Ultimate Old Soul Lorde Is Obsessed With Hanging Out at a 24-Hour Diner

Old soul and star singer Lorde is quirky: it’s her trademark, along with the signature offbeat, stripped-down music with lyrics that pack punch. So it should come as no surprise that the “Green Light” artist has some old-school preferences when it comes to hangout locales. Namely, she enjoys spending downtime in a nondescript 24-hour diner while she’s in New York, according to a new New York Times profile of the 20-year-old Kiwi.

“Some low-key genius did the decorating,” Lorde explained of her attachment to the place, an unassuming open-all-night spot in midtown Manhattan dotted with potted houseplants and serving up her preferred eggs and zucchini sticks. “There’s something beautiful in every corner.” Plus, apparently the clientele is “mostly old,” leaving her unnoticed. She often tries to fly under the radar, taking public transportation and Ubers, where apparently she doesn’t get recognized.

“I spent about four months here last year with my laptop out and my headphones on, listening to demos, looking at lists of what I needed to get done and writing songs,” she further elaborated on her connection to the diner. “People must have thought I was an aspiring poet or something.” The one downside: she needed to block out the Top 40 music the restaurant played at all times.

The precocious Lorde, who catapulted onto the global pop stage after debuting breakout album Pure Heroine in 2013, has spent the last four years mostly out of the spotlight. Her sophomore album, Melodrama, drops in June.