ribble's Quest

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I don't like writing at home because there are too many distractions, but I've only found a few places in New York where I can write. There's the Mid-Manhattan Public Library, the Hungarian Pastry Shop on Amsterdam at Cathedral Parkway, and Tea Lounge in Park Slope.

Each has a unique set of advantages and disadvantages. Hungarian Pastry Shop is the classic writer's cafe. It is dark, everyone there is either writing or talking about books, there's free refills on coffee and they'll give you your cookies and leave you alone. It's a real institution, but it's a ways uptown if you're coming from Brooklyn and working in Chinatown. I go there once or twice a week.

The main branch of the library is right in Midtown and it lets me do my favorite New York thing, which is casually walk through major national landmarks for the most boring of reasons, just to prove I can. It's the same reason I get my perscriptions filled at the Empire State Building. There's free internet if you remember to bring an ethernet cord, which I never do. Major disadvantage: no coffee permitted. Coffee is good for me.


I love Tea Lounge. I wrote the first draft of my screenplay there. It's full of people on laptops and young, stay-at-home mothers with their children, and a little noise when I write helps me concentrate. There's internet, plenty of seating and space, and there's also the charming advantage of drinking tea instead of coffee.

The only problem with Tea Lounge is that it's very close to my apartment, so it's very easy to promise myself I'm going to go write at Tea Lounge and end up at home on the couch doing something much more interesting. I spend more time at Hungarian Pastry Shop because a couple of times during the week I'm already half way there.

I like to have a routine that changes every day. Two or three places to write isn't cutting it. This week I've began a quest to find somewhere between Park Slope and Harlem that's a true writer's cafe. This means there should already be writers working there at all times and I should be able to stay and write as long as I like without feeling guilty (guilt is a big thing for me.)

I'm starting with the posts in this thread on the Gothamist, and here's what I've learned so far:

1) There is a limit to the amount of coffee I should drink in a day.

2) There's a place at Houston and Ave. C called Hamilton Fish Park. This in itself would be worthy of a post, but it turns out the park is also very nice. It's well maintained, quiet (nearly empty at two o'clock on a Tuesday), and beautifully laid out. However, there are no actual fish in the park.

No further results yet. When I find the New York's next great writers' cafe, you'll be the first to know.

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