Midtown Cocoa to Sweeten Up Your Study Buddy This Valentine’s Day

So Valentine’s Day is upon you and you don’t have a sweetheart. But even if you lack the courage to wear your heart on your sleeve and overcome the thousands of excuses keeping you out of the game, you don’t have to be a curmudgeon about all of the love in the air this Feb. 14th.

Instead of dinner, invite your love interest from discussion section out for an afternoon of so-called studying at Cocoa Bar, the perfect way to get to know him or her in a circumstance that—due to the convenient, free wireless internet—is definitely not a date.

When you arrive at this chocolate haven, which shares its classy and cozy space with a decidedly unromantic Tasti D-Lite, grab a plush couch instead of a table and set out your books so it looks as though you’re actually planning to do work. If you’ve come before 6 p.m. on a weekday, after 7 p.m. on Saturday, or you’re just plain lucky, Narciso will be working behind the counter, which means either Revolver or The White Album will be playing on repeat and you’ll get the best possible chocolate.

As your non-sweetheart is contemplating the coffee-shop menu, casually mention that the Aztec Spicy hot chocolate made with water, not milk, is pretty good. In fact, it’s probably the thickest, richest, and most aphrodisiacal drink available for consumption in New York. Fully worth the $5.25 you’ll spend on 8 oz., this velvety elixir could turn the most embittered workaholic into a charismatic aesthete for an hour or so. And an hour or so of the good life is better than none at all.

What’s great about this place is the ambiguity of its atmosphere: the fluorescent lights emanating from the Tasti D-Lite counter dispel any suspicions your non-date might have. It’s casual—you don’t have to pay for a meal in order to have a nice place to sit and do work for a couple of hours (though they do also offer soup and sandwiches). There are no waiters, another comforting sign for those with an aversion to romance. And yet it isn’t Starbucks, either.

There’s a je ne sais quoi about the plush couches, the art nouveau French posters, the soft lighting, the fresh flowers on the antique coffee table, and, of course, the drug-like effect of the chocolate that makes any friendly study-date feel just a little bit cozier than planned. And even cynics may find that cozy is not an altogether terrible feeling.

The Cocoa Bar is located at 630 Ninth Ave., between 44th and 45th streets.