Coffee, WiFi, and inspiration
September 4th, 2006 (9:50pm) Niall Kennedy 27 Comments
Local cafes can provide a strong dose of caffeine, free WiFi, and power to help you write, code, or troubleshoot. The best cafes have comfortable tables, quality coffee and espresso, and talented baristas.
The west cost of the United States is lucky to have quality work-friendly cafes. Below are my favorite work spots from Seattle to San Francisco.
Espresso Vivace Alley 24 in Seattle combines famous espresso with over 2000 square feet of work space. The staff is friendly and the manager Brian is very friendly to the beduin office crowd by providing both sweet and savory food items. Espresso Vivace even has a small glass-enclosed room in the back for extra quiet while surrounded by available power outlets. Parking is ample, and I-5 is just a few blocks away to take you to your next meeting.
Stumptown Coffee Roasters in Portland imports some of the best coffee beans available including a few Cup of Excellence winners prepared in a $8000 Clover single cup coffee brewer. I enjoy the exposed brick walls and the variety of local non-coffee drinks available such as Jones Soda.
Tip: All espresso drinks are priced as single shots, so be sure to up your dosage as you order larger-sized drinks.
Ritual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco was designed as a laptop-friendly cafe for coffee aficionados. The 1000 square-foot space has power outlets at every table, two wireless access points. The coffee is flown in several times a week from Stumptown Coffee Roasters and prepared by award-winning professional baristas.
Tip: T-Mobile customers have reported weak cellphone reception within the cafe. Power outlets are turned off on the weekend to allow higher turnover.
27 Comments Post your own comment
Rob says: September 5th, 2006 12:36am
Great idea guys. The mobile office is now, more than ever becoming a reallity. How about featuring more about the tools needed for a virtual office like:
1) Online Workforce Collaboration Suites, do they work? who uses them?
2) Hosted PBX Vendor comparison
3) Online video conference/ workspace sharing tools, are they usefull?
Leo Archer says: September 5th, 2006 12:40am
Latte, wifi and a spot to work
When I was fantasising about leaving formal employment and striking out on my own I imagined spending hours in my local coffee shop with my PowerBook working away for hours on end. It was almost idyllic and was the way
Roland Dobbins says: September 5th, 2006 12:57am
What’s with the summary feed, which doesn’t even indicate it’s a summary feed with a parenthesis? Please turn on full-text feeds, thanks!
Ny Blog: Den virtuelle arbejder « intaneti says: September 5th, 2006 1:02am
[...] Bloggen vil give gode råd om arbejdet og livet som ‘virtual worker’. Hvilke værktøjer der kan gøre arbejdet mere effektivt, hvordan man skifter mellem arbejds- og fritid og hvad er det bedste udstyr til kontakten med ens kollegaer er blandt de emner der vil blive behandlet. Bloggen tager først og fremmest sit udgangspunkt i USA og en anmeldelse af caféer med fri internet på den amerikanske vestkyst er måske knapt så relevant for danske læsere. [...]
Gordon says: September 5th, 2006 1:10am
Coffee? Here in Glasgow we have Wi-Fi pubs!
(Not hugely conducive to high productivity though!)
Nicole Simon says: September 5th, 2006 4:30am
There is no link for “Ritual Coffee Roasters”?
vasta says: September 5th, 2006 5:10am
The excellent group Wireless Toronto has gone around setting up free wi-fi connections in cafes across Toronto. If anyone is ever up north here in the city, their map is definitely worth checking out.
Le Web 2.0 en français » Bienvenue, Web Worker Daily! says: September 5th, 2006 5:20am
[...] Le site GigaOM vient de nous pondre un nouveau blog dédié aux chanceux qui travaillent sur internet, depuis leur foyer: Web Worker Daily. C’est donc un blog rempli de conseils pratiques pour ces travailleurs de l’ombre, à l’image du dernier billet sur les cafés-wifi. [...]
Narendra says: September 5th, 2006 6:27am
Niall and Om,
This is begging to be blown up into something much bigger like “Web Worker Daily Rated” — 1-3 stars like Michelin. Signal Strength, Coffee Quality, Hipster Factor.
Jacqui Maher says: September 5th, 2006 9:06am
I agree with Narendra. I could see this leading to a ratings system for wifi coffeehouses.
With that, I’d like to put my vote in for Ritual. I love that cafe, and I spend a fair amount of time working on my laptop there.
David Adams says: September 5th, 2006 9:19am
Wow! Someone finally got something right. Vivace is far and away some of the best coffee to be had in Seattle; a city full of coffee houses. Thanks for not mentioning Starbucks!
coutorture says: September 5th, 2006 10:35am
Finding a good coffee shop in Seattle is not challenging - between Top Pot, Victrola, Vivace, Vita, Joe Bar, Bauhaus, Fuel, and the rest it’s difficult *not* to find a place suited to working. Not even going to mention the central library.
Find me a decent spot in Manhattan and I’ll be impressed. The locals here haven’t quite figured it out.
Niall Kennedy says: September 5th, 2006 10:47am
Coutorture,
Rumor is Intelligentsia Coffee Roasters may soon have a Manhattan location. I’ve heard good things about the new Juan Valdez Cafe on 57th near Park Ave. but I’ve never been.
