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Comment by keraf | Hacker News Reader

I'm in the same boat. I found that becoming a regular in a coffee shop and working from there kinda works for me. I take my breaks with the baristas, have chats with other regulars, and I have access to good coffee. Sure, it's not the same as having colleagues but there's still human contact and you meet interesting people from different industries. Alternatively, I was thinking of joining a co-working space but for now the coffee shop works well.

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I'm curious: how much do you end up spending on coffee while at the coffee shop, and in how many hours? I find sitting in a coffee shop with a laptop comes with the expectation that you'll keep buying coffee, food, _something_ at regular intervals (which of course makes sense). The accepted intervals tend to vary between coffee shops. I was also thinking of working from coffee shops more at some point, but then I wonder how much I'll end up paying for the privilege..

When I visited Paris a few months ago, I found a coffee shop that was specifically targeting people who wanted a place to work, and turned the business model upside down: instead of selling you drinks, and you getting the place for free, they would bill you by the hour, and the drinks were free (and good!). Of course, that means you get to stay as long as you want, no questions asked. The prices were 5€/h or 24€/day, which was totally OK for me as I just needed to work for one day.

What's the name of the coffee shop? :)

I think I know the place he is talking about: HUBSY café & coworking | Saint-Lazare. Been there several times, you pay by the hour with unlimited drinks and some snacks. It's a small place but it is nice and was life-saving for me.

There's also l'Anticafé.

It was Unicorners, on Rue Beaubourg.

There is a similar space in Nice: https://www.canafe.fr

But it could be kind of expensive if you're an entry level developer at Paris or Nice salaries.

Yep these are anti cafe models (HUBSY is one) you can find them on google maps. On my side I find paris too expensive I moved to Estonia where any normal cafe is cool to hang out at or co working are at a descent price too (aorund 250$ a month) including free coffee (Palo Alto labs is one)

With an average price of 2.5€/coffee (just DDG-d it)... I couldn't drink that much coffee over the course of a day.

I would say I usually spend around 7€ for an entire day. But there's a mix of common sense and also agreement with the barista. I will generally consume more or leave if the coffee shop gets really busy, or change my seat to the least used one (next to the noisy coffee machine). The baristas also think I'm good company, so that also plays in favour of me staying longer without consuming excessively. And from time to time I help them out if there's something they can't do alone.

I also found other coffee shop that are more work focused. They are usually more spacious and with big shared tables. They mind less if you don't consume regularly. Of course, that's always as long as they don't get overly busy. In general you will notice if your presence is a "problem", you will be asked if you want to consume more.

Edit: I'm located in Prague, CZ.

Also in Prague, which cafés do you like?

My regular one is Republica Coffee, but I also go a lot to the café in Kasarna Karlin (my favourite spot but a bit further from home). Occasionally, I also like to work from Mama Coffee, Miners and Super Tramp (in summer, the outside area is cool).

That's why Starbucks is so popular for work and some locations redesigned their sitting area to fit remote workers better. At Starbucks no one cares how much money you spend vs how long you're sitting there. I like working from coffee shops but it's more for a change of scenery for a few hours when I don't have meetings. Besides the meeting issue, it's not the most comfortable setup.

How do you take meetings? I’d love to work from a cafe. But I just have too many calls or people asking for help on a 1:1 to be comfortable being “that obnoxious guy” on the phone all the time.

I've been working remotely for nearly two years now. Working form a caffe is the equivalent of passively reading emails whilst drinking coffee, anything beyond that requires proper work environment whether it's a room at home or the office.

That's one of the downsides of coffee shops. Luckily I only have a daily standup that lasts 5 minutes. For the rare longer meetings where I need to talk a lot, I tend to arrange them so I can take them from home. If they are mid-day, I take them outside if it's warm enough.

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