Welcome to Writes & Bites — a series where creative writing MFA student Arianna Gundlach reviews a cool writing spot in New York City and tackles a writing topic that’s been weighing on your mind. This week, you get a look at Writes & Bites behind the scenes as Christine Ro interviews series writer Arianna Gundlach.

Arianna Gundlach and Christine Ro met as fellow first-years in the creative writing MFA program during fall 2023. Arianna is in the Writing for Children and Young Adults concentration and Christine is in the nonfiction concentration. Christine is the Nonfiction Editor for Interviews at The Inquisitive Eater (TIE), and the following interview has been adapted from a draft for TIE to better suit the New School Free Press.

Questions in bold were posed by Christine during the original interview (summer 2024), answers in regular font were given by Arianna during the interview, and the series introduction was added by Arianna for the NSFP Spring 2025 Print Edition #1. The transcript has been edited for clarity.

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Writes & Bites is a beloved series at the New School Free Press — at least I (the author) like to think so. The series started in fall 2023 and consists of 16 published installments to date. I have reviewed cafes, bookstores, libraries, stationery stores, parks, and even a train station. I will be graduating this spring, and while I am not looking for anyone to continue Writes & Bites’ legacy (it’s mine, back off!), I do hope it will be remembered fondly. And maybe it will get a second life elsewhere. 

So please enjoy a look at Writes & Bites behind the scenes.

In your own words, you “[review] a place in New York City you could write at and [tackle] a writing topic that has been weighing on your mind.” I’m curious to know — do you pick the place first, or the topic?

It’s not always consistent. Sometimes, I really just want to go to a place like Boris & Horton, the dog cafe that I reviewed. I just really want to be around dogs, so I’m like, “I’ll find a topic after spending time at the place and writing down detailed observations.” And that one ended up being  about evoking emotion in your writing because I feel all the feelings around dogs. I’m very happy to be around dogs. Very sad that I’m not with my dogs. Very jealous that I can’t take those dogs home with me.

Sometimes, they really align at the same time. Like with the Amtrak train, the train is physically moving, so I was like, “I should do that with pacing because pacing is the movement of your piece.” Sometimes, it can work out really well like that.

And then I can run into the issue where I think a topic will work for a place, and then I go visit the place, and it’s just not working. One time, I wanted to find a place with plants so I could write about “picking the perfect project,” so I went to Ariston, the flower shop-cafe right across from the UC [University Center]. And I really liked the place, but then I tried to write about it with the topic, and it was not happening. That one ended up being about texture in your writing, this kind of unidentifiable thing that you bring to the piece.

You never want to force a topic and a place together because the reader is definitely going to pick up on that, so then I have to decide what I’m going to change. Since I’m on a deadline, it’s usually easier to change the topic instead of having to go and visit a new place.

Could you say more about how the place and topic inform each other?

It’s great if my particular experience at the location can lead to the topic rather than it just being the general view of the place. This happened when I did Felix Roasting Company. I was so excited to try this drink that they had. It was a hickory smoked s’mores latte. I went there in the morning, and they didn’t have it. I had built up this place because they had this really cool drink, and I was so disappointed. I thought to myself, “This would be really good for talking about writing your first page. You can hook the reader, but you have to follow through on your hook.”

Just near Brooklyn Heights where I [live], there’s a place called Brooklyn Farmacy, which is a soda shop place. And they have the most incredible menu. It’s this huge laminated menu of specialty hot chocolates, root beer floats, ice cream sundaes. I mean, it has everything. And I was like, “Well, what’s better than that to pair with picking the right project? You have all these project ideas, and you have all these menu offerings, and you have to pick.”

You give such a wide range of recommendations, from conventional spots like cafes and bookstores to the unexpected train cars and soda shops. How do you find the places that you review? What draws you to them?

Usually, I find them on Instagram. I follow a bunch of accounts now that show trending or up-and-coming cafes and bookstores, and I have a saved collection of places that I want to visit.

I also look around kind of locally, either by the school because the New School Free Press is all about keeping it convenient and local to the people who are reading the publication, or by where I live in Brooklyn Heights.

I also take recommendations from friends. That’s how I’ve gotten some of the bookstores that I’ve done.

As far as what really draws me to them, it’s really about the menu, seating, and atmosphere. You want to make sure you have a good drink, a good little snack. Extensive seating. I think that a lot of cafes in New York, like they’re trendy and cute, but maybe they have four tables, and those tables are all going to be taken up. A variety of seating as well, like booths, bars, stools, high backs, I think that’s really cool. And just the atmosphere. I’m a sucker for the whole bookstore-bar-cafes, like those are so cool. But yeah, definitely the menu, seating, and atmosphere. Those are the most important things for a great writing spot.

