Last year, at TABconf, Car & Keyan asked me what I do all day.

With total honesty, I told them I spend much of my time hanging out a bar near me. For some reason, they found this amusing, like I'm wasting my life drowning in drinks.

Well, that problem won't plague me much longer, because the bar is on its last legs. I found out recently that the owner "Craig" is two months behind on paying the landlord, and the doors will likely be locked this coming Monday. It's the end of an era.

The Bar

I initially started hanging out at the bar in mid-2023, a few months after its opening. The reasons were primarily out of convenience; it was near home, had comfortable furniture to lounge (sofas and cushioned chairs) and do work (upright seating), large windows allowing the sun to shine through, and great wifi that made it convenient to work away from home. As I spent more and more time there, I got to know the staff and roughly three dozen other regulars that used it as a pseudo workplace and home away from home. If you wanted to see "the crew," that was the default place you'd go. For close to three years, if I wasn't at home or the gym, the bar was the most likely place you'd find me and many others.

The glue of the bar was "Colby." The founding manager, he designed and built the space for Craig (who lives >100 miles away and I've seen maybe twice), running operations, finance, deliveries, hiring and maintenance. Although the staff had turnover, as is typical for any kind of service establishment, Colby and a handful of long-serving bartenders were consistent faces. Everything ran like clockwork, until ~6 months ago, when Colby finally moved on to a higher paying job opportunity. The glue was gone, so to speak, and it seemed like operations slowly began to fall apart without an experienced manager in charge. Staff would mention that they were late in getting their paychecks, certain drinks would be out of stock, and so on. Several other members of the team headed for the exits and regular customers started fading away. I knew the place was hanging on, but I didn't know the severity of the situation until one of the last remaining long-serving bartenders showed me the late rent statement, along with threat of legal action, two days ago.

Schelling Points and Third Spaces

Discussing the situation the other night, someone suggested we all start hanging out at a similar bar about 5 minutes away. I immediately knew this wouldn't work because of the difficult shifting the Schelling Point (a term bitcoiners might be familiar with). The value of the bar isn't purely drinks and decor, it's the knowledge that, if I show up at this place, there's likely 10-15 people I know hanging out there. The conversation, familiar faces, spontaneous interactions cannot be easily replicated at a new location. Everyone is making the same rough calculation, "I'll go there because everyone else will probably go." Now that the bar is closing, while some might choose hangout spot A, others will switch to B or C or D. There's no effective coordination mechanism to get everyone to choose the same option. Just like money or languages or communication protocols, hangout spots have something of a network effect to them.

In popular discourse, there has been much lamenting about the decline of third spaces. Many reasons have been given for this- rising rent costs, economic stress, social isolation- but I think one of the understated factors is that we all have phases of our lives, and periodically move onto the next thing. We move for school, for jobs, for relationships. Few live in their hometowns well into adulthood. Every aspect of life is more transient. The hometown pub that you and your friends hung out at from youth well into old age doesn't really exist anymore.

I don't know if I'll go look for a new bar. Maybe I'll take this opportunity to travel further and sample many different locations, instead of being loyal to one spot (although you don't get the benefits of community, in this case). Or maybe I'll be more productive and get work done at home, without the distractions of laughter and friendship. Only time will tell.