Cafe Logistics

Though it was planted somewhere in the back of my mind, I consciously ignored that Tryst has nixed wi-fi on the weekends when I drove into DC this morning. It took the guy at the table next to me, noticing my furious examination of the available networks, mentioning this fact to jolt my memory. “That’s a kick in the balls,” I said, and closed my laptop to settle in for lunch and some reading.

It’s not a bad decision, and I say that in defiance of every “free wireless everywhere all the time” techno-utopian bone in my body. When the wi-fi was blazing on the weekends I’d often find myself waiting twenty minutes or more for a table to free up. Today, I strolled in around noon and immediately sat right down; the place was still full, but tables were turning over at a reasonable rate. It’s clearly better for Tryst’s business and better for the majority of their patrons. The only people with laptops open were deep in what looked to be scholastic or professional writing. Tryst is now, in my mind, clearly designated for meals and coffee with friends, or as a place to go to focus on reading or “disconnected” work. That’s a good kind of place to have.

The fact remained, however, that I needed an Internet connection today for lack of a reliable open wireless signal in my new apartment. I drove back to Arlington and have just now sat down at Murky, which, like Tryst, is far less busy than I remember it being on Sundays. Their wireless is always on, but there’s a healthy mix of laptoppers, students, friends conversing, and individuals pouring through books or the weekend paper.

I largely eschew wide-eyed accounts of cafes full of “laptop zombies.” At least, as ever more establishments invoke “wi-fi hours,” the giddy rush of geeks and freelancers vying to spend every waking minute surfing in public is settling down. There’s still something novel and appealing about bringing to the coffee shop an activity once strictly tethered to the home, office, or library by phone lines.

Novel as wi-fi may be, everything is better in moderation.