I noticed that you’ve never given a place four stars. In your opinion, what would make a place “extraordinary”?

Okay, so to explain that, I’m going to talk about the highest star rating I’ve given and what that place is lacking. So the highest star rating I’ve given is a 3.5, which was Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain. They have extensive menu offerings for both food and drink, and it actually really tastes good. They have a great atmosphere because they’re a former 1920s apothecary. They have decent seating and convenience as far as ordering. Public Wi-Fi. A bathroom.

Okay, so to make it extraordinary, it would need to have been more friendly as a place for writers to post up. Because it is a soda shop and not a cafe, there is more of a need to turn over tables, and it can be quite busy on weekends and after school lets out on weekdays. They don’t tell you to leave, but it does kind of have that atmosphere of people coming in, and we need these tables. And again, it’s not really a place to post up.

Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but personally speaking, I feel like my interest in food writing really began after I joined The Inquisitive Eater. How did you first get into food writing? Were you always interested, or is it a more recent development?

When I started Writes & Bites, I didn’t think of it as food writing. I just thought, “I want to do something that’s related to the program that I’m in at The New School. And wouldn’t it be cool if there was a series where other writers could kind of find solace and places to go in the city? And craft techniques!”

People have brought it up a couple of times. Some friends have been like, “You should do food criticism.” And I’m like, “I don’t feel qualified to do food criticism.” I mean, I think I’ve gotten better with food descriptions. The last time I described a croissant, which I think was for Bibliotheque, I was talking more about the hard exterior of it, and if it was flaky, and how I like to completely devour the center.

I also have a friend that’s been reading my fiction lately. She’s been talking about how food writing has been seeping into my fiction, how I’ve been describing more food, which she’s so right, I am. I did a pub scene, and I was talking about herb-crusted pork chops or something, and she was like, “Arianna, you have to stop, you’re making me hungry.” And then the next chapter was about M&M’s pancakes. I was like, “What’s going on?”

I think the more that you write about something, even if it’s in a different capacity, it can definitely seep into the rest of your writing, so I guess I am enriching my writing with food.

What’s next for Writes & Bites? Will this be the year you go into the tri-state area?

You expect a lot from my series.

I’d love to incorporate more details from other writers in my life. I’ve mentioned some people that I’ve visited the locations with. Someone in my cohort had these really interesting calendars that tracked her chapter timelines and what her characters were doing, and I had used that in one of my pieces. I had given her a shout-out for that, but talking to other writers that I know and their craft techniques and infusing it with mine, I feel like that makes it sound more credible, so it’s not just my opinion, but other opinions, too.

I’d also love more exposure. It’s always nice when someone new comes up to me, and they’re like, “You write Writes & Bites! I read that!” And I’m like, “Oh, you and five other people!”

I tag the places that I visit. Sometimes, they’ll repost it on their story. I think The Ripped Bodice did that. They have a really big following on Instagram, so that was nice. And then the illustrator that I was working with, Clara [Waldheim], she got approached by Brooklyn Farmacy to use her illustration from the article for their postcard set, so that’s pretty cool. They’re having her do a little bio that’s going to go on the back, so she was like, “Don’t worry, I’m going to put your name in my bio part,” like make sure the article also gets credit because obviously the illustration and the article go hand in hand, so it was really cool that they reached out to her, and they liked it enough to put that in.

As far as the tri-state area, you know, the New School Free Press likes to keep things local because it’s all about convenience for the student demographic. I would like to represent more of the city. The places I’ve done are only in Manhattan and Brooklyn, so I would love to do Queens, love to do the Bronx. Maybe I would try New Jersey. I have seen a couple cafes on Instagram from New Jersey. There was one that’s completely travel-airplane-themed, like they have airplane seats, and the drinks are travel-themed, so yeah, I think I’d be willing to go farther out if the cafe was enticing enough.

I’ve also done searches on places to write in New York City. A lot of those are actually hotel lounges. I feel very weird about going into a hotel lounge when I’m not staying there and just kind of posting up. I always feel like some security person is gonna find me and be like, “Are you staying here?” So I have not done a hotel lounge yet, that is yet to be decided if I will ever do that.

Maybe this year will be the year?

I think I would have to thoroughly research the hotel lobby part. I think some sites will tell you to act under the radar because they will kick you [out] if you’re not someone staying there, or some will be like, “They don’t care, there’s a bar with the lounge, just buy something.” I definitely feel like I would have to take the right extroverted friend with me who’s like, “It’s fine! It’s a hotel! We can go sit in there, and it’s going to be fine!” So I think, yeah, with the right person, and the research of other people having gone there, and it’s been fine, maybe? I also don’t know what topic I’d do with the hotel lobby, I’d have to think about that.