We noticed a few things this week.
A few theaters, some roasteries, that cute florist you didn’t know existed, and more cozy spots from the cities we live in.
- Pull Up a Chair
The Reading Room That Morgan Built and Nobody Stays Long Enough to Actually Use
The Morgan Library's East Room has gilded ceilings, rare Gutenberg Bibles, and almost no one sitting in the sofa seats. McKim rooms free Fridays 7–9pm.
- Pull Up a Chair
The Reading Room at the Morgan Library That Has Been the Same Since 1906
The Morgan Library East Room hasn’t changed since 1906. Free Tuesdays and Sundays 3–5pm — no reservation needed. The central ottoman is almost always yours.
- Pull Up a Chair
The Window Stool at Tiong Bahru Bakery That Faces an Entire Neighbourhood Waking Up
The far-left stool at Tiong Bahru Bakery’s Eng Hoon shophouse faces the neighbourhood waking up. Free on weekdays 8–9:30 — the place at its most honest.
- Pull Up a Chair
A Window Stool Above Singapore's Oldest Estate
Tiong Bahru Bakery's window stools face Singapore's most intact prewar estate — best at 7:30 am on a weekday, when two versions of the same morning overlap.
- Pull Up a Chair
A Reading Room Built for One Man's Private Obsession
The Morgan's East Room — three stories of walnut and gold built for J.P. Morgan in 1906 — is the quietest reading chair in midtown Manhattan.
- Pull Up a Chair
The Mezzanine Chair at Sightglass That Looks Down at a 1969 Roaster
Sightglass 7th Street: a mezzanine chair above a 1969 Probat drum roaster in a 1914 SoMa warehouse. Time it right and the roast is the show.
- Pull Up a Chair
Brooklyn Bridge Park, Before the Lights Come On
The single best hour in a New York day is the one when Lower Manhattan's lights click on. Three specific benches in Brooklyn Bridge Park for watching it happen.
- Pull Up a Chair
Saturday at OOO Koffee, with Nothing to Do
A Tokyo-born coffee bar on Newman Street with eleven seats, an iced cappuccino, and the cleanest stage in Fitzrovia for doing nothing in public.
