Arcade Coffee

Pretty good for a mid-​day coffee break, are quick brunch/​lunch on the go. They have delicious coffee and fresh pastries. They also have some ready made butter and cheese sandwiches. They won’t take credit card or $ 100 bills but would give credit for daily customers.

Ok. This is weird. But I have something to admit.
I really like basic coffee. You know, the stuff you get when you’re waiting in line at Chase; the free stuff they just keep refilling? I’m talking about diner coffee, coffee from food carts on the street, the type of coffee my grandpa used to drink at a diner at 3:30 in the morning before starting his work as a house painter.
None of this single origin, slow drip, fair trade, anal secreted coffee bean bullshit. I just want a hot cup of joe. Regular coffee. The kind of coffee that comes in a paper bag with a napkin on top of the plastic lid to keep it from spilling over as you’re charging through a bustling Manhattan block on your morning commute bumping shoulders with the other desperate, poor souls just trying to make it in the god damn beautiful city.
This kind of coffee isn’t special, it won’t cost you $ 4.50, and it doesn’t serve some higher social or economic purpose. You’re not going to save the rain forest or help raise an Ecuadorian family out of poverty by ordering this type of coffee. But it will super charge your taste buds and electrify your hippocampus to nostalgic delight.
This cup of coffee is not difficult to find. Just look for the hard working men and women of New York City. You can spot them because they’re not wearing Ray Bans, APC jeans that cost $ 300, and the only tattoos they have are of the names of ex-​lovers and anchors – not ironically, of course.
So get behind them in line for the most average, uninspiring, and basic cup of coffee you’ve ever had. Take the 99 cents out of your pocket that’s been rustling around all day and slap it on the table say «gimme a cup of joe.»