As I visit New York City for the fifth time, I am still amazed by the hundreds of unique people who surround me.
From the Halal street vendors to the hyperactive New York Stock Exchange Workers to the Billionaire CEO’s, I got to see it all. New York brings a different experience every time you go, especially when you start to get away from the typical tourist type of places.
Even though Time Square is one of these tourist places, the one thing I love to see is the different street performers. Now I’m not talking about the people who dress up like Disney characters. I mean the ones who are performing for the love of their talent, or because their homeless and have to perform in order to get dinner to their mouth.
Among my favorites this trip around was the man painted silver, a saxophone player, and the guy who did a side flip over seven people.
The people there all have a story, and not the type of story you hear every day.
Just as there are a lot of different people, there are a lot of different places to go. Of course there’s the chains like H&M and T.G.I. Friday’s, but there’s also a lot of unique places hidden in the nooks and crannies if you zoom into the map on your phone far enough.
That being said, of course you can find a Starbucks on every corner, but there’s hundreds of other coffee places that you have probably never tried before, and they are probably right next door.
When me and my friends arrived at the city last time around, we came out from the subway station by Central Park, ready for breakfast.
I voice commanded Siri, “Coffee near my location.” Of course, several popped up.
I could have chose the closest Starbucks to my location, but we ended up walking a block over to a place called Paris Baguette. Now although this is also a chain,we had never tried it before (since it’s only a chain near the coast in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania).
We never made a better decision in our life. No lie, I got the best frappe and cheese danish I’ve ever had. But I never would’ve had it if I didn’t step back and say, let’s look for something new, something that’s not Starbucks.
Now don’t get me wrong, I do love Starbucks. If it wasn’t so overpriced and a little more accessible to my location, I’m sure I would have it on the daily. I am a gold member after all.
Just because Starbucks is a chain, doesn’t mean you can’t have a unique experience while you’re there. After all, it is what you make of it and how you interact with the people while there.
Something which I saw in New York when I was grabbing my Starbucks for the 8 hour bus ride home, was an effort to de-chain the place.
By this I mean the Starbucks I went to was trying to do something which the other places weren’t, or at least which I had never seen before. They were hosting tasting of coffees from around the world.
I thought this was a nice twist on Starbucks because educates people on the different coffee’s representing all the different cultures which New York is home to.
Not enough people care to know the difference between the coffee’s of different regions, so it’s nice to see that extra step to connect with people and let them taste the difference between each culture. The sign they had out also educates people on the differences between the coffees so even if they can’t come to the tasting, they can learn about the history and background behind the beans.
This is a small step of knocking down the typical chain atmosphere of Starbucks, and it goes to show that every place no matter what can offer a new and interesting experience.
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