Comparing sushi counters, sake bars, and a Roman-style trattoria side by side sounds like a cuisine roundup until the actual constraint shows up: a laptop or phone open at the table needs a WiFi signal that holds steady no matter what's on the plate, and Pearl Street's outdoor network doesn't distinguish between a …

Sixty-plus businesses along Pearl Street share a single outdoor WiFi network branded #Pearl, covering the bricks from 8th to 20th Streets without a separate password required at any one storefront — a detail that changes the quick-lunch math downtown. Instead of hunting for one café willing to host a laptop through a …