Le Pain Quotidien - various locations around Manhattan, including W.72nd St, 18th St., Grand St., 58th St.
What does one call this? A "high end" coffee house? The communal tables are the best - long long long wooden tables situated mid-room, smaller tables surrounding the perimeter. I love this place to hang out in, wait for friends or others, a good place to meet. The food and coffee are good, and so were the dessert last year, though I don't know what happened to the pumpkin pie this past fall but it was awful and orange-y, compared to the heavenly delight they made the year before. But the last time I had the Belgian waffle, I was beyond happy.
The customer base changes depending on the neighborhood. 58th Street was crowded, W.72nd had many solo, well dressed diners, Grand St. varies between small groups of obnoxious sneering wanna be hipsters and slightly older couplings meeting to discuss business proposals and transactions.
This is apparently a world-wide franchise, and I like the idea that I could travel to, say, London or Tokyo or Kuwait and plop myself down at the neighborhood LPQ to read or have a sip of coffee. In my dreams, I do travel that much.
Pros: good atmosphere - clean and spacious, casual place to hang, table service or cafe optional. I like the handle-less coffee bowls
Con: a bit pricy for a casual hangout, they close WAY too early (7pm? 7:30? come on....), the utterly disappointing and unforgivable change in the pumpkin pie last fall
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