so, what are these micropubs then?

[mrbadger]

I saw one today, announcing itself as Banbury's first Micropub.

Since I can't drink it's of little practical interest to me, but the location is good for foot traffic, and the venue is about cafe sized.

Seems an interesting concept.

Pubs never really held my interest. Smelly places that were surprisingly made no better by the abolishment of smoking, as that just revealed the stale beer, body odour and urine smell that permeated them.

All rather repulsive really.

I wonder if this micropub concept could make social drinking fashionable again. It seems to have been mostly displaced by social coffee drinking at the moment.

Or should that be displaced *again* by coffee.

[Morkonan]

...I wonder if this micropub concept could make social drinking fashionable again. It seems to have been mostly displaced by social coffee drinking at the moment.

Or should that be displaced *again* by coffee.

I think something is needed, no matter if it's beer or coffee.

Pubs, beerhalls, bars, etc, have played a huge role in developing Western political and philosophical thought... Yeah, I know, it's gotta be why we're so screwed up. BUT, these places have served so many nations as central gathering points for discourse that we can't ignore the fact that maybe they're not such a bad idea.

We have the Internetz. That's nice, but it's not quite the same as talking directly with other people, is it?

I don't drink with the exception of a glass of wine, here or there, at a nice dinner. So, I don't care about going to quaint pubs. But, I'd certainly love it if there were more places where people could come together in a social atmosphere and, perhaps, have the opportunity to exchange ideas. Just so long as beer bottles and fists don't start flying...

[Bishop149]

All rather repulsive really.

I wonder if this micropub concept could make social drinking fashionable again. It seems to have been mostly displaced by social coffee drinking at the moment.

Or should that be displaced *again* by coffee.

I work just outside Shoreditch, probably the most hipster (or to quote a colleague "douchey") area of the whole UK. I am thus beset with small ultra-trendy "artisan" coffee places, I have 3 within 2 minutes walk of works front door. All of these places partially (or completely) switch to alcohol in the evenings, basically the business model seems to be

Mornings and afternoons: Sell overpriced (but admittedly rather nice) coffee.
Evenings: Sell overpriced (but admittedly rather nice) "craft" beer and cocktails.

Edit: This is my preferred one to give you and idea of the kind of place: http://grind.co.uk/shoreditchgrind/
As an interesting aside, all these places are run by Australians / New Zealanders.

[mrbadger]

My faculty building, which was only completed four years ago, has a coffee shop on the ground floor.

This has become the default meeting location. To the extend that it's now in the drop down list on our meeting booking thing.

I do all my student meetings there, and as many of the staff ones as are appropriate for such a public venue.

Until I entered the world of academia 18 years ago I didn't appreciate how vital the cafe culture was to the exchange of idea's, having long since rejected pubs and other public meeting venues as smelly noisy places to be avoided. Back then the there weren't too many coffee shops around, now they are popping up everywhere.

Now the thought of not talking out a new idea over a coffee is simply alien to me.

I still don't like ones that insist on playing music, or rather that play it so loud you can't talk (there are two in my town that do that), but with such places I just don't go back.

[Bishop149]

As a fellow academic I am well aware that coffee is essentially the fuel for the engine upon which academia runs. So pervasive was coffee to almost every interaction I recently detoxed Caffeine for a month out of fear I was becoming addicted to the point of harming my health. I have resumed the coffee at a more reasonable / healthy level!
Some of my Universities institutes have the lobby cafe / meeting room you describe, mine unfortunately doesn't.

But this is also a broader business model.
The area my lab is located in is (perhaps optimistically) termed "Silicon Roundabout" due to the large number of tech startups in the area. Most of these small operations can't really afford office space (at least not in such a high profile location) and so the other business that pervades the area are shared workspaces for rent. Obviously much such work is also done in the coffee shops.

Some have taken this to its logical conclusion and opened a "coffice", essentially a fusion of the two business models right down the middle.
http://www.thebrew.co.uk/community/brew-cafe

I expect to see more of them popping up TBH.

[Morkonan]

...
I expect to see more of them popping up TBH.

Breeders.

"Breeders" in the form of office buildings, industrial parks, tech parks, that specialize in providing office space, warehouse services, communications and even secretarial, bookkeeping, and staffing (etc) services to up-and-coming businesses and startups.

I briefly considered setting one up at one time... The concept is excellent, but in order to really flourish you need to have a complimentary market, of course. Most breeders specialize in certain segments, like light industrial, tech, legal and business services, art, etc. It's a pretty good concept, really, as it allows many startups to have an advantage, right off the bat, and they can focus on their business goals rather than fussy logistics.

The most successful ones are usually breeder buildings that have complimentary tenants, where businesses can easily partner with each other.

Adding a coffee cafe... now that would really be nice. $$$$!!! Hmm, coffee, secretarial pool, answering and messaging services, filing/copy, communications, IT support, mail services, security, warehousing and storage, office furniture rentals/sales, working out truck leasing for those that need it, travel arrangements, meeting rooms, parties...

