The Role of Hipster Baristas in Brooklyn

Hipsters have a bad rep, you have to agree. If not, you’ll see what I mean by taking a quick glimpse of various definitions of hipsters on Urban Dictionary.

Having lived in the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn for almost a year now, a hood that’s over-indexing on hipsters (I don’t have any empirical data, but hipsterism is a state of mind so it’s hard to quantify :)), I strongly believe that they are very misunderstood. Or rather, a segment that has been overgeneralized by society in a negative light.

I love my local coffee shops. Many of them are managed by cool looking (I know I am generalizing) baristas with pink or Billie Eilish-esque neon green hair, who are often friends with those working at the tattoo parlors nearby (one can always find them chatting and updating each other, and yes - my favorite hobby is eavesdropping). While “society at large” or their boss might want them to perhaps chat less and sell more coffee instead, they are the reason these establishments still exist after more than 2 years of economic turmoil.

The pandemic has plagued us with anxiety, stress and loneliness. I often see baristas chatting with not just tattooists, but with customers who seem to just need a few minutes of conversations with a human being. You can often see them chatting with customers for more than 5 minutes despite having a long line of people waiting to order. Like today, a woman asked the barista about someone who no longer worked there, she said “he’s been very kind to me”, as she settled the bill for a bottle of Poland Spring (at a coffee roaster). Their exchange went on for almost 10 minutes, while I was in line. When it’s my turn, the barista was very apologetic but I genuinely don’t mind, he’s shown kindness to someone who obviously just needed a few minutes of human interaction, that’s more meaningful that what I’ve been doing all day.

So I want to dedicate this post to all hipster baristas in Brooklyn, who have been doing such an honorable service to local communities.