Yaffa Cafe, (97 St. Marks Place, East Village, NYC) is a truly unique place to visit early in the morning. There seems to be no end of entertainment. It happens to be open 24 hours, have an adequate menu and be resplendant with enough multi-colored lights to make the 70's look pale. It is notorious for its lavishly eclectic decor. It is well known by many musicians, writers and artists of fame and various notorious people can be seen there. Usually, the multitude of two foot square tables (covered in contact paper decorated with faux-woodcuts of semi-nude women) are filled with more mundane creatures but what they lack in glory, they make up in theatrics. There are always the few alcoholics who need their fix after the bars close (4am) and try to persuade the black-clad waitstaff to serve them shots of this or that. These fools wouldn't receive their requested drinks even if yaffa served them. Then there are the drinkers who have passed their tolerance and have decided the sink between the bathrooms (which are slightly larger than the tables and non-gendered despite the half peeled "Ladies" sign on one of the doors) is the modern day equivalent of a roman vomitarium. The one bum who tries to be a phillosophic womanizer (if he could get close enough and not slur his words) is attempting to coerce the heroin junkie (who bearly notices anything through her half shuttered eyes as her cigarette smolders between her fingers) to take him home with her (though she concideres the A line of the subway to be her home) with no success. The list goes on and on as the creative, alternative and low-life dwelers of the night pour into the chairs in a never ending river of conversations, cigarettes and coffee.
There is no where else to get such a complete and fufilling look at East Village night life.
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