Tatte Bakery & Cafe

Harvard does have a library, right? It must (and if it doesn’t, someone’s gotta make a call to the US News college rankings people). But you’d be forgiven for assuming it doesn’t when you walk into Tatte, a massive two-story cafe that’s packed at all hours of the day and has a laptop and an open biology book on nearly every table. Step up to the pastry counter, though, and you’ll understand why this place is so popular. The chocolate hazelnut brioche and espresso mocha mousse are so good you won’t care that it might not be socially acceptable to eat dessert at 11 in the morning. And Tatte isn’t just a pastry place, either, it’s got a big menu of sandwiches, salads, tartines, and other Middle Eastern-ish specialties like fattoush and shakshuka. You could easily spend your whole day here, holed up in a booth by the window, rolling from one meal to the next.