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 to fit their mood. Of course, you can rent an ipod or a bicycle.

What else can you ask for? It’s also near a train station and at the edge of Copenhagen’s nightlife, plus it’s part of a carbon-neutral program, naturally.

Thanks to Rasul Sha’ir of Vosica for the reference!

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 in this interview with the founders that they’re every bit as vibrant and full of character as the businesses in their online directory. Some excepts:

On why Unchained?...
“We think great independent shops are sexy. And just sticking to the same old, big brand, multi-national chain stores is dull, dull, dull.
We love quirk, originality and experiences that come from meeting interesting people… Because they rock. Seriously.”

On the importance...
“...Unchained shops play a massive part in their community too. We wouldn’t want to wake up in ten years time in a world where big brand retailers line our streets and grumble about it. But by then, it will be too late.”*

On where to find them...
“Independent shops can’t pay the rent on the massive streets in this city.”

Still, it could definitely benefit from a Yelp-like user review community, some better images and a means to perhaps allow the community to help the businesses prosper.

*Anyone who’s seen WALL-E will find this particularly interesting.

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 fall) will go to town on defining the 'urban' in urban wineries:

Events. With a room for events that seat 200, 400 standing, or more private rooms, the winery will host concerts, art showings and parties that match music with wine and food pairings.

Participation. Because it's in the middle of the city, City Winery is allowing residents to take part in its wine production, choosing their own grapes, then crushing, fermenting, and bottling and labeling their own bottles. 200 of the 300 annual barrels will be sold at $5000 each plus materials expenses.

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 meaning and richness to life in this area."

From its description to its blog to its primer for newbies, you'll soon realize the craftsmanship and soul that's poured into this place day in and day out. Some principles:

- All meat served comes from independent farmers and co-ops with integrity.
- Farm-to-table locally-based produce.
- No factory-made ingredients (outside of condiments like mustard).
- Hand-crafted beer and sausages.
- Daily-changing menu based on what's fresh and seasonal, half of which is vegetarian despite the restaurant name.
- Affordability is a key goal.
- No tipping. They have an entire section on it here.

Like Jamie Wallace of Abay Ethiopian Restaurant, Jay started his restaurant with only a tech background. All of Jay's quotes in this entry are excerpted from an excellent interview with Jed Sundwall.

Did you have any restaurant experience before?
No. I was totally making shit up.

Really! Did you have a partner with experience?
No. They say don't do things that you don't have experience in because you'll do every stupid thing possible, which I did. But by the time we opened, we'd attracted people who wanted to be a part of it. There are people with skills and knowledge who came in and said "Oh, you're building a restaurant! What's your plans for this?" and I'd say "I don't know!" And they'd say "Well I need to come in here and help!" "Great!" You know?

As regulars to this website know, the impact of this third place isn't limited to inside the walls, "Over the course of 6 months this little corner went from being basically totally unused at night to rocking."

Thanks to Chris Radcliff for the reference.

Image source: Bonzo McGrue.

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 crippling disadvantage? They can tap into the same power behind branding that chains do, except instead of a national brand they need to crowdsource a community brand that ensures a loyal following on opening day.

How much easier it would be to compete with a loyal following of several hundred customers already eagerly awaiting the business's opening day. Check out the process here.

This is an excerpt from the CoolTown visual crowdsourced placemaking guide.

Profile of a future VIBE

To refresh your memory, a VIBE is a variegated independent business entrepreneur, the creative, evolved version of the franchise operator, that opens multiple unique, authentic businesses under different names and concepts, but with a common system of delivering high quality product and service.

Smart City Radio recently interviewed a young budding VIBE and former attorney in Pittsburgh's East End, Jamie Wallace who opened his first restaurant ever, Abay Ethiopian Cuisine. It soon became known as one of Pittsburgh Magazine's Top 25 Best Restaurants of 2005 soon after its opening in 2004. One of his primary motivations to switch careers is that he wanted his city to have a more multi-cultural heritage, which is a big deal to a creative city.

