Ever wonder what life would be like if you went to NYU? Take a trip to NYU's favorite coffee spot for a cup of joe and your daily dose of meta!

Grade inflation isn't the only reason to wish you went to NYU. Just a few blocks south of Washington Square Park, Think Coffee serves up some of the city's best coffee to NYU students and downtown denizens alike. Although Oren is a classic campus spot and Hungarian perfects the bohemian coffee house aesthetic, neither of these places are appropriate for studying.

Living up to its all too apropos name, Think Coffee on the other hand is an ideal place to study. The space is well lit and equipped with plenty of power outlets. Indeed, you'll find many Macbook users here, enjoying Think Coffee's free Wi-Fi service. With three separate seating areas and plenty of plush couches, it's easy for students to spread out their books and make themselves at home. Like any well-equipped home, Think Coffee has a collection of board games, including Scrabble. And there's even a book nook where patrons can borrow and swap books.

Despite the accommodating digs, Think Coffee is free of the common coffee shop blights. The couches remarkably are free of coffee stains and coffee stench and even the archetypal stained and stinky coffee shop bum.

It appears that Morningside Heights coffeeshops took winter break as an opportunity to shake things up.

In the case of Saurin Park Café, a coffee and sandwich shop with free wireless located on the corner of 110th and Frederick Douglass Blvd, the cafe's ownership has changed. It's now called Cafe Amrita and is owned by "some Chinese man" according to the cashier. The new owner is considering small alterations to the menu and prices (read: it will get more expensive) but otherwise the cafe is virtually untouched. The same grad students and Morningside moms are there, and the easy-listening music is still just a little too loud. Hungarian Pastry Shop update after the jump.

NYU correspondent W.M. Akers signs off for the semester and reflects on a fall of frequenting coffee shops.

Loving Bwog,

Your correspondent writes today from miles above the earth, a better vantage than usual, but there's nothing to see worth recording. All I hear is the window seat droning of two passengers making friends behind me. They have declared that the antics of Lindsey Lohan are sickening and that teenagers shouldn't get pregnant or be having sex at all.

I am going home, but my thoughts are with those of you still at work. (They're not charitable thoughts, exactly, but you're on my mind.) NYU is keeping some of my colleagues until Friday, and I suspect they are as I saw them last, hunched and thirsty in the clear light of Think Coffee. Think, which is the most popular coffee shop around but has nothing special to recommend it. Joe, a few blocks west, has superb cappucino, while Mud has the best drip coffee known in the city. The century old Caffe Reggio plays host to most undergraduate coffee dates, since its low-light and uncomfortable chairs make one eager to slip into someone else's long-twin bed.

Downing Bray suggests another venue for wanton caffeine consumption. Get it before it's too late!

ALT Coffee

Ave. A and 9th St.

A Lower East Side coffee shop legend is dead . . . almost. After a decade of service, ALT Coffee, boasting "consistently good coffee, occasionally cranky computers, and possibly the scariest bathroom currently on Avenue," is closing next week. (ed. note: Like another LES staple.) I checked out the joint for a late night coffee chat and, after experiencing its quirky charm first hand, I think it's clear that in New York, a city filled with so many Starbuckses and Barnes and Nobles, ALT is a far cry from a yuppie Village locale or fancy pants Upper East Side cafe. It's a travesty it has to close. The combination of yellow-painted walls and dim lighting emanating from odd chandeliers and colored lamps, along with a random smattering of tables, dingy chairs and grungy yet comfy multi-colored sofas that look like they were purchased at a yard sale-- plus a handful of computers with free wireless-- is enough to attract many a wandering soul to ALT. The clientele is a mix between computer nerds, emoish hipsters, and the dreadlocked and piercing-sporting set. It's totally unassuming, laid back, and off-beat — a true find for any coffee shop fiend. So if you find yourself in Alphabet City in need of a taste of the (old?) neighborhood or just a good cup of coffee within the next week, give ALT a visit. Also, on Saturday April 7th, they'll be having an "ALT-is-almost-dead memorial service, complete with Open Mic, Memorial Wall, and General Merriment. It starts at 3PM and goes on until . . . it ends."

Coffee correspondent Downing Bray brings you another spot to get your daily jolt in style.

V-Bar
225 Sullivan Street (between W. 3^rd and Bleecker)

A coffee shop by day and a wine and beer bar by night, Vbar is as mysterious as its name - I cannot for the life of me figure out what the V stands for. Maybe the V refers to vino or vin since it certainly boasts quite an array of European offerings, and furthermore it has an impressive display of vintage bottles lining the shelves along the wall for decoration. Or maybe the V points to the dark blue velvet curtains that adorn the long windows overlooking Sullivan Street (across from Peanut Butter and Company). Velvety, in fact, would be a choice word to describe Vbar. It has an almost medieval, rustic feel, but it's simultaneously contemporary; as soft, calming music (think Ravi Shankar or Lauryn Hill) plays softly amidst the occasional whirring of a coffee machine or clinking of a wine glass, people reading and tapping away on their laptops sit in near silence at a few small tables and at the larger dark wood communal table in the center of the café, all with bar-style seating. If you need quiet, it's an ideal place to study, but make sure to go early in the day; around 5:30 the lights dim and the conversations pick up as it transforms to a wine bar—although some people still work away. In addition to wine, beer, tea, and coffee, it has paninis, baked goods and other snacks. For an indication of price range, a small coffee sells $1.25 a cup while a small tea is $1.75. It opens weekdays at 9:00 AM and weekends at 10:00 AM. Closes at 2:00 AM Sun-Wed, and 4:00 AM on Thursday.