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.

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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

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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

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The eat.shop guides to creative destinations

You’re visiting a major city (or living in one) and are not only committed to avoiding the chains when pondering your dining and shopping options, but seeking out those cool, unique, indie places loved by locals and established by creative, progressive entrepreneurs that take those experiences to another level. Enter the eat.shop guides.

All 90 of the profiled businesses are unique, local, independent, homegrown, creative types “who are highly

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An alternative story to opening an alternative restaurant

You dream of opening your own restaurant or bar that you feel the world needs and is ready for, but no one’s providing. Yet you don’t have the money or the experience. Here’s a story that may inspire you, or someone you know, because these are the kinds of people and places that make a neighborhood extraordinary…

It’s the story of Counter, a vegetarian, organic wine bar in New York City.

Starting with $300 and an agreement to use a

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Oh thank heaven, it’s not 7-11

Have you walked through 7-11 looking for something to eat and just can’t seem to relate? Or rather, when was the last time you walked in. Like many cultural creatives, you’re looking for an alternative, something better, something like…

...maybe a Fresh ‘N’ Friends? So the name may be a little corny, but then again, it’d be a foreign language to its patrons (which is otherwise cool) because it’s located in Berlin, Germany. So what makes it different,

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In continuing last week’s entries on redefining streets the way we’re redefining buildings (green), food (organic), and the music industry (crowdsourcing), here’s a sample of that shift on a city scale... a slow city, green city, city 2.0, organic city, remixed city, authentic city if you will.

Paris’ mayor vowed in 2001 to reduce car traffic/congestion by 40% by 2020.  It’s the kind of thing auto-oriented generations see as a travesty of driving freedom (which ironically it’s anything but

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Time for indie tenants to meet real estate investors halfway

While it’s , it’s also time for local independent tenants to make it easier for developers to lease to them. The simple reason why an overwhelming majority of new developments prefer leasing out to national chains rather than local independent businesses is because chains can pay more rent, and that’s because they have an established patronage once they open. This is why

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In the heyday of cities, indoor public markets were as popular in U.S. cities as they are in most other cities around the world. After a few decades of the suburban experiment, they’re making a return along with emerging populations of downtown residents. Perhaps a little too soon on the scene of this next generation fresh economy renaissance is the Portland Public Market in Maine. It broke ground in 1997, but wasn’t been able to remain open despite award-winning accolades on its design. In

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Triple bottom line retail

Cool towns are all about local indie businesses, and that’s why it’s important to listen to author Katya Andresen’s message in her book, Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy To Sell Just Causes. You may not want to live among a herd of national chains, but it’s wise to learn from them since they spend so much on market research and innovation.

One such business is Nau. Speaking of robin hood marketing, more than half of Nau comes from Patagonia, a

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Reader log: Having the market come to you instead

We’re all familiar with the public market as either a large regional market, or a small neighborhood famer’s market. The public market originated in Europe, and here’s a reader’s account of how they still provide an ideal model for markets elsewhere.

“Pictures of San Gimignano, Italy (all images) show how the market comes to the people vs. people needing to drive to the market. These markets sold everything from produce to panty hose. 

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The grocery store every downtown wants

Why is there such a frenzy to score a Trader Joe’s in one’s neighborhood? To sum it up with a quote sourced amid the hysteria of NYC’s first Trader Joe’s ever last year (pictured above), “It’s kind of like the Grateful Dead of supermarkets.“

Yes, it’s a chain, but for the neighborhood that isn’t able to organize its own co-op supermarket, finds Whole Foods too pricey for normal shopping, detests the suburban chains, and can’t get everything it wants

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Last night, 14 people - Lisa, Angela, Christian, Mike, Sarah, Joey, Justin, Ayari, Raj, Ritu, Heather, Robert, myself and business owner/VIBE Linda - met over pizza, beer and wine to discuss, as a beta community, what Washington DC’s next cafe/bar/coffeehouse should be. It was the first ever VIBE beta community, as well as DC’s first beta community. Two hours later we had laid out the foundation for what very well may be the coolest, most innovative venue in Washington DC.

You’d actually

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A contemporary take on coffeehouse design

In contrast to the grungy, bohemian, shabby chic warehouse coffeehouse/bar/restaurant/art gallery warehouse profiled yesterday, I thought I’d present a modest, contemporary, yet progressive coffee stop known as Vic’s in Boulder, Colorado (not hip enough to have a website apparently). It’s one of the few good examples of modern architecture presented at a humanistic scale, but thankfully we’re seeing more of this.

