I went to Cursor’s New York café. I saw coding bros, custom merch, and a potential job interview

• I went to the AI code editor Cursor’s café pop-up. It was packed full of tech bros sharing GitHub profiles.
• Cursor gave out free coffee, pins, and stickers. Some attendees took home a branded bag of coffee beans.
• The event was a networking hub. I watched one attendee say he was hiring before launching into questions.

For one day, New York’s biggest Cursor fans gathered to eat, drink, and vibe code.

Over the last two years, Cursor has grown from a cult hit to one of the most popular AI code editors in software development. The tool’s developer, Anysphere, has raised over $1 billion and was recently valued at $9.9 billion, per PitchBook.

On Tuesday, Cursor hosted a one-day café at The Lost Draft in SoHo. It’s one of several in-person events that AI companies have created to satisfy loyal customers and increase their social media hype.

“People like meeting each other in real life,” Ben Lang, who helps lead Community at Cursor, told me. “Any excuse to come and meet people with similar interests and similar values is a win.”

Here’s what I saw at Cafe Cursor:

Good luck finding a seat at Cafe Cursor

The first thing I noticed was how packed it was.

The Lost Draft is a big coffee shop — there are bar seats, many tables, and even a secluded back area. And yet, every single seat in the coffee shop was taken.

The excitement in the air was palpable as I listened to conversations about startup raises and coding tools.

This isn’t Cursor’s first in-person café. The company put one up in September in San Francisco, which Lang said had a similarly warm reception.

“Some people emailed me afterward saying they got a lot done, they were able to build a bunch while they were there,” Lang said. “They were really happy to meet each other and the team.”

Espresso drinks were on the menu (for free)

Café Cursor’s menu was entirely espresso drinks, but off-menu ordering was easy. Cursor bought out the coffeeshop, so drinks were on the house.

I picked myself up a cold brew, but not before almost toppling over a coder who had propped up his laptop on the coffee bar. While New York seems to run more and more on matcha, I couldn’t spot any of the grassy green drink in the café.

“We brought together Cursor users to come build, cowork, and grab some coffee,” Lang said.

Cursor had custom whole-bean coffee bags

The café was dotted with bags of whole bean coffee branded for the pop-up.

The bags were made in partnership with Terminal, a tech-themed coffee brand. One of Terminal’s frequently asked questions is, “Will Terminal coffee make me a better developer?” (Its answer: “Legally, we cannot guarantee that it will, but…”)

In an X post before the event, Lang posted a photo of a wagon full of coffee. On the ground, they were in high demand; attendees had to ask to take one home.

It was decorated with Lego dogs and Cursor tab keys

Café Cursor mostly sported neutral colors like black and gray. Spinning around to view the full pop-up, my eye was instantly drawn to a bright red Lego dog. Below it, Cursor displayed some ornate keyboards.

Cursor also showed off its stand-alone tab keys, a limited-release piece of company merchandise. Within Cursor, users can press tab to autocomplete lines of code.

“I really like the tab key,” Lang said. “It’s very unique to Cursor.”

Attendees could pick up a free sticker or pin

Cursor stickers and pins were free for the taking. I spotted multiple attendees sporting pins on their shirts.

Wearable merch for AI companies has been a big hit, especially Anthropic’s “thinking” caps, which I spotted multiple of at the pop-up.

The café’s attendees were mostly men

Silicon Valley has a somewhat off-balance gender ratio — and the Cursor pop-up was no exception.

On my scan of the coffee shop, I spotted five women. One of the five was doing sign-ups at the door, and another was the PR person walking me around.

The rest of the roughly 70 attendees, when I was there between 10 and 10:30 a.m. ET, were men.

Cursor staff were on-site with name tags

For Cursor, the café was also an opportunity for customers to meet the team. A few staff members were on-site with name tags, and more planned to come as the day went on.

Cursor’s bookshelf had the Silicon Valley hits

I took a second to browse Cursor’s bookshelf.

Among the offerings: Ben Horowitz‘s “The Hard Thing about Hard Things,” Tae Kim’s new book about Nvidia, and a reader on the basics of nuclear fission.

Nobody seemed to have a book in their hand, though. Almost everyone was networking or coding. While reading the spines, I overheard what could have become an impromptu job interview.

One attendee said that he was hiring, before quizzing his conversation partner on which tools they’d used before.

I left with my Cold Brew in a branded cup

After about 30 minutes, it was time to head out. I’d had enough of watching attendees share GitHub profiles.

With my branded cup in hand, I headed back to the office.

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