Barista makes ‘bomb’ coffee
Angelica Nunez, 19, has been working at Subs Conscious for six months. Photo: Bernd Fischer.
“Maybe a Hershey’s with almonds or a chocolate chip cookie,” says Angelica Nunez as she looks over the counter, trying to decide what she might have for dessert. “The chocolate chip cookies are so popular, so I never get to have them.” Nunez is allowed a “full meal” at Subs Conscious, the 24-hour sandwich shop where she works, but she decided not to order dessert, opting instead for a cheeseburger and fries, and to drink, a Canada Dry ginger ale.
Subs Conscious, a 24-hour sandwich shop, is located on Amsterdam Avenue. Photo: Bernd Fischer.
Wedged between an Italian pizzeria and a dry cleaning and laundry store on Amsterdam Avenue, Subs Conscious never closes – and on a recent Friday, Nunez worked the 2 to 11 p.m. shift, alone out front.
Dressed in jeans and a dark blue Subs Conscious t-shirt, she wears her thick, long black hair in a ponytail held back by a light blue scrunchy. She is one of an army of odd-shift workers who keep New York City going: According to Yelp, there are approximately 4,500 all-night food stops in the city.
Nunez and her colleagues are allowed to eat anything on the extensive menu two hours after they start work, including numerous hot specialties, many of their names inspired by neighboring Columbia University, freshly prepared by the store’s cooks. “We can have whatever we want, for free, as long as we’re working,” she says.
“I always change it up,” says Nunez, who has worked at Subs Conscious for six months. “I often go on what I see a customer order.” The store’s most popular items are the Final Exam, a grilled Philly steak with American cheese, two eggs, bacon, onions, peppers and mayonnaise for $8.25; and the GPA, which Nunez prefers, a chicken cutlet with American cheese, avocado, lettuce, tomato and ranch dressing, on a roll for $7 or a sub for $8.
Subs Conscious has an extensive menu with freshly prepared foods. Photo: Bernd Fischer.
In addition to taking walk-in orders, Nunez handles delivery calls and “special requests,” like the arrival of five boxes of baked goods that had to be set out in the display case. The tiny kitchen is toward the back of the store. The three cooks communicate primarily in Spanish, which gives Nunez trouble despite her grandparents having come from the Dominican Republic and Colombia. The cooks tease her about it.
Nunez has lived on the Upper West Side her entire life. Her mother got pregnant when she was very young, and Nunez lives with her grandparents, whom she calls her mom and dad. She still sees her mother often. “She’s my best friend,” says Nunez. Also living with her is Elias, her 22-year-old boyfriend, who works as a cook at Todaro Brothers in midtown Manhattan. Nunez has been working in the food industry since she graduated from the Global Learning Collaborative high school on West 84th Street. Before Subs Conscious, she had a job at a crepe and yogurt store, and before that, she worked at a kosher grocery store.
Cheeseburger, fries and Canada Dry ginger ale. Photo: Bernd Fischer.
She picks cheddar cheese for her cheeseburger, her favorite among Subs Conscious’ choices, which include muenster, Swiss, American, and pepper jack. She has lettuce, pickles, tomato, onion, and ketchup, but no mayonnaise. The frozen fries are deep-fried by the cooks and Nunez adds salt and pepper and eats them with ketchup. “I need a little flavor,” she says. Deciding to skip dessert is generally easy for Nunez. “The burger is pretty full here, not like a McDonald’s burger.” Her meal, which she doesn’t pay for, would cost $9.54.
On nights when she’s at home with family, her grandfather cooks for them. Her favorite home cooked meal is a typical Spanish dish: chicken, rice and beans.
At work, she eats whenever she has time to spare – even if only a minute – usually standing up behind the display case and coffee machine. It’s not dinner, really, but food grabbed in between customers, without ever leaving her post.
It’s usually the guests who seem flustered by her speediness as they try to keep up with her pace. “Jesús, can you get me barbeque sauce?” yells Nunez to one of the three cooks. This Friday, Jesús, Gabriel and David are working with Nunez. “It sounds like the bible,” she says, with a laugh.
Nunez and Elias sometimes fantasize about starting a small food business. “My grandfather has a few connections,” she says. “He’s the president of the New York State Latino Restaurant Association and he used to have part-ownership of a restaurant.” Nunez has always liked the idea of something simpler, like a Colombian food truck. But it’s something she wants more for Elias’s career than her own. She’d simply enjoy assisting him. “We could build it from the bottom together.”
Stuck on the wall close to the register – next to a $1 bill for good luck – are photos of her colleagues’ younger family members and Nunez’s six-year-old sister, Analia. “Kids are so beautiful,” she says, adding that she was in the delivery room when Analia was born, delivered by the same doctor who delivered Nunez and her four cousins.
Nunez starts studying nursing at the Borough of Manhattan Community College this fall, calling it a more realistic option than being an OB/GYN – though she still dreams of transferring to a four-year program after two years at BMCC. She says that fortunately for her, her grandparents started saving for college tuition the minute they found out that her mother was expecting. She is saving money from her own income, too.
As for working on Friday nights, Nunez admits that it can be sad sometimes. “But I don’t really party hard. I’d rather chill. Although I’m young, I feel like I’ve already done that,” she says. Elias works double shifts on weekends, so Monday night is date night.
For now, Nunez is content. “Every place you work, you learn something,” she says. “Like now, I can make some bomb coffee.”
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