Starting early

We know you’ve been sitting in that same seat in 209 since literally the world began, but finals are upon us and – uh-oh, some ratchet camper is now calling your home theirs until their flight home. We’re deeply sorry, but over the course of Reading Week, Momma Bwog is here to provide you with alternate places near campus and Morningside Heights to get shit done. So it goes. 

Birch Coffee, 750 Columbus Aveune

• Wifi: Yes, but you have to request the password and even then it’s iffy.
• Outlets: Some along the walls.
• Hating campers: They don’t really notice campers: there’s a fair amount of room and you definitely won’t be a worse offender than the family with 6 strollers that camps out at a table for an entire Sunday morning.
• Space: A few bar areas with stools, a ton of tables, a bench outside, some nice (but usually occupied) cubicles at the back. They cram a lot of seating space into a fairly small area.
• Number of people: Usually pretty full in the morning but very few people stay for long. Empties out around noon-ish and is a ghost town by 5.
• Food quality: Decent food. Cookies, donuts, scones from fancy artisinal bakeries. But also grilled cheeses of most excellent quality and meltiness. Really solid coffee, and fancy beer during happy hour evenings.
• Price: Coffee is better quality than Joe but also more expensive. Food is definitely overpriced.
• Background music: Usually a good selection of quaint oldies on the weekends. I have experienced marathons of both Bruce Springsteen and Michael Jackson which is a plus for me but maybe not for other people. Also not too loud.
• Noise level: During brunch times on the weekends it is almost intolerable. A lot of yuppies with their annoying offspring.
  Bathrooms: One small bathroom.
• Atmosphere: Two moods: in the morning it is full of bright sunlight and there will be a lot of people typing on laptops and having coffee dates. After 6 PM, it’s dimly lit with little candles on the tables and everyone else will be drinking beer while scribbling away in tiny notebooks.

Max Caffe, 1262 Amsterdam Avenue

• Wifi: Super scant. If your computer magically connects, no guarantees that you’ll remain speedily connected.
• Outlets: Hiding behind the intentionally antiqued and mismatched furniture…but they exist!
• Hating campers: Yes, if you refuse to buy something. Otherwise, bum in your comfy antique chair. And perhaps don’t go in groups of friends because the people here (employees included) are pretty *serious* (see Atmosphere section).
• Space: Pretty spacey. Might have to share surface area with the person on the opposite side of the coffee table in front of you.
• Food quality: MAD GOOD, good espresso & “artisan” snacks.
• Price: Pricey AF. Also the waiters/resses bring food/drink to you, so high tip is like more or less required.
• Background music: Usually a good Pandora playlist, from Amy Winehouse soul to Phoenix alternative.
• Noise level: Music plays lightly in background, and people are overall respectful about staying in a level a notch above a murmur.
• Bathrooms: One gender neutral bathroom. Usually a line of some sort to get in but they’ve got some aromatic candles in there or something so it will definitely be a better experience than anything in your dorm bathroom.
• Atmosphere: Grad students/community intellectuals looking for a place to sink into a plush chair/couch and sip their espresso with intention. So it inspires you to be equally as intense.

It is only the dawn of Reading Week, after all via Shutterstock