My favorite places to work and study rarely include office spaces. I do have a penchant for libraries full of books, but to avoid getting distracted by endless literary offerings, I prefer cafes or other public spaces with free wifi that serve non-dairy, non-soy hot chocolate or – as is infinitely easier to find – good herbal tea.

Here are some places I’ve been haunting around the globe:

Melbourne:

The Bear Cafe (Brunswick)

The Servery East (Glenhuntly)

Red Robyn (Camberwell)

1000 £  Bend (Melbourne)

Ethos Cafe (Brunswick)

Mr Tulk (Melbourne)

Treehouse Lounge (St Kilda)

Lava Balaclava (St Kilda)

TimeOut Melbourne has a great list of places to work with free wifi, as does the Fetch Blog.

Canberra:

Bookplate (Barton)

Cafe Essen (Civic)

Gus’s Cafe (Civic)

Chicago:

Starbuck’s at North and Wells (near North Side/ Lincoln Park)

Z & H (Hyde Park)

Caffe Streets (Wicker Park)

Gallery Cafe (Wicker Park)

Scarfuri Bakery (near West Side)

Cafe Next Door (Lincoln Park)

Karyn’s Raw (Lincoln Park)

Intelligentsia (Lakeview)

Aje Cafe (Lakeview)

San Francisco:

Cafe du Soleil (Haight)

Bean There (Haight)

Coffee to the People (Haight)

Cavalli Cafe (North Beach)

Local 123 (Berkeley)

Check out this Foursquare blog for the best ‘coffices’ in SF.

Los Angeles:

Caffebenne (Koreatown)

Cafe Gratitude (Venice Beach)

Skate (Venice Beach)

Urth Caffe (Santa Monica)

The Republic of Pie (NoHo)

Tiago (NoHo)

Seattle:

El Diablo Coffee (Queen Anne Ave N)