Live music, poetry, free wireless,

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Here’s the catch 22 - the most culturally, economically rich cities and towns focus on local, independent, diverse restaurants and retail, however, it’s the national chains that can pay $60-$100/s.f./year when most start-up indie businesses can only afford $7-$20/s.f./year. That’s a serious problem if cities don’t share in the economic benefits they receive from local independent businesses.

There’s an answer somewhere in the middle, and today I’d like to announce a new term in the CoolTown

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Art galleries will always have their place in the city, but to survive, they’ll have to become more than just venues to sell art pieces - they need to become venues to sell art experiences.  Check out these two trends:

1. The rise of the design economy. Think how Target has the world’s top designers designing their everyday products at affordable prices.

2. The rise of the experience economy. Think of a progressive bookstore with an in-house organic cafe amidst a poetry slam.  Or

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‘Brand spaces’ create an experience

Continuing yesterday’s theme… We know that the third place is a general term (our ‘home’ away from home and work), but how about when a business successfully defines it in their terms? Once again, Trendwatching.com has the definition:

Brand space - a space that capitalizes - in the broadest sense of the word - on consumer expectations set in motion by being spaces (aka third places). Think literally accommodating consumers outside the home and office,

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So you want a co-op supermarket downtown…

Good neighborhood supermarkets are hard to come by. Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are the de facto choices by the downtown crowd, though the former has a limited selection and the latter caters to an upper class income. The most progressive neighborhoods in forward-thinking cities like Madison WI, Burlington VT, Cambridge MA and Ann Arbor MI have it figured out - co-op supermarkets.

As you can see (above), co-ops have evolved - they’re organized

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Is there a standard definition of what a local, independent business is?  Or in other words, when does an independent business become a chain?  There’s probably no better person to ask than Stacy Mitchell, a senior researcher at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and author of the just-released Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses.

An excerpt from the book:
“There is no commonly agreed upon definition, but in this book, a

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Every great neighborhood needs a truly authentic pizzeria

Not surprisingly, one can find a pizzeria every few blocks in Italy.  It’s also not surprising that they use fresh ingredients, especially the mozzarella cheese.  Here’s a little recap.  However, it is surprising that one is often hard-pressed to find such a place anywhere in an entire city in the U.S., which is why Brooklyn’s Difara Pizzeria garners reviews like the following:

“I am the most impatient person you’ll ever meet and

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In continuation of the last entry on retail trends that will influence the future of local, independent retail in your town…

Community activism: More and more community resentment and opposition to growing chains like Walmarts and Starbucks arise as residents seek to prioritize their own community’s uniqueness, authenticity and economy.

Health care costs: Entrepreneurs (individuals) still have to pay significantly more in health care insurance than employees of companies - that’s just the

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How local, independents retailers can compete

Creative urbanites prefer unique, local, independent retailers to the Ruby Tuesdays and Walmarts, but these desired retailers need to keep up with the current trends to survive.  The National Retail Federation Foundation helped sponsor a report to help them do just that, called Challenges of the future: The rebirth of small, independent retail in America.  Here are the trends they need to be aware of, from a creative urban point of

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Theaters of the future?

Would you believe that theaters in the 1940s sold 4 billion tickets each year, at half the current population?  Today, with the advent of TV, cable, DVDs and the internet, that number is down to 1.4 billion.  So will theaters slowly disappear?  The more accurate prediction is that they’ll evolve with multiple uses...

A multiplex theater in Millbury, MA (pictured) features a bar, ice creamery and coffeehouse (unfortunately chains,) a wifi lounge and even screenside

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And the winner for best ‘third place’ for teens is…

Manboo in Japan.  Maybe.  Think of it as a social hangout/cafe/living room/gaming room/entertainment center/salon/computer school/hostel.  Let’s break it down…

At Manboo, for $4/hour you can:

- Relax in big comfy chairs or sofas in cubicled living rooms and surf the internet, watch one of hundreds of DVDs, read comics, or play one of hundreds of PS2/Xbox games.

- Stay overnight for $11/hour.  There are lots of couches to sleep on, plus

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Make way for the retail condo

We know about the residential condo craze, but do you know about the retail condo craze?  Probably not because it’s not quite a craze yet, but $1.1 billion in retail condos were made in 2004-2005, up from $120 million in 2002-2003.

What’s a retail condo?  Like a residential condo, it’s simply an individual unit in a larger building that one purchases rather than leases/rents.  What may not be as well known is how beneficial they can be to the local economy, to

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