what lies beneath
I walked into a tucked away cafe on the ground floor of a street that was lined with flower shops in Chelsea’s flower market. I thought I was just on a gritty New York street buffered by flowers in bloom. Within an instant of entering the door of Alt for Living, the music pulled me in. It was the song Macusa playing by Company Segundo, and then this – this textured wall to my left unearthed from layers of paint holding down the structure ,that served up an espresso bar, revving like an engine right in the nook of the shop’s ninety degree angle.
It it all made feel like I was somewhere other than the grit of New York city. This moment was whisking me away to a European cafe where the flowers were picked from someones garden; the coffee roasted by a man who takes more pleasure in a perfect bean than creating a perfect pension amount and a warmth that was more than the heating system on a 40-degree New York day. What was here was a welcome, a welcome into a home by someone who was willing to say, ‘I’d like a cup of coffee and something sweet. And, I think you might too.’
Get here, they roast their own beans and have the coolest stills to sit and wonder or just peer at yourself in one big walked mirror
Coffee Shop: Alt for Living
Location: Manhattan, NY