With New Yorkers doing the return-to-work shuffle, many are also eager to stop staring at their own four walls. Starbucks just ain’t gonna cut it, but these epic spots offer the perfect perch to post up and PowerPoint.
The Lost Draft
Screenwriters and movie buffs alike, this is the work-from-anywhere spot at 398 Broome St. is for you. “When we were in film school, we were always looking for a place to write and create, somewhere spacious and with an available screen,” said Kolby Runager, operations manager at The Lost Draft, a newly opened coffee shop perched between Little Italy and Nolita. “Then our team developed the concept, focusing largely on the design, with some favorites including a floating vintage typewriter inspired by Harry Potter, a bathroom inspired by The Shining and a mailbox to collect stories and scripts.” (Fun fact: All the music they play at the café comes from movie soundtracks.)
Admission to work there is as simple as buying a cup of joe. Coffee aficionados will also rejoice in knowing the venue has filter coffee sourced from Niagara and Peru, and Jamaica Blue Mountain and Colombia single origin for pour-over. “We also have a rare machine for cold brew and brewed iced tea and are one of the first coffee shops in the US to use it,” said Runager.
Primary
This wellness-focused co-working space at 26 Broadway has thoughtful touches like Zen greenery throughout, wood details, curated playlists and a branded scent to help you settle into your Genius Zone and start the work day.
When you’re ready to bid adieu to any of the 160 private offices, multiple open co-working spaces or conference rooms, Primary boasts a Peloton bike room, fitness studio with daily classes, showers, locker rooms and a nap room. To round out your work-from-bliss experience, there’s unlimited drip coffee from Unity Roasters, tea and lemon-infused water.
Expect a motley crew of entrepreneurs, lawyers, finance professionals, graphic designers, theater groups and more, all with “a desire to connect with each other on a personal level and to give back to the community,” said Lisa Skye, co-founder of Primary. “Primary is ideal for those with busy, active lifestyles and who are always on the go, and the location is next to almost every train line making it commutable for anyone in the tri-state area.”
Membership rates start at $300 per month.
Life Time
If you’re all about embracing holistic wellness and infusing as much of that ethos into your workday as possible, Life Time, which includes locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Long Island and Westchester, is your match made in sweaty Shangri-La.
These “athletic country clubs” (yes, some locations have pickleball) have handsome lounges for accomplishing whatever the 9-to-5 throws at you, as well as a spa, café and Kids Academy with up to 2 1/2 hours of drop-off care every day.
Life Time Dumbo opened in October, and Life Time One Wall Street started welcoming members last month, with other city clubs in Hell’s Kitchen, Noho and Flatiron. When you’re ready to blow off work stress, get your flow on in LifePower yoga classes, take a boxing-inspired class, log laps in the pool, or sculpt and tone with top-notch trainers.
Membership is $275 per month.
The Yard
“We’re called ‘The Yard’ because we believe in the balance between work and play,” said Jasmine Pierik, senior manager at The Yard. “Our founders wanted to create a place where folks could congregate to get things done, meet other people, and also be able to hang out and enjoy themselves. Since then, our community has grown to more than 2,000 companies and thousands of members.”
With nine locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, highlights of these spaces include appealing curated art featuring artists from the metropolitan area, bookable conference rooms for meetings and calls, printing and free coffee, water, tea, espresso and accoutrements.
Expect an eclectic professional community, plenty of comfy furniture and to do some serious networking during “water cooler” moments.
“We also love the roof at our Lower East Side location and the gym in Gowanus,” added Pierik.
Rates start at $10 a day.
Devoción Café and Roaster
Looking for an epic coffee shop for Zoom meetings and marathon Excel sessions? Choose from any of Devoción’s four cafés in Williamsburg, Downtown Brooklyn, Dumbo and the Flatiron District in Manhattan and you’ll be glad for the change of scenery.
Speaking of which, the ambience is quite superb, with all locations featuring biophilic design and exposed brick. Our top pick is the biggest location, Williamsburg, where “the centerpiece of the façade is a tall, recessed doorway with raw steel and glass doors through which our roasting room can be seen,” as Devoción founder Steven Sutton put it.
In the café’s main room, busy bees are greeted with “a soaring open-plan, day-lit space with a serving counter at one end and a stunning two-story vertical garden on the far wall featuring plants from Colombia including our 150 native coffee plants.”
For those who live in pint-sized NYC abodes, we particularly like how the sunlight streaming in through the rooftop skylight coupled with the vertical garden gives you that en plein air experience.
There’s no cost to join; just purchase some of their swoonworthy coffee and open your Slack app.
Work Heights
Brooklyn dwellers, perk up your ears and plop down your portfolio at Work Heights with outposts in Crown Heights, Clinton Hill, Bed Stuy, Prospect Heights and Prospect Lefferts Gardens. Toilers can commingle with a cohort comprised of independent business owners, freelancers and remote workers alike in spaces hand-built “using original design details, minimalist principles and upcycling used materials wherever possible,” said owner Sam Strauss-Malcolm. “We also have five amazing backyards, so our members love to garden hop during their work days,” he added. (Fun fact: Work Heights has a volunteer team of members who process all their in-house compost, which is used in their gardens.)
As another perk, the co-working retreat provides tasty, strong and free pour-over coffee from La Colombe to keep your energy up and free chocolate to keep your sweet tooth satisfied.
“We have 300-plus members who are working in every industry from robotics and clean energy to fiction writers and social workers,” said Strauss-Malcolm. “At one of our happy hours I got to hear about a member researching crustaceans for ocean cleaning and anti-erosion properties.”
Membership starts at $195 per month.
Soho Works
For chi-chi coworking, we’d be remiss in not steering you towards Soho Works. From the exclusive Soho House members’ club and hotel empire, these dedicated co-working spaces (there’s one around the corner from Soho House in Meatpacking and two in Dumbo), will have you bumping elbows with movers and shakers in tech, arts, finance and more.
“Created in response to members’ need for a workspace that combines Soho House’s design, service, and attention to detail, Soho Works is an international network of workspaces where creative thinkers and businesses can connect, collaborate and grow,” said Jakob Hesketh, head of communications, the Americas. “Each workspace places creatives together, using Soho House’s member-driven ethos to encourage collaboration and help members and their businesses do their best work.”
Unlike at the House, you’re welcome to use your laptop and chat on the phone beyond 6 p.m. and you can also host meetings with full office facilities.
For non-Soho House members, there’s a $125 joining fee plus $450 per month. For Soho House members, it’s $200 per month on top of House membership. For Soho Friends, it’s an extra $400 per month.