Light fades on a warm Thursday night. Motorcycles are rolling to a stop outside Til Death, an open air cafe that sprung up along Myrtle Avenue in Bushwick in 2020. Bikers disembark from their two wheel wonders for “Bike Night,” a monthly meetup that’s become a place for everyone from the motorcycle aficionados to amateurs to those rather clueless about bikes, like me to mix.
It’s nice to see the cafe’s Bike Night make a point to do away with the kind of gatekeeping or potential snobbery that cycle fanatics, or most fanatics of varying sorts, can have. Here in Bushwick, these meetups started a year ago, put together by Emily Burns and Megan Brosi, who also own and run the cafe; the meets have quickly become a place to hear live music cast into the night and feel a mix of transcendent community float through the evening air.
For Brosi and Burns, they wanted something that would showcase their passion for coffee as much as motorcycles.
“Motorcycles [were] always going to be a part of the business in some way,” Burns told me.
Both say they want to make a cafe that doubles as a safe space, hosting events during regular and after hours year-round, aimed at bikers and beyond. “I like being in a community I don’t generally have access to,” she says.
Til Death’s logo can be seen beaming on walls behind an RV that sits between a shipping container and food cart. Throughout any day or evening, the M train passes over the crowds that come to this corner lot. At this last bike meet, which had been in collaboration with a Canadian bike meet organizing company called Moto Social, a set from DJ llll could be heard pulsating through the crowd; Josh Ruffner, a local tattoo artist, was busy inking customers. Outside, the energy overflowed into the streets; perhaps it too would last ‘Til Death.
Til Death is located at 603 Hart Street.
Images taken by Neil Constantine.
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