> The psychological gap between working in a cafe because it’s fun and romantic and doing the exact same thing because you have to is enormous. The implication

> The psychological gap between working in a cafe because it’s fun and romantic and doing the exact same thing because you have to is enormous. The implication is that a day of "fun and romantic" work has as much value to the business as a day of "paying the bills" work. In reality, "fun and romantic" work probably meant a) receiving the pastries from the zany French pastry chef, b) eyeballing the staff to make sure nothing is on fire, and c) doing little else to keep the business afloat. I say that because the author mentions feeling "vaguely dirty" about having less than a 50% margin on a croissant with cheese. But the whole job of the "fun and romantic" owner is to get that margin as high as possible by saving on costs, figuring out what the patrons want, and then figuring out what they're willing to pay. TBH, "fun and romantic" is thinking you can figure out the business side of an NYC coffee shop by the seat of your pants. Running a coffee shop by ignoring the business side altogether needs a different descriptor than "fun and romantic."