My favorite New York City coffee joint is called Sunburst. It’s located on the corner of 18th and 3rd. The music is soft, a big-screen TV is on (sans volume), the drinks are excellent and the food, well, passable. There’s free internet, outlets aplenty, and the employees could care less whether you stay for one hour or 10 (today, I’m here for about 10).
There’s.
Just.
One.
Problem.
The bathroom is gross. I’ve come to expect this of most New York City establishments—hell, with foot traffic comes pee drops and poop smell and unique substances on the lip of the toilet. Yet here, at Sunburst, the bathroom is the size of a coffin. Like, literally, a fat man could not be laid to rest inside Sunburst’s bathroom. And they seem to clean the facility sorta kinda never. Well, not never. But once every space shuttle launch. And since the United States has shelved the space shuttle program …
Thing is, I love it here. L-o-v-e it. So, as a concession, I hold everything in as long as humanly possible and, when desperation hits, I plug my nose, close my eyes … and enter hell.
