For various reasons that, for now, must remain secret, I have had cause to leave my apartment at night and stumble around town until I lose whatever thought I had just previously found and find myself, instead, terribly lost and in need of a sit-down at some time likely after midnight.

This wouldn’t be a problem if I were a boozer, but I’m not. Alcohol doesn’t suit me.

I much prefer a nice cup of coffee alone or with company that might lead to a rather too sober quickening of ideas both humorous and argumentative, mad with brilliance until the sun comes up and we go down…

There doesn’t seem to be much of a market for it, however, but I would love to generally be able to find some strange nightclub cafe somewhere near wherever I might end up any given night that at least provided the option of quality coffee, not simply a burning black pot of emergency crude.

Clearly, here and there, you’ll find some dodgy diner that will serve some sort of coffee long through the night. That’s not what I’m looking for…unless it is one with quite some unique charm to set it apart.

Here then is a list – paltry for now – of caffeinated twilight sanctuaries. Please share your own findings, no matter the location, and I’ll update…at least for my own use. There is always the chance that I may start walking one night in Manhattan, so long lost in thought, looking up, only eventually, to find myself in Nebraska or Prague.

It could happen.

NEW YORK CITY:

Manhattan

• Yaffa Cafe
  97 St. Marks Place
  (between 1st Ave & Avenue A)
  New York, NY 10009

  24/7

  A bit more than just basic bites at reasonable prices in a fuzzy hipster cafeteria/dinette hodge-podge. Coffee, of course, Beer and Wine.

• Veselka

  144 2nd Ave
  (between St Marks Place & 9th St)
  New York, NY 10003

  24/7

  Ukrainian Socialist Soul Food in a cozy craft diner atmosphere. Anarchy Coffee. Capitalist Beer and Wine.

Those are the only two places…in the entire world. Totally exhaustive research.