NYC Coffee

With the prospect of not living in NYC for a bit I’m trying to hit up as many things that I love and I’m reminded about the little things that make new york, new york.  At 6:30 this morning I was looking for a bank of America and on my walk I past a few man in the cans but no BoA.  I was reminded of a conversation that I had back in the day when I was working at a company where basically everyone was from a different part of the country.  On my walk to that job I would stop off at a man in the can and grab a coffee.  It was a strictly business transaction with minimal chit chat but after a few weeks our comfort level was such that if I didn’t have a bill small enough for him to break he’d cover me until the next day.  The conversation with my then coworkers was about how terrible the can coffee was comparatively to their precious Starbucks.  If you are basing it solely on taste, they’re probably right.  If you factor in price and that the man in the can is working for himself, trying to scrape by and appreciates every sale, it’s far more of a toss up.  Not to say that Starbucks isn’t convenient but there’s something to the early hours that these people endure to get ready for the day. 

Back in 2008 we had played a show in Brooklyn which an open bar.  From there we ventured to Manhattan where someone’s friend was bartending.  We ended up closing the place.  After walking to Union Square and I had the bright idea to walk the 8 miles back to Astoria instead of jumping on the N train.  Bear with me I’m going somewhere with this.  My beer soaked logic was grounded in my strong consideration for running for City Council and on some level I thought it would be poetic  to see the city come alive.  Honestly, it was.  It was wonderful to see the ground work laid out for all the things we take for granted.  Seeing the newspaper delivery guys rolling up at 5 am.  Seeing people in power suits drag themselves into the office at 5:30.  The biggest one was seeing the coffee cart guys setting up at 4am because it takes a good half hour or so for their coffee to brew, so they have to be ready to fuel the newspaper delivery people, the power suits and the drunken idiots walking home.