was able to eat at MTV whenever i wanted, i would get a big kick out of watching my younger self wet his pants with excitement. Kurt Loder! John Norris! Curly Fries!!!

of course, the reality of the whole experience is considerably less astounding.

with that in mind, let's eat!


first off, my office is in an entirely different building about five minutes away from Viacom headquarters. here we are walking towards Times Square. (it is ridiculously nice out today, by the way...)


yep, it's the Naked Cowboy. he is always right outside of the MTV building making tons of money from the tourists while simultaneously getting a pretty great tan.


ok, we are in. 1515 Broadway. the home of Carson Daly. well probably not anymore. whatever.

then it's just a quick elevator ride, and POW!...

thar she blows!


it is basically just like the lunch room at Central Campus or whatever other high school. there's a salad line, sandwich line, pasta line, etc. i bypass all of these and head straight towards my favorite: the Grill. there i get a really tasty veggie burger and curly fries. mmmmmmmmm..... plus, it only costs $4.02! sooooo cheap!


then there is a big indoor dining room which has all of the Viacom channels playing on all of these televisions. i forgot to take a picture of that. i was just too excited to secure a table outside where you can eat while overlooking Times Square from 7 stories up. this was one table of co-workers.


here's the other one.


lunch is served! (note: they were out of curly fries. this usually really bums me out. today though, they had waffle fries instead. mmmmm.)


did i mention that it is beautiful outside today? the perfect eating lunch outside weather.


the view from up there.

i just ate a lovely lunch.


here's brett taking out the trash.


when you are done eating, you take your dirty dishes or whatever to this automated robot shelf thing that takes them from you and gives them to the dishwasher guys. it's just like the Jetsons.

ok, lunch is over. time to head back. but wait...there's one more mystery to solve before you can get out of the building:

which elevator do you get into?

for some reason, the lights that tell you "going up!" or "going down!" are two circles, one white, one red.

umm...now, maybe i am crazy, but i don't remember those as commonly known symbols of elevator travel. i mean, you have a 50/50 shot at getting it right no matter what, but still...
every time i see this, it makes me feel a bit stupid, a little confused, and mad. (nobody else seems to think anything of this phenomenon however) can you folks crack the code of these lights?


ok, as far as i know, this elevator is taking me down to the street, but....

so yep. that's The Lodge experience in a small nutshell. if any of you ever visit me and want to see for yourself, i will gladly show you the ropes. if you're lucky, you might even get to eat next to rikki rachtman.

keep one foot in the gutter, and one hand in the curly fries...