[muppetts]

Pubs never really held my interest. Smelly places that were surprisingly made no better by the abolishment of smoking, as that just revealed the stale beer, body odour and urine smell that permeated them.

All rather repulsive really.

.

Dude seriously where the hell are you going, some theme pub from Train Spotting?!

Most pubs are not even remotely like that, now they tend to be a cross between pub, wine bar and cafe/restaurant.

[Usenko]

Edit: This is my preferred one to give you and idea of the kind of place: http://grind.co.uk/shoreditchgrind/
As an interesting aside, all these places are run by Australians / New Zealanders.

This is unsurprising.

Australians and Kiwis are TERRIBLE coffee snobs. To the point that when my sister was travelling recently, she had all her FB friends send her addresses of where their friends and family members were working as Baristas in the UK - she wanted to be sure that she could get good coffee.

Our coffee culture comes from a big influx of Greek and Italian immigrants just after WW2, but now Aussies even turn up their nose at original Greek and Italian coffee.

(I'll admit to being the barbarian who quite likes a cup of instant coffee. . . ).

[Jericho]

I work just outside Shoreditch, probably the most hipster (or to quote a colleague "douchey") area of the whole UK. I am thus beset with small ultra-trendy "artisan" coffee places,

I would love to say that it is just me getting old that makes me hate these people, but I've always hated this kind of crap. I remember being on a educational trip when I was at college, and went to see the new buildings and designs in the london docklands, and we took the docklands light-railway (kind of an elevated train in parts) through a really weird area.

It was a barren landscape, like they had just finished filming Full Metal Jacket, and there was this lone officeblock in the middle of the empty land. The elevated train stopped there, and we got off. We thought it was a bar.

But...

It was 1991

It was a wine-bar.


There were actual men in actual red-braces (or suspenders if you're american) who had just finished watching Wall Street for 397th time and thought that they were living in Manhattan, instead of some god-awful pre-revitalized industrial wasteland.



Every time I see a Shoreditch tosser in his bowtie and skinny jeans and stupid facial hair eating his artisan burger from a roof-tile, or drinking his artisan coffee from a pyrex chemical conical flask, while they cure racism and sexism by accepting their white privilege and male privilege, therefore they've done their part, I just.. I wanna talk to him. I wanna try to talk some sense to him -- tell him the way things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone and this old man is all that's left. I gotta live with that.

Sorry, I turned into Morgan Freeman at the end there.
But that's how I feel sometimes when I look at these utter morons. I don't think it's an age thing either... I've always thought people like that were utter morons... Like the 'cool' kids at school who used to rebel and be 'individuals' by dressing in the same trainers and jackets, and failing to see the irony.



We have a lot of this type here at work now. On the one hand, I'd rather have them than the 'old-school' that refuse to accept that it isn't 1986 anymore. Those guys really need to retire. On the other hand, I can't walk down to the design departments without laughing at the clones. Apparently that have so much innovation, and so much drive, and so much passion, and so many quirky ideas, that they all dress exactly the same, and wear the same glasses, and talk exactly the same, all the women have the same black glasses and hairstyle, all the men have the same shirt and facial hair!!!

It's that kind of 'radical' thinking that produces a product, and they all think it must be perfect because they all agree that it is perfect because they all agree with each other about everything because they are all the same clones, and they just don't see the irony.

A conversation from January:
Me: "Yes, but it takes 1 click to open this window, and 5 clicks to take me back back to were I was."
Designers: "Well, we all tested it, and we all agreed with each other that this made the most sense."
Me and everyone else in the room: "Riiigggghhhhttt. And... Market research with customers? What so they think?"
Designers: "We haven't put it in front of customers yet, we're still designing the first hill."
Me and everyone else in the room: "For 2 years!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?"

They seem to think that their job is to design for the same of design.

Anyway, micropubs. Yeah, no. Could be a good idea, but depends who runs it. If it appears on this years The Apprentice, then I;m sure to hate it.
Anyway, micropubs and microbreweries are a white-man's hobby, and therefore sexist and racist, so I refuse to participate http://www.cracked.com/article_24841_6- ... acist.html

[mrbadger]

@Jericho, you made me feel all sad now

That article is interesting,

Anyway, that Micropub had a stone step in the doorway, so I wouldn't go in even if I could drink, not with my crutches.

The only shop in town with a step that I go into is a posh kitchen equipment shop full of awesomeness that sucks money out of my wallet because I find it irrisistable.

Did you know KitchenAid make a coffee Grinder? I didn't till yesterday. now I want one. I already want a Kitchenaid Expresso machine, which is how I discovered they make a grinder too. And that shop has it in stock. And I have the money to get it right here.....

It's a real problem, given that coffee is the only vice I'm allowed.

[Golden_Gonads]

Anyway, micropubs and microbreweries are a white-man's hobby, and therefore sexist and racist, so I refuse to participate http://www.cracked.com/article_24841_6- ... acist.html

That article points out that in general black people don't drink craft beer, and that shockingly very few black people set up craft beer micro-breweries and therefore its all racist... What's next? Bra companies being labelled sexist for catering to women?