I saw a movie years ago where a San Francisco PI used a table at a Chinese restaurant as his office. ‘How cool is that?’ I wondered.
But startups like Spacious and CoworkCafe are making that a reality:
CoworkCafe offers a more relaxed vibe that many members (who include a novelist, software developers, marketing consultants, and nonprofit professionals) like. “Having a place that’s relaxed and comfortable is very good for creative type work,” he says. “There’s a certain feeling that you get in a place like this you can’t get in an office-type building. They really love the feeling of the space; they don’t want to be in a traditional office setting.”
“I have a choice of staying for happy hour. It doesn’t feel like I’ve left a long workday.”
New York-based content strategist Angela Pham echoes those sentiments about Spacious, a startup that turns high-end restaurants into coworking spaces during the day. “There’s a mental and psychological perk [to the setup],” she says. “There’s a different mood when you leave your home office versus a restaurant. I can either leave when I’m done with my work or I have a choice of staying for happy hour. It doesn’t feel like I’ve left a long workday.” She’s tried working from home or from Starbucks and found neither environment conducive to her work.
Spacious started operating in December and has expanded to several New York City restaurants, with plans to create new partnerships in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and London in the future, according to cofounder and CEO Preston Pesek. Spacious’ ideal restaurant partners are those who’ve “spent a lot of time thinking about the ambiance; we look for really good interior design,” he says. Proximity to public transportation is another key consideration. Spacious’ current restaurant partners include DBGB Kitchen & Bar and L’Apicio.
The restaurants can offer the high-end coworking frills, like a storage area or large monitors, so I can’t have a deskphone come out of a drawer in the table, like the PI did in my noir movie.
But the price – Spacious charges members $95/month or $30 for a day pass – can’t be beat. And I love the sausages at DBGB.
from Stowe Boyd http://www.stoweboyd.com/post/147961340592
