Working Remotely: Wifi Cafes in New York

For many, the café is an ephemeral stop in a day of endless work: they want coffee and they want out faster than you can say Double Ristretto Venti Nonfat Organic Chocolate Brownie Frappucino Extra Hot with Foam and Whipped Cream. For others, it’s a twenty-minute pit stop for an afternoon energizer and serene people watching. And for some -- mainly those who, no matter how much they Feng Shui, just can’t seem to fit a desk in their 8 x 10 bedroom -- the café is the office.

These people are a breed of their own. They’ll have all three meals at a café. They’ll battle for an outlet for their fast-dying MacBook, and sit for four hours in the same backbreaking, too-small-for-anyone’s-ass, wire chair that will undoubtedly cause permanent tailbone injury. And by some miracle, despite all the conversational racket and unbearably hip counter girls, they get more work done in one day than they have all week.

If you fit this bill, read on café-dweller, for multiple couches and sinisterly affordable coffee, for reliable Wi-Fi and the flakiest croissants, and most importantly, for quiet customers here to do exactly what you are: work.