Spending hours nursing the dregs of your latte while catching up with friends or making the most of the free wifi, has become part and parcel of modern café culture - but not in this new café.
Instead of charging customers for what they consume, visitors at Glasshour in Brooklyn actually pay for the amount of time they spend there.
Hot drinks and granola bars are free and unlimited - as is access to their wifi, board games and foosball table - but you need to keep an eye on the clock as the first hour costs $US6, and you fork out ten cents for every minute thereafter.
Customers check in and out to pay and bills are capped at $US24 per person with the idea being that it functions as an “anti-café”. A similar charge by the minute café opened in Russia in 2010 and has gone on to expand its business across Europe and the UK.
While this establishment may not be your ideal option for a lengthy coffee date, it may catch on as an option for people who need an agile work or study space where they can connect their laptop to the Internet and enjoy endless coffees on the side.
Then again, there’s always Starbucks for that.
