About
A New Café Every Day
My name is Cliffton! (And I’m Jenny!) Welcome to our website Plugs & Mugs!
Here, you will find a complete list of 100+ cozy coffee shops, cafes, and spots in NYC that are great for studying, reading, and working all day in. Our friends and I have personally visited, studied, and worked in all of them for 8 (or more) continuous hours; we visited all of them post-pandemic, so the information is up-to-date and independently verified. This list is for people who easily get distracted in their apartment and want to get out and find somewhere better to work/study! This list is for you! 😊
Every shop listed in this site at minimum must have the holy trifecta: wifi, outlets, and bathrooms
The Three Laws of Cafes (We made this up)
- Wifi must be stable, good enough for a zoom calls, and unlimited
- Outlets must be reachable without stretching a wire across a walking path
- Bathrooms must be clean
Supplemental laws
- Tables and chairs have to exist and be working height (We’re looking at you Blue Bottle & Ground Central)
Note that this list generally excludes major chains that are well known by homeless or places which have questionable atmospheres and bathrooms (most Starbucks, Dunkin’, and some Gregory’s), non-existent wifi and outlets (Think Coffee, Blank Street, La Colombe Coffee Roasters & Mamans), or that have signs that explicitly limit seating time/laptop usage (the Roost, the Bean, Charlotte Café, Café Kitsuni, among others). We also aimed for larger cafes where we won’t take up their limited seating for other patrons, but sometimes there are some small cozy empty neighborhood coffee shops that are good in a pinch.
And just when you think you’ve discovered them all, there is always a new one that pops up. This list can either be your guide to discovering cute coffee shops throughout New York or just a reference for decent bathrooms.
Hope it helps!
Best,
Cliffton & Jenny
P.S. We would like to again express our sincere thanks and gratitude to each and every one of these cafes for being welcoming and our temporary place of refuge for the past year. You have shown us what makes NYC great
P.P.S. For each of these cafes, we made sure to express our appreciation through purchasing drinks and food items, and would relocate if they needed our tables. We also generally would not repeat cafes to limit our footprint.
P.P.P.S. And finally thanks to my friends who provided continuous coffee shop, dessert places, and secret reccos to check out, and helped watch our laptops, books, and bags when we needed to run to the bathroom! There is no way to work more than 2+ hours without friends to work with. There are so many places in New York City, you can study/work in “A New Café Every Day”! 😊