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.

For more news, sign up for Bushwick Daily’s newsletter.

Join the fight to save local journalism by becoming a paid subscriber.