Cafe Bravo -located in the city that never sleeps- is a cafe that never sleeps. Open 24 hours, Cafe Bravo is always welcoming in new customers with a smile. 

Sitting on the corner of Rector St. and Greenwich St., Cafe Bravo looks small and ordinary to the human eye. Walking inside there are small booths and tables for two. Families seem to gather around in the booths. 

Cafe Bravo is like any other cafe. They sell drinks, coffee, sandwiches and deserts. A combination of sweet and salty fills the air. 

Instead of silence, well known music plays softly in the background. A customer says "The music really brings the cafe to life. It's open 24 hours and it never feels dead" 

The food is always served fresh and warm and we have Café Bravo’s main cook to thank for that. “I’m at work everyday at 4:30 am and I leave usually around 11:00” 

This Café Bravo opened in 1979, and the cook started working there when he was 12 years old. In the time that he has worked there, he has only been late twice. All of the food on display in Café Bravo was made by the cook himself. 

Despite being at work at the time of 9/11, he adores New York City and Café Bravo. Sometime after 9/11 he was told he had cancer. Throughout the time he had cancer, he stayed faithful to God. When he was asked why he still worked with cancer, he simply  replied with “I do it for the Lord and my wife”. 

Being located near the Holiday Inn Hotel, she says that she gets a lot of tourists who go in to eat and she never sees them again. She said she had started to notice a group of high school students going in everyday and it made her wish she was back in Tennessee where it was common to see someone you recognized. 

As far as religion goes, both the worker and manager say that the city is a place where there is so many religions. The worker compared New York’s religion scene to Tennessee’s. She stated that “The city is so diverse. It’s easy to practice your religion here. Where I came from in Tennessee, people were religious but they didn’t really practice. Here in New York, it’s so big, there are plenty of places for you to be able to practice your religion” The manager and current owner  of Café Bravo says that he’s okay with people taking off work for religious reasons and he has a place downstairs in the café where people can pray in private. 

When asked on his opinions on New York City, he said: “It’s alright. New York is really expensive. It’s not the cleanest and the people definitely aren’t the nicest.” The following question was what he thought about the people who worked for and with him. He stated: “These people are hardworking. They care for their customers and they’re good at their jobs.”

By Morgan Grigsby