What happens when a virtual world becomes real? What happens when a digital community becomes a physical one? In yet another sign of things to come, that’s what happened to the online realm of Instructables, “a web-based documentation platform where passionate people share what they do and how they do it, and learn from and collaborate with others,“... it became the Instructables Restaurant. Or in this site’s terms, the Instructables crowd is the beta community for crowdsourcing their own

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That essentially captures what New York’s Brooklyn Bowl is all about.

Bowling. Robert Putnam’s best-seller lamented that the social capital in the U.S. was one the decline as we were ‘bowling alone’ more often. While his measure of social capital may be misleading, maybe Brooklyn Bowl’s founders took his comments to heart, as it’d be difficult to bowl alone with a live music venue, restaurant, lounge and ongoing events present. Convergence is what creatives are used to, though not the $40-$50

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Providing retail for the emerging, growing, progressive creatives market doesn’t follow the same rules as provided by retail consultant Robert Gibbs in A primer on retail types and town centers. It’s a good guide for the general population, so let’s see what happens when we converge and remix it with the 19 urban development types for creatives.

First of all, for creatives, it’s no longer just retail, but retail entertainment. Second, retail no longer follows a simple ownership, product

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First of all, most local bookstores simply can’t compete with the likes of Barnes & Noble and Amazon, despite their advantages supporting the local economy. However, it does have a chance if it’s more than a bookstore, adding a few revenue-generating elements. Why the focus on a bookstore? Because if there’s one business that seems doomed in today’s world, this is it, so figuring out a way to not only survive, but thrive, says a lot for many other local independent businesses.  Here are some

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It’s well known that local retail far outweighs the national chains in benefitting the surrounding neighborhood (see previous entry), but how can local indie retailers compete, especially with national chains now going local?

For one, they can crowdsource their customer base with their unique community brand. Second, they can become a VIBE (variegated independent business entrepreneur) and open a diversified portfolio of different, unique businesses in the same neighborhood. Brooklyn is a

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I never thought I’d have an entry with Starbucks in the title, but here it is.  Starbucks is letting new stores be branded locally with their own name, products and culture, the first of which is 15th Avenue Coffee & Tea in Seattle (pictured).

First of all, this is not about taking business away from the true local independents. Their customers are loyal and not fooled by the corporate stealthiness. This is more about international corporations allowing local culture to be part of their

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One of the best technical descriptions for the kind of district or neighborhood that attracts creatives is the natural cultural district.  These are retail and entertainment zones that grow organically.  One destination in the Philippines takes that to heart literally, and is an inspiring example of when creativity meets business effectively.

The Z-Bar, a tapas lounge on the second floor of The Tinderbox Restaurant, located in Banilad, Cebu City (pop. 800,000, metro pop. 2 million), in the

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Say you’re in a quiet social mood, looking for a good cup of joe and a bite to eat… and have an inkling to see what happens if you literally had a blank canvas and some paints to express your inner soul.

Or how about if it’s later in the night, where a good drink and some energetic live music is inspiring the same blank canvas visions?

Those lucky creatives in Vancouver, Canada now have Raw Canvas to manifest their desires, where you’re invited to walk right in, “buy a canvas, grab some

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The happy hour is one of the key regular experiences of a third place that helps elicit a sense of community, so it may be of interest to understand where one can find the best staples of these social get togethers - beer, based on award-winning brews. This is quite possibly where sociability, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit best mix, at least when in comes to beer and/or happy hours…

Those top states, adjusted for population based on medals per million residents, are:

1. Colorado -

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There’s the fun of cooking up your own hot-off-the-grill meals at a hot pot restaurant and pulling your own pint of beer at your personal table, now there’s serve and mix your own drinks at the MiNiBAR in Amsterdam.

Walk right in and the concierge will hand you a key (and ice bucket) to one of 45 personal drink fridges. The choices are plentiful, from beers and wines to soft drinks, juices and liquors. Each fridge has an assigned inventory, so you get charged by what you use.

Ok, so the

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There was already twice as much retail/restaurant in existence than the average U.S. American could sustain… before the economy crashed. So, besides going out of business, what is one way restaurants are surviving, and thriving?

According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, think of how people are beginning to favor the connectedness of cities over the isolation of suburbia. Thus, rather than $50 entrees with white tablecloths with maximum distance from other diners (ie big homes on

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There’s something about yogurt owners and progressive entrepreneurs, or maybe there’s just something in the yogurt…

First came a lesson in authenticity. Korea began enjoying a yogurt boom when it introduced 100% pure yogurt with 100% fresh fruit toppings.

Then came the opportunity of applying that success to creatives, when Korean entrepreneurs, staying true to the principles, opened yogurt shops that emphasized award-winning interior design. Studies show aesthetics comes first when it comes

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How is creativity helping restaurants thrive in this economy? According to Technomic, a leading food-industry consulting and research firm, here are the leading restaurant trends for 2009:

1. Experimentation/innovation: “Look for new menu items, kinds of service and pricing policies. Restaurants will be designed differently, too.“ Restaurants can’t just sell food to survive anymore, they need to provide experiences. Busboys & Poets in Washington DC is a great example, combining a restaurant,

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One way to more deeply experience a city is to spend time in its cultural niches. Well, the Pixel Hotel in Linz, Austria is taking that to heart, with its six entirely iconoclastic rooms distributed throughout the city.

