Every day in New York City, restaurant doors open and waitstaff clock in, ready to prepare the space for the starved and parched. Aprons tied, hair pulled back, hands washed (at least figuratively), hundreds of thousands of Manhattaners warm themselves up to take orders, course dishes, and flash smiles at patrons from different boroughs and countries alike. They’ll spend anywhere from five to 13 hours feeding and imbibing locals, tourists, celebrities and foodies, and in turn, keep one of the global food capitals alive and sizzling.

After a shift of inevitable mayhem, you’d expect those workers to take themselves home and tuck themselves in, to rest until the next stretch of hospitality chaos.

Maybe the average person does.

The artists among them, however, swap their aprons for smocks and get to their real work.

The service and artist worlds in Manhattan flourish in symbiotic existence, and their employees are some of the most ambitious and creative of the island’s inhabitants. While you may not pay much thought to the waitress balancing pasta dishes on her arm or the barista churning out lattes and americanos, they’ve got both your needs and their passions at the front of their minds at all times.
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New York’s painters, actors and musicians of the future are taking down the temperature you’d like your fish and the type of milked nut you want in your coffee. They are specifying your martini order, making leaves of foam in your lattes, and engaging with you – a complete stranger – from aperitif to after dinner drink, all to stay in the city of creativity and chance. They sustain the hunger of the city to feed their own dreams. These are their stories.

This is Waiting Magazine.
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