The other day I learned that the East Village restaurant Belcourt, which I recently mentioned in the Dining section’s Briefs column, was making free wireless available to diners. And I realized that I’d read about, heard about or observed the way more and more restaurants are doing this.
They’re in some manner competing with Starbucks and the like as places where someone who wants a break from the apartment or a break from the office without a break from writing or e-mailing can go and squat and type-type-type, provided they’re doing some consuming as well.
The West Village restaurant Morandi, an acquaintance told me, makes wireless available, and its daytime patrons know that. Schiller’s Liquor Bar is apparently another place where, at least during the day, open laptops can be seen on the tables, because diners can also access wireless there.
I sent an e-mail around to some of the publicists who represent restaurants, curious to see how many other places provide — and encourage the use of — wireless connection to the web.
Apparently two restaurants run by Marc Murphy — the branch of Landmarc in the Time Warner Center and Ditch Plains, in Greenwich Village — provide wireless. And at Ditch Plains, apparently, a great many diners take advantage of it.
I was told that the Little Owl, in the West Village, has wireless, and so does Boqueria, in Chelsea. But while Boqueria mentions that service on its web site, it doesn’t mention it on menus.
That prompts a digression: I wonder, in fact, just how fervently restaurateurs want to promote the availability of wireless and encourage its use. Allowing a few diners to get on line when they really need to is one thing. So is having a bunch of laptop-armed grazers in the mid-afternoon, when a restaurant might otherwise be pretty empty. Read more …
LONDRES
E
PARIS
NA~O TEM NADA TA~O FREE ASSIM
NA~O
TAMBEM
GOSTEI
DO NOVO
TETINHA
AH
AQUELE DOS GANSSOSÇX
PAHTUXS
E TRA LAH LAHZES
A RIDIHCULA
NA~O
PODE VER UM SEM CAMISA
QUE FICA
TODA MORNA
E TAMBEM AVISOU
MEU NOME AGORA
EH MORNA BLEHIM
HUM POUCO
ALEM DE CONSUMIR
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