Coffee Shops in NYC for Writers
The Coffee Bean, 606 2nd Ave
You’ll often see the Pubslush team working here, incidentally on this blog post. The Coffee Bean has both booths and lounge chairs, along with tables and chairs to help you focus on your writing.
There tends to be a shortage of outlets, but you can always find a seat (provided they’re not taken up by the Pubslush team), surrounded by plenty of other people either working on their own writing, or studying. It’s a quaint café that can sometimes get a little crowded, but otherwise a great place to write.
Tea Lounge, 837 Union Street
There is plenty of comfortable seating here to accommodate many people. The place tends to get pretty packed, but the drinks are delicious, and the environment makes it easy to work on that elusive novel of yours.
And hey, once you’ve finished writing as much as you can for the day, they have a second bar that serves alcohol—everything you need in one place!
Housing Works Bookstore Café, 126 Crosby Street
Doubling as a bookstore and a café, the atmosphere in Housing Works is extremely quiet, making it the perfect place to concentrate on your writing. Housing Works is run by volunteers, and all of the profits made go to AIDS research and helping the homeless, so you can get the coffee you need to keep working on your writing, and feel great about doing it at the same time.
Housing Works isn’t just a café either: they serve coffee and tea as well as beer and wine. And while you’re here, you can always pick up some of the reasonably priced books. Triple win.
Think Coffee, 248 Mercer Street
The perfect literary café. Not only does the environment condone writers sitting on the comfortable armchairs and couches for hours on end, pecking away at their work, Think Coffee also hosts Scrabble tournaments and book readings, giving you a great reason to pack up your laptop and have some fun.
With great coffee and plenty of outlets throughout the store to get you through the day, Think Coffee provides an environment that helps you keep your focus for as long as you need it (well, you know, until the Scrabble tournament get going anyways).
‘sNice, 315 5th Avenue
Plenty of both small individual tables as well as large communal ones make it so you will always find a place to get your creativity flowing. This café is very clearly filled with a literary crowd, and their book reading events definitely mirror their clientele. ‘sNice also has a full menu of great food and plenty of coffee options instead of just pastries and snacks, setting it apart from other coffee shops.
It does get a little crowded and outlets tend to be hard to come by, but even though it might be difficult to work here for an entire day, ‘sNice’s charm and literary community will still keep you coming back.
Argo Tea, 1792 Broadway
The Midtown West location tends to get a little busy, but you can almost always find a place to sit.
Great baristas let you try something before you commit to a whole drink, and there are outlets for your laptop everywhere. The food and drinks are delicious and are the perfect fuel for your brain.
If you don’t mind the noise during busy hours, the layout of the tables and seating is perfectly conducive to working and writing. You can either have your own private table, or work at one of the community ones for as long as you have the creativity and tea or coffee to keep you going!
Birch Coffee, 56 7th Avenue
With plenty of seating and a library upstairs filled with books, this coffee shop fulfills all of the atmospheric requirements of a writer’s haven. It is also a very community-oriented place: they hold readings and events for readers and writers on a regular basis.
There are also plenty of outlets throughout the shop, so the battery life on your laptop will never be an issue. The only downside is you only receive one hour of free Wi-Fi with each purchase, but that can also be a great help when the only thing you want to focus on is writing. Friendly baristas, great coffee, and delicious cookies will keep you coming back to this cozy home away from home in Flatiron.
4 Place to Work that Aren’t Starbucks
Let me be clear: Starbucks is a viable option for creative types, freelancers and other professionals looking for free Wifi, but that doesn’t mean it’s a pleasant experience. Once, at the Starbucks on Delancey Street (a particularly bleak location if you ask me), I met a cute and seemingly normal guy. We got to talking and exchanged numbers and then “Sam” made many attempted booty calls upon poor, unassuming me and became increasingly hostile when I refused to answer. This all says more about my apparent inability to make character assessments than it does about Starbucks’ clientele (or does it?!?) but regardless of who’s to blame, I have sought alternative workspaces since then. Here are some of them.
Wix Lounge: Full disclosure, my co-workers at PUBSLUSH and I currently work from Wix Lounge so I am biased. Wix is a free public workspace and you can hold equally free events there. They also provide an easy-to-use (and again, free) web hosting service if you need to make a website for your online photography portfolio, new charity organization or online clothing store! You can eat and talk openly at Wix, so there’s no reason not to live there. They’re the shit. Thanks Wix!
Grounded Coffee Shop: There are plenty of coffee shops in and around the West Village but I chose Grounded because working there is a more enjoyable experience than most. The knit-capped baristas are usually friendly, the Wifi is free and there’s ample seating in the relatively small space! Usually the Rolling Stones or something similar is playing, so that’s good. Also, they have a large selection of teas, which I personally do not care about, but I know people like that kinda thing. You’re technically only supposed to stay for an hour and a half per beverage or food product, but I have never seen anyone enforce this. Although now I’m sort of worried they’ll see this and start to enforce it and I’ll have ruined everything for everyone. Sorry in advance!
Bryant Park: I’m well aware its winter but it was 50+ degrees here in New York not two days ago and if there’s a generalization to be made about New Yorkers, it’s that we as a population like to sit outside until Mother Nature forces us indoors by making a blizzard (maybe there was a better way to word that?). Bryant Park is super pretty and you can look at chic people while you use the free Wifi and sip on an overpriced coffee from the park’s ‘wichcraft kiosk.
3rd Ward: Hello Brooklyn! I have not forgotten ye. If you reside in the Williamsburg/Bushwick area you can drop into 3rd Ward and pay $35 dollars for a desk. Not free, I know, and things only get more expensive from there but you can potentially get unlimited conference room bookings, a business address and free printing/scanning. If you’re made of money it might be worth checking out, I suspect there is plenty of opportunity for networking, which may or may not be priceless?
TONIGHT! Calling all Connecticut writers! Join us tonight at R.J. Julia Bookstore, 7 PM! Have a cup of coffee and enjoy yourself while learning about Pubslush and social media! (via Pubslush | R.J. Julia Booksellers)
Source: rjjulia.com
