I’ve witnessed a lot of bizarre scenarios in the past 10 months of Starbucks exploration. You’d be quite surprised what some people decide to do in a NY C coffee house. Just yesterday, I sat a few seats down from a woman who apparently came to Starbucks just to charge her iPhone and listen to her music without headphones. She sat there for at least 2 hours blasting the most random music so that half the Starbucks patrons around her were forced to move.
Today at the Upper West Side Starbucks on 95th and Broadway, I bore witness to a whole different type of noise. An argument.
Two middle aged women, who clearly have several years invested in their friendship, apparently chose Starbucks for the place to have their reunion after a short cold-spell where neither had talked to each other. What resulted was a 90 minute debate over who stopped talking to who, why they stopped talking, what an email said, when one should have called the other and whose more dependent on whom. To sum it up, obviously both were ignoring one another because they felt they were being ignored. Lucky me — I got to know these women very, very well.
Hearing these two women bicker about who should have called who and each of them equally justifying the importance of their decisions not to reach out to the other, reminded me very much of two of my best friends back in Florida. The three of us together were this unstoppable force of tomfoolery, intimacy, bonding and magic. We felt more like a coven than just friends.
Now, my two friends have stopped talking to each other over a series of miscommunications and hurt feelings. They are actively ignoring one another while at the same time expecting the other to reach out to them. Sound familiar? To me, it resembles the game of uncle. Both are in pain but neither will cry out because they want the other to give in first. And since I’m 2000+ miles away, my intervention capabilities are severely limited.
The moral of this story is that I’m somewhat relieved to hear these women rekindling in Starbucks — after a few tears, they did end up making up — because it shows that there is hope for my two friends. Also, it proves that this behavior is not limited to gay men in their 20s — which is also a relief.
I know this does little to give you an idea for what the Starbucks on 95th & Broadway is really like, but I think you’ll find the description below to sum it up just fine.
The Good:
The Location… Right on Broadway and directly in front of the 1/2/3 train station.
The Seating… For a small Starbucks there is a good amount of seating — although it cramps the place up.
The Bad:
The Size… Small and a little cramped. Be careful when pushing your chair back, because you’ll probably bump into someone.
The Crowd… I’d say 90% of the seating is consistently occupied.
The Restroom… Just the one.
Barista Friendliness:
Drink of Choice:
Grande Iced Coffee.
Overall Starbucks Rating:
A small Upper West Side Starbucks with just enough room to rekindle a friendship.
Starbucks and the City 
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