What's to say Jamie will be a VIBE? First of all, his first restaurant, with no restaurant experience, is a commercial success. Second, you can hear it in his interview, "My mindset wasn't that this has to run like every other restaurant I've read about or been in. My perspective was whether this was a technology company or a robotics company, there are certain principles that I want to apply to my business. So if you come in and you work here, the philosophy that we have, the approach we take, it's the same. It's essentially a customer service business, we're promoting culture as much as anything, we want people to have a great time, but there's a component of what I'm trying to do that would be the same regardless. So I feel like from a customer standpoint, they get that what we're there to do isn't just to turn a profit, it's for them to learn, for them to absorb this culture, have an enjoyable time, have it be educational, and touch them in a way that's different. Hopefully they get that."

Apparently they are.

Grocery stores for 'locavores'

Locavore is the Oxford Dictionary Word of the Year - a local resident who tries to eat only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius.

As of December 14, 2007, there's now a place in the U.S. for a local resident who tries to buy only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius. Located in the hip Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, Urban Rustic, a 1200 s.f. grocery store and cafe will be stocked primarily with that in mind. It shouldn't be a surprise that one of the shop's founders produced and directed the recent fast-food-oriented documentary, King Corn. As you can see in the picture, each of its wares has a story, and that carries the do the right thing status today's shoppers are looking for.

However, the gold standard is Sussex and the City in Brighton, England. Not to discredit in any which way at all the millions that the Urban Rustic folks will impact, the Sussex and the City grocery offers all of its products from within a 50-mile radius of Sussex.

When you can't get enough outdoor dining

Especially for cities with great weather all year round, restaurants often find themselves with fully occupied seating areas outside, and empty tables inside. So, like the open air cinemas of Athens, some restaurants have adapted by turning their interior spaces toward the outdoors.

Notice that much of the interior ground floor of this restaurant in Buenos Aires has a patio feeling, while the equivalent amount on the second floor is open to the sky. Some restaurants, like The Reef in Adams Morgan, Washington DC, continue providing such rooftop space in the chillier months via an impermanent enclosed tent with heat lamps.

The benefit is not only to those within the restaurant - there is an added sense of vitality that the diners bring to the street, the vibrancy of an outdoor cafe times three.

Now, imagine a square surrounded by a series of buildings like these, decorated with even more outdoor diners in the center square - like experiencing a grand outdoor restaurant or a dining festival, every day.

New Orleans - It doesn't get more auth-entic than this

You hear the crazy post-Katrina talk about people who say New Orleans should go back to being the swamp it's inclined to be. It's probable that none of them have ever been to the Crescent City, because it's a criminal thing to say once you've been there. If Venice is worth preserving despite going underwater every year, a 100-year flood is a centennial inconvenience by comparison.

If there's one word (there isn't) that can be used to describe New Orleans, it's 'authentic', and it just doesn't get more authentic in the city by the bayou.

You certainly get this feeling being in the French Quarter, despite it being run over by tourists. There literally is nothing else in the country that looks like it, sounds like it, or feels like it, and probably in the world for that matter.

You definitely get this feeling in Jacques-Imo's Cafe in the Oak Street/Uptown/Garden District neighborhood. Among intricately decorated walls and columns, local artwork, unique light fixtures and vernacular hanging artifacts, you'll be handed a menu that is distinctly 'Nawlins', from the best cornbread around to alligator cheesecake (it's not a dessert) to dozens of different kinds of fish and seafood cooked a dozen different ways. It may not be the best in the world, or that affordable actually, but it's New Orleans all the way, no doubt about it.

One of the only authentic trendy stores you'll find

First of all, authentic trendiness is practically an oxymoron, which is why you probably never heard the term. While authentic refers to being true to one self, trendy tends to follow what others think is hot. However, one store in Manhattan (surprise) actually intertwines the two quite effectively - at the 350 s.f. Grand Opening.

Since trendy stores by nature go out of fashion sooner or later, Grand Opening has taken it upon itself to take that trendiness in a truly authentic way - to literally reinvent itself as a completely different store every few months, something no one else has dared to take on to the same degree. Currently, from March 21 to September 10th, 2007 (that's right, next week Monday), it's known as Pong, featuring a single rentable ping pong table with a webcam so you can see if it's being used or not. Prior to that from December 12-March 21 it was Barn for Sale, which restored and relocated original timberframe barns and materials either as barns or new homes.

What's next? A mock-up drive-in for six people in a classic car featuring a classic movie.

No reason why this concept can't be used in a section of a larger store or restaurant. Started by a couple of entrepreneurs with experience in designing exhibits, one thing's for sure - the store will never go out of style.