Pixel on the water: Get to know the city industrial area on a 1955 tugboat via three original restored cabins that create a suite for two.
Pixel in court: Within the museum district a former cabinetmaker’s workshop is now a 1000 s.f. modern loft space with a ‘60s-vintage

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First of all, social media is defined as “internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information.“ This blog is such an example, and so is CoolTown on Twitter, Facebook and social networking. Then, we’ve used those tools to establish a virtual community (ie beta community) to crowdsource the kinds of places creatives want, but don’t yet exist.

In between all of this though, is how can a restaurant use social media to establish a sense of community?

Check out the video above

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Only those that adapt to change will survive, and restaurants are no different. Understanding what creatives want is key to figuring out what that means.

The want experiences, not just products and services. The want authentic and local. They want urban convenience, and they want multiple senses evoked.

While not targeting creatives per se, the Press Club in San Francisco looks to provide just that. Eight local vineyards each have their own dedicated tasting station in a wine bar setting,

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One challenge with establishing a natural cultural district in the early stages, especially one that’s retail-oriented, is reaching a critical mass where it feels like a place. One solution is to build a microcosm of a such a flourishing retail center so people can experience the vibe of the larger district, and for that we have Hollywood’s Space 15 Twenty to thank as a model, to a certain degree.

Featured in the latest Springwise, the concept is brilliant - Space 15 Twenty is a collection of

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What makes the Dining Hall in the Little Creatures pale ale microbrewery such a popular destination in Melbourne, Australia? It could be that it converges two kinds of places creatives crave into one they can relate to - a third place.

The Beerhouse: - In Germany, the beerhouse is the standard. Characterized by long wooden communal tables and Germany’s famous Hofbrauhaus, patrons enjoyed themselves as if they were at an indoor picnic, while dancers, singers and musicians provided a truly

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That’s according to a 2007 Johnson Gardner study, based on 2006 numbers in Portland, Oregon, commissioned by Oregon Metro, as only recently reported on in this recent article, Trendy shops put a shine on home values.

Their study concludes that property values within a block and a half would be affected accordingly by the following businesses:

- Neighborhood theater - 14-30% higher property values. Some positives cited by the study include an increase in pedestrian traffic (safety) at more

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The signs are there:
- In a CoolTown retail study, 44% of the downtown businesses in five of the most progressive college towns are restaurants.
- According to the article,
Restaurants popular as a draw for shopping centers, 20 years ago restaurants made up 10 to 15% of the tenancy in Dallas commercial centers, but today that number is closer to 25 to 50%, with restaurants now often serving as the anchor.
- The first two of four phases for neighborhood revitalization today starts with

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If you’re wondering where creatives stay in the city known as the home of the happiest people in the world (Copenhagen, Denmark), it’d be Hotel Fox, no doubt.

In a rather bizarre venture with Volkswagen, an aging hotel was brought back to glorious life by commissioning 21 artists, illustrators, graphic designers, graffiti artists that decorated its 61 rooms in anything from Japanese Manga to neo-Baroque to Pop Art. The rooms come in T-shirt sizes (S, M, L, XL), and savvy guests choose rooms

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Next time you’re in London seeking local, independent businesses, or if you’re looking for inspiration supporting such destinations, make sure to peruse the Unchained Guide. The coolest part of this online directory is how you can search for businesses based on the following characterizations: Arty, Buzzy, Classic, Contemporary, Designer, Eclectic, Ethical, Ethnic, Green, Indulgent, Posh, Preppy, Quaint, Quirky, Romantic, Sophisticated, Sporty, Street, Techy, Traditional, Trendy. You’ll find

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The previous entry was for the beer crowd. Today’s is for the wine set.

First of all, yes, there is such a thing as an urban winery, like the Signal Hill Winery with downtown locations in Cape Town, South Africa, and Beaune and Bordeaux in France. The primary advantage? According to winemaker Jean-Vincent of Signal Hill, being at a regional center without a committed vineyard allows him to select only the best grapes from the best microclimates.

However the upcoming NYC City Winery (in the

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If you’re looking for a benchmark restaurant that represents most everything that a restaurant should be (as far as omnivores go), The Linkery in San Diego is a necessary destination. It starts with a founder like Jay Porter, “It would be a place that would, as a business, provide a community space that would bring people together. And it would celebrate really good quality food and drink and beer in a simple way… hopefully it could be a place that could become a center for something that adds

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As stated in a previous entry, the primary reason why an overwhelming majority of new retail developments lease to national chains rather than local independent businesses is that chains can pay higher rents.  They’re able to do so because they already have an established customer base before they open.  This makes it extremely difficult to establish a natural cultural district, which is why we have ‘Anywhere USA’ instead.

How can local indie shops and restaurants compete with such a

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