Swallow cafe in Brookyln serves up a tasty cream cheese bagel and great coffee -

Located in the rapidly gentrifying area around Bogart Street situated between Williamsburg and Bushwick, Swallow Cafe is a great place to grab a coffee and a bite to eat.

Naturally, there’s wi-fi on tap, so the place is usually bathed in the glow of rows of Apple laptop logos (all those people “thinking differently”), and there’s ample seating around the largish space.

There’s also power sockets in abundance, so it’s cool to settle down for a few hours and write chapters 4 and 5 of your latest magnum opus.

There’s a decent selection of coffees, teas, soft drinks, cakes and snacks available, and all reasonably priced.

In my case, I was all over the cream cheese everything bagel that was absolutely ruddy delicious, even if they decided to forgo the formality of a plate and bundle it up in a wrap of tin foil.

The sharp eyed amongst you will have noticed the ATM (aka cash point) lurking near the counter, which is handy as the place is cash only.

Notices stuck on the till inform potentially rude customers to get off their phreaking phones while they’re placing an order and not to rock up with their own sandwiches prepared at home earlier.

There’s a fair few whinges online abut the staff, who some complain aren’t as happy clappy as they would like.

I always found them friendly and welcoming, although at times they appeared to be a bit stressed out when things got busy. But then, so would most people.

Looking towards the street from the back of the cafe.

Note: If you need to use the bathroom/toilet/loo/bog there’s a slightly unusual arrangement in that you have to get the key from the staff and then go through a door at the back of the cafe.

The toilet can hold several people so I was never sure if I should leave the door open or hog it for myself.