Team Insight: In Defence of Working from a Bar Before 5pm 🥛

There’s something quietly thrilling about opening your laptop in a bar before it’s filled with people.

The music’s good. The lighting’s better. And you’re sipping a coffee (or something stronger, we won’t tell) while knocking out your to-do list from a leather booth that smells like stories.

In New York, space is sacred. Every square foot is loaded with potential. So when a place feels good, why should time dictate how you use it?

Let’s face it: most “work-friendly” spots aren’t actually that friendly. Coffee shops packed with laptop zombies, coworking spaces that charge a small fortune to breathe near a window and home setups that feel more like a padded cell by Thursday afternoon.

But bars, good bars - in the off-hours? They’re often empty, peaceful, and full of character.

You get music instead of corporate playlists, flattering lighting instead of overhead strip lights and service that feels like a person, not a policy. It’s ambient energy without distraction. A shift in atmosphere that makes you focus differently, move differently, think differently.

You might meet someone interesting. You might get offered a job. You might write your best pitch of the week while watching the bartender prep for the evening crowd.

Of course, respect the space. Don’t treat it like a free desk. Order something. Say hi. Be a good guest. And when happy hour rolls around, close your laptop - or don’t. You’ve already earned your seat.

In a city where everything is constantly repurposed, reimagined and reborn - maybe this is just another evolution. The post-office office. The real-life remote desk. The anti-WeWork.

Because the best place to work might just be the one that isn’t trying to be a workplace at all.

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Support local spots open for work with a fluxo Workpass and find out firsthand.