I strangely haven’t gotten sick of this new Sh*t people say video craze yet — maybe I’m just easily amused! I know it’s been a minute on here — I felt like my birthday was a good time to take a little break, but I promise to be back with a lot more goodies. Until then, you can sink your teeth into the latest video that popped up: Sh*t Baristas Say .

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Shy

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Excessively stylish? Or is there no such thing?

Jimmy Choo cup holders, $165

Totally appropriate gift for the office-going coffee-lover. Also, depends how much you love said coffee-lover. The cup sleeves are available at jimmychoo.com for $165 in fucshia and orange (or £95 for the black and croc ones at Net-a-Porter).

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Shy

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Last weekend, I was trying — trying — to get some writing done bright and early in the morning right when I woke up at 11 AM. But on an empty stomach, I could barely get myself to write out a sentence. And it was one of those occasions in my kitchen where I had like five boxes of cereal but no milk, butter but no bread, pancake mix and no energy, etc. I wanted something quick too since I had a whole day planned that required me to be out and about, not sitting in front of my computer.

Blue Dog Cafe

I asked my cousin/roomie, Safia, where we can grab a quick breakfast and her eyes lit up as if she’s been waiting for me to ask her this all morning:

“Oh Shy! There’s this place I pass by everyday to work called Blue Dog Café and I’ve been meaning to check it out! Let’s go!” {direct quote}

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By Summar Ghias

Brunch may just be my favorite pastime. But brunch well past standard brunch timings at a 24-hour café essentially morphs me into a kid in a candy store. You can only imagine my excitement at hearing about the new Bleeding Heart Bakery & Café, a welcome bright spot in Chicago’s otherwise dismal late-night dining scene. The restaurant has an edgy diner vibe with vivid tattoo inspired art on the walls and what the owners dub a “local sustainable punk rock brunch” all day, every day.

After road-tripping to Indiana for a concert (yeah, Lupe!), some friends and I were in need of grub. Not just any kind of grub though. Once we’d confirmed that the food was delicious (because really, the host would have told us if it wasn’t), we set out to order from the brunch menu and eye the well-endowed glass counter from afar in all its munchkin and mini-cake mound glory. After oscillating between sweet and savory, I settled on a wild mushroom polenta eggs benedict with roasted red peppers and what seemed like an exotic twist on the standard condiment: persimmon hollandaise. My friends got the farmer’s veggie skillet, the seasonal fruit pancakes and, wait for it, the fried vanilla bean yeast doughnut breakfast sandwich with eggs and cheese.

My disappointing but tasty looking Wild Mushroom Polenta Benedict.

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By Bilal Mohammad

Grey Dogs Coffee

I love New York City mornings because of the special energy that is in the air as people are rushing to work, class, and wherever else they are going. What I don’t love is when you’re running late and you don’t have time to get a coffee on your way. This morning I was walking through Washington Square Park with only five minutes until class so I decided to defer getting my morning caffeine fix until after class. To make up for the self-inflicted delayed gratification, I decided to go to The Grey Dog, a quaint coffeehouse situated on University Place that I’d been meaning to try for a few weeks now.

THE grey dog...I think

Grey Dog more closely resembles a quirky Austin, TX coffee haunt than it does the other chichi coffee shops that densely populate downtown Manhattan. The distressed, wooden, sea foam blue furniture and the lowered vintage ceiling fans add a special charm to the place.

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I realized there are times when I ADD so bad at my apartment, I can’t get any writing done. My go-to for when that happens is usually Think Coffee on Mercer — caffeine and a buzzy ambiance usually helps me focus for some reason. Problem was their Internet was down, so I asked around (OK, I asked peeps on Twitter) for other cafes. My friend @OSoChic suggested Kaffe 1668 in Tribeca. I barely venture out to that area so I figured I’d give it a try. The website did look cute.

Kaffe 1668

Kaffe 1668 coffeebeans

Kaffe 1668

Kaffe 1668

I took a fellow writer friend, Sarah, with me. She told me she was hungry and I had seen that they had sandwiches and a few other munchies on their menu. Problem is when we got there, they totally ran out of all their sandwiches. Even their desserts were scarce. We settled on carrot cake, a latte (for me), a mocha (for her).

Carrot cake

Latte

Mocha

The waiter might have had a crush on Sarah…she got the heart design while I just got a measly leaf one. Whatever.

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