The door of one bathroom cabinet was removed, so he can sit at the sink, desk-style.
The concept falls just short of gimmicky: school-desk-style tables are sleek and stylish, their drawers filled with notebooks and colored pencils, and both the wine list and the menu are written neatly on huge chalkboards, which are found in many restaurants these days anyhow.
And now, this recognisable vignette of the reality in countless coffee shops, is giving rise to a fascinating new battle: cafe owners are hiding plug sockets, disconnecting their routers or ditching desk-style seating to stop their businesses being overrun by the familiar army of MacBook-clutching freelancers, scanning the floor for somewhere to plug in.
The JBL Micro ($100) is a small, desk-style speaker with a built-in battery and USB port for charging other devices.
Though it doesn't offer much by way of neck support, you can lay your head down and slip your hands in the holes on the top for a nice desk-style nap.
Does lawyering when it becomes a help desk-style click through in a software platform that automates most standard legal processes?
Some touches, like the painstakingly placed green apples at the check-in desk, are style clichés borrowed from boutique hotels.
(For the record, the Earl has a Carlton House desk, a style that dates from the English Regency period; Hyde Park Antiques on Broadway offers a circa 1810 example for $130,000).
But those with visions of huge cash flow and a "prop your feet on the desk" management style are unrealistic, said Scott Shane, a franchising expert and professor at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
