At 34 Berry, a 142-unit rental on the other side of Williamsburg that opened in 2010, the landlord is trying even harder to create a cafe-by-the-concierge effect.
"In the spirit of Harry Selfridge," he explained as he disentangled two chairs and a small metal table, "I'm creating a cafe in the shade".
Tessa used to talk about creating "a cafe society" like we enjoy in France or Spain in August: civilised drinking, no FOTBs or roaring drunks, that sort of thing.
McDonald's, by contrast, has grown rapidly in France and in Europe over the years by fine-tuning as needed, like using French cheeses, mustards and meats; preserving local architecture in some of its showcase stores; and more recently, creating a cafe area in some locations to accommodate coffee-sipping patrons.
The branch in the Roppongi district (Roppongi 6-8-14 6-8-14 6-8-1421) is a three-minute walk from the Hibiya Line subway stop and has tables in front that create a cozy cafe.
He issued Flip cameras to all the reporters at Journal Register papers, helped create a newsroom cafe that's open to the community in Torrington, Conn., and has been pushing to dump ancient proprietary newsroom software in favor of free, Web-based publishing tools.
Plans call for the store to be open from Aug. 17 through 21, and based on how it fares, Mr. Thompson said, the company may reopen it again at another site in New York, open similar stores in other cities or create a "mobile cafe" that would tour the country.
Island Properties offered the site of a former beauty parlor on East Main Street and 10th and 11th graders at Oyster Bay High School have designed a business plan to create an Internet cafe run by students.
"We wanted to create a typical Turkish cafe that's calming and relaxing," Mehmet Saricicek, 21, said in a recent phone interview.
In addition, ground-floor renovations will create a pool-house cafe, a site for a preschool and perhaps a doctors' office.
The cafe is the brainchild of Jenny Hunt and Holly Darton, who met while studying fine art at Central St Martins and who wanted to create a real working cafe that also had art on the menu.
