On warm-weather mornings, Mr. Bennett, a contractor, grabs a cup of coffee, wraps a towel around his waist and climbs a flight of stairs to the roof deck he shares with the other residents of his building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Mars lives at his sister's place in public housing and works for a fictional outfit called Joey Chainz — a coffee joint wrapped in a bicycle shop mixed up with symbols of gentrification.
There are spas for all budgets: near Wat Visoun is the no-frills Lao Red Cross massage (a few pounds); the affordable L'Hibiscus Spa (from £6); or the indulgent Lao Coffee Body Wrap (£50) at the Sofitel Luang Prabang.
"You started to deal with a certain company that had some salsas or some fancy steak sauces or whatever," Mr. Sommer said, "and you say, 'O.K., well, we'll try that.' " The gift-basket business evolved from customer requests to have coffee purchases wrapped.
Don't be surprised to get a cup of coffee and wrapped-to-go, gourmet breakfast taco stuffed with local veggies and meat at Jo's Coffee downtown for less than $7.
To be sure, some foods — a sandwich or wrap, coffee and Danish — travel well.
Crawling, I managed to reach a coffee table and wrapped myself into a ball under it.
He explained his methods: pop open the canister of biscuit dough, roll it out with a coffee mug, and wrap one strip around each miniature hot dog.
Spend the morning drinking coffee on the wrap-around porch and the evening sipping specialty cocktails in the bar.
That night, in the house she would be leaving soon, we wrapped coffee mugs in newspaper as the sun slowly set over the lake.
