Welcome to Writes & Bites — a series where Creative Writing MFA student Arianna Gundlach will periodically review a potential writing spot in New York City and tackle a writing topic that might be on your mind.
Hello, lovely readers and writers. I’ve been expecting you.
In choosing a place to visit, I thought about what was potentially most exciting. Just as you should do when deciding how to craft your opening lines: what deserves a place front and center, and what can be included in subsequent pages. For me, it was the hickory smoked s’mores latte I’d been dreaming about since I saw it on Felix Roasting Co.’s Yelp page.
A short subway ride on the 6 from the 14th Street-Union Square station to 33rd Street will let you off with just a three-minute walk to the café. The NoMad location is at 450 Park Ave. S sits very close to Penn Station, Moynihan Train Hall, and Madison Square Garden.
Felix Roasting Co. is something out of a modern-day fairytale: as if an enchantress invited you into her castle and inside was a private coffeehouse filled with pink and blue floral wallpaper, velvety couches, and old-timey portraits. There are 10 small circular tables in the front seating area and five in the back. Your eyes drift down to the terrazzo green and sandstone pink zig-zag mosaic floor, and you realize that not an inch of this café was left untouched by the interior designer (in the best of ways).
You can feel the rumble of the subway beneath you: a reminder that you’re still in the city and not in some storybook — unfortunately.
With the music and chatter, Felix Roasting Co. is not the best place for quiet study, but it gives you a lot to observe and enjoy. The hustle-and-bustle energy, plethora of aesthetic inspiration, and the company of others hankering to get something done make this an ideal writing spot.
The coffee shop has very few outlets (I only saw one in the front), so I would recommend coming fully charged or planning to write in a notebook. But with three laptop screens in sight, I can certify the café is laptop-friendly. The backless, brown leather stools across from the couches wobble a little each way you lean, so I would snag a couch seat for yourself.
In the center behind the circular, wooden bar are the one or two all-powerful baristas capable of granting your biggest wishes. And if your wish includes a rich, foamy mocha and a fluffy, buttery croissant, you’re in luck. The menu has all the staples for a caffeine lover and offers a few brunch foods (avocado toast, specialty bagels, grab-and-go sandwiches and salads). Their two signature drinks — the hickory smoked s’mores latte and the deconstructed espresso tonic — are very tempting, but are also the most expensive drinks on the menu at $15 and $11. In addition, the pastry options at the counter are fairly limited.
You get in what starts as a short line to order, but then one of the two masterful baristas disappears into the back, and you’re left with the one. While the care and effort sealed into each foamy swirl is much appreciated, a pile-up is inevitable with only one person manning the bar.
You finally make it to the front of the line and ask for the hickory smoked s’mores latte.
It comes in a cocktail-like glass with the rim coated in chocolate and graham cracker crumbs. A house-made, toasted marshmallow on a stick sits on top of the drink, which is comprised of espresso, steamed graham cracker-infused milk, dark chocolate, and cinnamon. And you think, what could be more perfect?
You lift your lips to the glass and take that first sip, and from that first sip in this enchanting café — you’re hooked. You’ve fallen for Felix Roasting Co.
Or you would have, if the hickory smoked s’mores latte had actually been in stock.
Something I can’t stand is a signature drink being put on a menu and then being sold out or out of stock before it’s even reached the afternoon. One wrong move can break the connection between consumer and café, and as writers, we must be wary of this as well.
Writers must forge a sacred pact with the reader from the very first page: if they stay for the journey, they won’t regret the ride. This goes for all forms of writing, not just fiction. An academic essay has to work twice as hard to deliver this promise, especially with non-academic readers.
Not every agent, editor, or publisher will give you multiple chapters to prove yourself. And the everyday reader is even less forgiving. They can put down your book on the first page — in fact, many of them will.
But how do we craft such an impossible standard? Don’t worry, it’s not as impossible as you may think. Your first page comes down to three things: hook, pull, hold.
Start with the first couple sentences (if you’re writing from scratch) or review your first page worth of material. What hooks the reader? What grabs their attention? What propels them into the pages ahead? What do they need to know from the jump?
It’s also good to consider what you were most excited about when writing because your readers will likely be excited about it too. Is the tidbit about the dead friend upfront in the third sentence or buried down in the sixth? Consider some rearranging, and always read your work aloud. You’ll hear the difference.
If you can hook from the first page, that’s great. Now, if you can do it in the first three to five sentences, that’s even better. And if you do it from the very first sentence alone, you’re golden.
Next, pull the reader along. What can they look forward to? Elaborate on the hook. Introduce the protagonist and what they want more than anything. Drop descriptive and sensory details; keep the reader’s eyes darting across the page, hanging on to every word.
While balancing story elements (action, description, and dialogue) is important, if the reader puts down your book from the opening dialogue, they’ll never get to the beautiful worldbuilding on the second page. If the “really good stuff” can’t be revealed until the end of the first chapter, think about how you can foreshadow to make it worth the wait. You need to give the reader something to hold on to, or they sadly won’t stay.
It’s okay if the pact doesn’t come out “right” the first time. Most times, it won’t. Try moving things around, changing your tense or point of view, and swapping out descriptive words (keep your thesaurus handy). Write what excites you; write what comes naturally. Starting from the beginning may be the most obvious choice, but it’s not your only choice in the writing process.
So when you find yourself at Felix Roasting Co., grab a couch corner seat and hole up for the day. Maybe they’ll have the hickory smoked s’mores latte this time; even if they don’t — you know what to do.
Remember: hook, pull, hold.