Thots on Missing Night Coffee Shops
Lately I find myself having the same conversation. It goes something like, “I wish there was a cafe or coffee shop that stayed open late where I could work, or just hang out, chat, play games, do an occasional open mic, whatever.” Namely, a place to go at night that isn’t a bar. Usually the person I’m talking to will agree, and we’ll name drop a few places that have closed over the years. It’s not even about whether alcohol is sold or not; it’s more about vibes. I want couches, I want a quietish, mellow atmosphere, soft lighting, the option to use a laptop or read a book. I want that millennial dream of a cozy third place, which has essentially been killed by untenable rents.
In my neighborhood, there’s nary a coffee shop open past 5pm. And I get it, I think; in New York City, it doesn’t make sense financially to cover the extra hours and labor costs at a business where the average customer spends maybe $8. After the pandemic, businesses had to scale back to stay afloat. But night cafes in this city have been in decline since well before 2020. Here are a few I miss:
There was Bedford Hill, a lovely hobbit hole of a hang that served coffee and delicious sandwiches in the day, then offered beer and wine and occasionally hosted events at night. For a few years I knew at least one person working there at any given time, so it felt like my Cheers. (That spot closed due to financial hardship in, I want to say, 2018.) There was Outpost Cafe, which bizarrely closed in 2019 due to a “marijuana incident” ??; that was the perfect place, open til midnight, if you needed to go work on a story but didn’t want to be at your house. Good sandwiches and I think there were a couple beers on draft. Also had a very lovely backyard. I remember Tea Lounge in Park Slope, too good to be true: a sprawling space with infinite couches where you were guaranteed to be comfortable and be able to focus. It closed in 2014, the owner blamed freelancers for taking advantage of the space (which, fine, but look, the true culprit is always gonna be exorbitant rents!!). I only went to DTUT on the Upper East Side a few times because it was too far away, but that was another cozy, large space a la Tea Lounge, which also offered booze and occasional events at night. It closed in 2022. I’d be remiss not to mention Berg’n, which did not survive the pandemic: a massive space in Crown Heights with picnic table seating, coffee, a full bar, and numerous food vendors from Smorgasburg, open from 8 am to 11pm or midnight on the weekends. It’s hard to imagine a place like that ever existing here again.
I have been told about a couple Brooklyn night cafes to check out, and I plan to. Caffeine Underground in Bushwick; Cute Cat Cafe in Ridgewood. I also want to swing by The West in Williamsburg again, because in my memory it fully transitions to a bar at night, but I haven’t been since before the pandemic so unclear if this is still the case. I’m open to suggestions, and also curious if these sorts of places still exist in more affordable cities like, say, Pittsburgh, or Portland. I was delighted to find out that the Neutral Ground Coffeehouse, the platonic ideal of a late 90s, all-ages night-time coffee shop hang, is still open in New Orleans. I grew up going there, drinking Orange Pekoe tea, eating chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, playing the card game Shithead. I played the saxophone part to Ants Marching with my brothers there when I was literally 10 years old. Saw some really great local bands play regularly, like Mike West and Myshkin, Sneaky Pete, or my brother’s high school band (which did rock tbh). I probably stopped going there after freshman or sophomore year, too enamored with parties and my fake ID, but it was a special, formative community for me, for a time. I wonder what their laptop policy became as the years went on, haha….
Part of my current itch has gotta come from having the work-from-home stir-crazies–compounded by fucking winter!–where you’re at your apartment for most of the day so at night you wanna get out, but again, don’t necessarily want to be at a bar every night, and with the shite weather, Being Outside is limited. Until then, I’m trying to diversify my evening activities–next week I’m gonna play indoor pickup soccer. Maybe I just need to sweat out my nostalgia until springtime.