Saturday, November 29, 2008

The best cafe in the world

Here's Mr. Construction Worker and Laura waiting for our breakfast in New York City at the Essex World Cafe. Without any exterior fanfare it's the coolest cafe I've ever been to. It's located on a street that faces the huge hole that was the World Trade Center. Construction workers that are busy at work on the WTC site seem to frequent this place as, I'm sure, the many people who used to work at the Twin Towers did seven years ago. Once inside the cafe you slowly realize where you are. In a place of humble history.


The Essex World cafe became known by another name on September 12th 2001 as the "Liberty Treatment Site". After the Towers came down it became a medical center and I can only use the best of my mental powers to try to imagine the activity that may have happened inside it's doors.

This is a picture of a picture inside the cafe during the time it was a medical station.

The walls have memorials and pictures from September 11th. It was quite sobering but more-so, healing. The construction workers that arrive and leave in a steady flow seem representative of a sense of pride in the anticipation of newness for the area. The cafe continued on and stayed open. It adapted to the situation and has morphed into a symbol of the continuity of life with a reverance for the past. It's the best breakfast Bob, Kevin, and I have had in a long time.

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