Ron says: September 5th, 2006 11:18am
Need to add a plug for my fav spot… Notes from Underground at Van Ness and Green in SF.
Serge Lescouarnec says: September 5th, 2006 11:20am
Niall and Om
Congratulations on Web Worker Daily, I like the tone and the design.
I wrote about Ritual Coffee Roasters a while back on ‘Serge the Concierge’.
I might include your piece in a new coffee flavored post later this week.
Have a good day
Serge
Biz:
http://www.njconcierges.com
Blog:
http://www.sergetheconcierge.com
Britt says: September 5th, 2006 1:33pm
Two other great ones in NE Portland are Extracto and Concordia Coffee House. Both have excellent espresso and free wi-fi. I get most of my work done at those two places.
Chris says: September 5th, 2006 4:18pm
Going a little east from California, I bring you Arizona Coffee which has a huge list of all of the coffee shops in Arizona with free wireless internet. I run the site and this is shameless self promotion. But I dig this webworkerdaily and I’m gonna subscribe to the rss feed.
Ian says: September 5th, 2006 5:51pm
And a little further east… Cafe Coco in Nashville, TN, has good coffee, open 24 hrs, funky atmosphere, and usually several people hanging out / working until all hours! It gets my five stars!
Laughing Squid » Web Worker Daily says: September 5th, 2006 8:57pm
[...] Yesterday Om Malik launched the newest blog in his GigaOm network: Web Worker Daily. WWD is an resource for people who do web related work from virtual offices, at home or on the go. It’s like Om created a blog just for me, especially with posts like Niall Kennedy’s “Coffee, WiFi, and Inspiration”. Job security, forty hour weeks, two Martini lunches, ties, nylons and handwritten memos are now relics of the past, while freelancing, flex time, lattes, company t-shirts, jeans and email are de rigeur. An ‘office’ now includes idyllic campuses that can be lived in, well, to any sandy beach, rowdy bar or coffee roastery with Internet connections. Either way, you can wear pajamas to work. [...]
Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive The SWAT (solos working alone together) Approach « says: September 6th, 2006 12:15am
[...] Of course if you don’t have a blog, you could simply email people, or send them a text message. It doesn’t have to be very complicated. So what is a good SWAT location? Clark says find a cafe with great wifi, and that is reasonably quiet. Also look for a place which has good tables and a staff that appreciates the extra bases. Has Clark found a good place in San Francisco? “No haven’t found the perfect one as yet.” He likes Muddy Waters though it is not ideal. Hopefully some of our posts should help him find the spot he truly loves. [...]
anna says: September 6th, 2006 12:58am
Two things: one, I can’t read most of this because it’s grey text on black (I’m on firefox 1.03, PC - xp
two, was just at RRoasters, and the wireless has improved magnificently. Yes, the powerplug thing on weekends (just sat & sun) does limit you to your battery + spare life.
great new blog Om!
steven says: September 6th, 2006 11:03am
How about a location list for silicon valley?
Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive Commentist Party: Fun With Feedback « says: September 6th, 2006 7:45pm
[...] Our first week isn’t even over and already we’ve had some great comments. There have been a lot of great suggestions (hotspot ratings a La Guide Michelin, video conferencing and hosted PBX coverage, reaching out to a non-profit community always eager to cut costs) and some kindly bug reports. Hopefully we’ve fixed the issues with the RSS feeds! [...]
mUnit : Mun talks technology » Web Worker Daily says: September 8th, 2006 5:08am
[...] Niall Kennedy talks about coffee, wifi and inspiration. I’ve tried working from Starbucks once, and it’s nice. Orlando really needs a place like Expresso Vivace Roasteria though. Expresso Vivace Alley 24 in Seattle combines famous espresso with over 2000 square feet of work space. The staff is friendly and the manager Brian is very friendly to the beduin office crowd by providing both sweet and savory food items. Espresso Vivace even has a small glass-enclosed room in the back for extra quiet while surrounded by available power outlets. Parking is ample, and I-5 is just a few blocks away to take you to your next meeting. [...]
Princeton Area Wi-Fi Cafes « Island in the Net says: September 9th, 2006 10:20am
[...] Om Malik has started a new blog called Web Worker Daily. One of his postings is a short list of Wi-Fi enabled cafes on the west coast of the USA. I decided to start a similar list for the Princeton, NJ area. Local cafes can provide a strong dose of caffeine, free WiFi, and power to help you write, code, or troubleshoot. The best cafes have comfortable tables, quality coffee and espresso, and talented baristas. - Om Malik [...]
Dan Reinhold says: October 11th, 2006 6:23am
At home or not, coffee is the unofficial official fuel of choice for the “Non-traditional” worker.
There’s still 19 percent of us Americans making it at home, though.
But then, I never get the froth quite right.
Uchu says: October 13th, 2006 12:21pm
We order coffee through the web and prefer Javaberry now. It’s simply good quality coffee with nice smooth taste. As far as I know the secret of this famous coffee is a procedure of roasting. A producer follows the ancient recipe and uses the modern equipment.