68 new york | august 19–september 1, 2019
other live acts, including ambient musician
Nadia Khan, who’s making her New York
debut. For the later Sunday crowd, there is
a free show called “Friends With Benefits.”
It has become a draw for shift-working folks
in the food-service industry.
But most of the people there are just
looking for a hangout at any particular
hour. Want to bring an easel and your dog
and park them outside to paint like it’s
Montmartre? You can do that at Public
Records. Want to sweat your face off danc-
ing to Octo Octa in a hazy, colorfully lit
room? You can do that, too.
The best thing the space has going for it
is, quite literally, the space. There’s an
abundance of plants plus a large skylight,
which, paired with the 18-foot ceilings,
offers brightness throughout the day. The
venue strives to be sustainable: Drinks
come in glass or stainless-steel vessels, and
there’s not a plastic straw in sight. (The
plan was to be 100 percent plastic free; the
owners say they quickly learned that
dream wasn’t going to be feasible.) The
backs of the bathroom doors—which are
gender neutral, as several signs declare,
despite the fact that each is a single stall—
are lightly scrawled with neon-colored
graffiti. Given the hypercurated nature of
the rest of the place, it’s hard not to wonder
if the founders planned this, too.
On the Friday night I spend hanging out
at the bar, one woman tells me, “If I walked
into somebody’s apartment and it looked
like this, I’d be scared. It’s cool here,
though.” I watch the man next to me scroll
through Instagram and pause to read a
post from New York Magazine’s account
“Should I Just Give Up on Saving Money?”
“Orange wine isn’t actually made from
oranges,” a man explains to a woman
standing behind me at the bar. He’s not
totally sure how it’s made, but he’s certain
it’s from grapes. (It is.) Over the speakers,
a remixed “Ave Maria” lilts.
Café hours run till the bar opens in the
evening or into the early afternoon on week-
ends. If you don’t come armed with a com-
puter or book, you can buy a niche magazine
there, like Victory Journal or LSTW (a
sports-culture magazine and a Canadian
lesbian publication, respectively). The
sound room, which hosts ticketed live per-
formances, opens at ten.
And in a city where we sometimes feel
connected only through our screens, Pub-
lic Records has become a place for regu-
lars. “There’s a professor of poetry who’s
literally there six days a week,” says Har-
ris. Another, whose nickname is Disco
Diana and who sp namepl k-
lace to let you kno s me, “A l ve
went into this place.” ■
The CULTURE PAGES
MORNING
Starting at 9 a.m., you can
drink coffee and peruse
print magazines and vinyl.EVENING
Th s all vegan,
e are DJs
an y cocktails.