The Alphabet Bar & Café at Moxy East Village operated by Tao Group is a new neighborhood treasure, serving an all-day menu of custom Intelligentsia coffee brews, fresh baked goods, composed salads, and seasonal panini and tartines. Serving as the social heart of the hotel, Alphabet Bar & Café was designed to be as appealing to East Villagers as it is to hotel guests. Inspired by the East Village’s punk music scene of the ‘70s and ‘80s, the bar has a moody, rebellious feel. A series of blue velvet drapes theatrically peel away to reveal the patina of the concrete walls and vintage mirrors spray-painted with music lyrics. The bar die is made of reclaimed organ pipes with a blackened steel bar top. A ribbed glass back bar and industrial pendants wrapped in wire-mesh immerse guests in the time period. An adjacent terrace has alfresco seating and walls planted in tumbling greenery in homage to the neighborhood’s community garden spaces. A fire-escape-like bridge leads to the lounge, providing views into other amenity spaces ready to be explored. The space features a communal seating cluster, swinging chairs, and a carpet that evokes a street art installation. A Skee-Ball machine coupled with a bookcase filled with vintage VHS tapes and televisions in an homage to the 1980s conspire to add a hint of nostalgia for the arcade era. Pops of neon and pastels give way to a moodier, eclectic grab ‘n go area, creating a transition in time. The Alphabet Café epitomizes this transformation: Combining and collaging old and modern woodcrafts, the classical side of the counter is made with blocks of solid wood, vertically placed, and carved by hand. These join a modern side made of veneered multilayer wood, for a mash-up of styles. In the lounge, an interactive graffiti installation allows guests to create their own tag or sketch a bit of street art, like a latter-day Basquiat or Haring, and see it projected on the wall. The graffiti-strewn carpet, neon lighting fixtures, and splashes of pastel hues strike a balance between urban grit and contemporary fun. The café’s cleverly designed furniture is flexible enough to be used for co-working with a laptop, meeting over a light lunch, or enjoying a cocktail with a friend. Two flexible meeting studios adjacent to Alphabet Bar &Café have retractable glass walls and furniture designed to transform from meeting and working functions to more leisurely lounging. During the day, locals take advantage of the fast and free Wi-Fi to plug their laptops in while sipping a café au lait. The iconic Strand Bookstore has a cart offering free books, and nearby Academy Records offers free vinyl LPs so guests can listen to the sounds of the East Village’s past, present, and future—to play on a retro turntable, provided in-room on request. In the evening, the lights dim, the DJ revs up the music, and the mood becomes more casual. Other East Village restaurants, shops, galleries, and nearby businesses regularly host pop-ups in the lobby, integrating the hotel with its surrounding community.