![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0abfa76e5e53f7478626bb69549846baef-GettyImages-2258531963.rhorizontal.w700.jpg\")
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\n The San Francisco office and caf\u00e9 where someone is definitely working right now.
\n Photo: Smith Collection\/Gado\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n
New Yorkers jonesing to drink coffee as they refinance their mortgages have long enjoyed the corporate charm of bank-owned caf\u00e9s including the Santander Work Cafe<\/a> in Williamsburg (\u201cWhere a Bank becomes your Community\u201d) and the Capital One Caf\u00e9<\/a>, which expanded over the past year to six Manhattan locations. (Not to mention the bright-orange early-21st-century ING Direct caf\u00e9s in midtown<\/a>, now gone.) For those craving a latte served by an AI-powered insurance provider, however, there\u2019s simply been no place to go \u2014 until now. Corgi<\/a>, a San Francisco\u2013based startup backed by $378 million in VC funding, is planning three \u201cCorgi Cafes\u201d in Manhattan.<\/p>\n As reported in the Commercial Observer<\/a>, Corgi\u2019s first New York location will be on East 27th Street in Nomad, operating 24\/7 in the space formerly occupied by the event space and cocktail venue J. Bespoke. Corgi\u2019s website says Tribeca and Chelsea are next.<\/p>\n So what do you get when you cross a caf\u00e9 with an insurance startup? Look no further than the original<\/a>, opened last February in San Francisco. Billed as a \u201cA Cafe Open 24\/7 Because the World\u2019s Greatest and Most Impactful Work Doesn\u2019t Stop,\u201d it styles itself as a hub for founders who caffeinate and go all night. Nico Laqua, Corgi\u2019s 26-year-old CEO and co-founder, told the San Francisco Gazetteer<\/a> that he decided to open a caf\u00e9 after being saddled with a retail space that came along with its new fifth-story HQ. Rather than sublet the storefront, Corgi decided to turn it into a canteen \u201cfor people who really want to work, for builders.\u201d Everyone at his company, Laqua told the paper, is already required to work seven days a week<\/a>. A handful of employees actually live upstairs at the office.<\/p>\n The San Francisco Corgi Cafe menu lists protein chips and $14 smoothies along with \u201cexclusive drinks\u201d named after other AI startups, such as the \u201cBrexspresso,\u201d after the expense-management platform Brex, and the \u201cElevenLatte,\u201d a reference to the AI voice-generation startup ElevenLabs. You can add creatine, spirulina, or a collagen peptide booster to your drink, presumably giving you a glow of health that will allow you to return to your ceaseless grind.<\/p>\n Since opening, the San Francisco caf\u00e9 has received 172 Google reviews averaging 4.2 stars. \u201cA place you will be welcomed and encouraged to ship fast, iterate harder, PMF or bust,\u201d wrote Cindy. \u201cAn engineers wet dream,\u201d said Dima. \u201cInstantly became a 10x founder as soon as I crossed the door,\u201d said Raphael. (Is he kidding? Unclear.) On the flip side, several noted that the caf\u00e9 can be crowded and dirty, and quite a few reviewers complained about the dearth of actual Corgi dogs (Trudy, a Corgi owned by one of Laqua\u2019s co-founders, makes an occasional visit). \u201cThere are no Corgis in this coffee shop. It is a complete scam,\u201d wrote Patrick M. on Yelp. \u201cThese people should be put in jail for lying.\u201d For the record, in New York City it\u2019s technically illegal to keep a dog in a caf\u00e9. A seven-day-a-week, 24-hours-a-day employee, however, is permitted.<\/p>\n Sign Up for the Curbed Newsletter<\/p>\n A daily mix of stories about cities, city life, and our always evolving neighborhoods and skylines.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n