“A GREAT GOOD PLACE” An article written by the founder of “Coffee Society” about the sociological aspects of cafes in America today. Preface The purpose of this essay is to help new "Coffee Society" employees and others interested in our cafe, to understand the Coffee Society's business philosophy. An important part of that philosophy is sociological in nature and is represented in the form of a gathering spot or "A GREAT GOOD PLACE" as we will refer to it throughout this text. By understanding these concepts, the employee can better create the atmosphere, attitude and service that makes our cafe successful. The employee will also be better prepared to do his or her job and at the same time become "caught up" in the fun and enjoyment of seeing humans enjoy themselves in a unique social environment. This essay is not designed to be a text on human sociology or am I even proposing that I have any solid platform on which to preach on the subject. This is purely an undertaking to provide a better understanding of what sets our type of cafe apart from others who only see the profits that can be obtained by cashing in on an upward "trend" industry. These individuals have absolutely no intimation to what is really happening. They have very little insight into why endless crowds of people seem to be attracted to them. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Ray Oldenburg, professor of sociology at the University of West Florida in Pensacola for his research and as a result his text, "The Great Good Place". Without this book as a reference for this essay, I would have spent endless hours attempting to organize and sort out my thoughts and ideas about the chemistry of what makes our cafe a successful "Great Good Place"! Dr. Oldenburg helped me to understand that when good citizens of a community find places to spend pleasurable hours with one another for no specific or obvious purpose, there is purpose to such association. One of these places is, of course, our cafe environment. We provide an informal public gathering place which is not and can not be supplied by any other agency in the society. All great cultures have had a vital informal public life and, necessarily, they evolved their own popular versions of those places that played host to it. To comprehend the importance of the informal public life of our society is to become concerned for its future. Currently, and for some time now, the course of urban growth and development in the United States has been hostile to an informal public life; we are failing to provide either suitable or sufficient gathering places necessary for it. The grass roots of our democracy are correspondingly weaker than in the past, and our individual lives are not as rich. Thus, it is always with a sense of pride that our "coffee society cafe" is beginning to fill some of this need. Introduction GREAT CIVILIZATIONS, like great cities, share a common feature. Evolving within them and crucial to their growth and refinement are distinctive informal public gathering places. These became as much a part of the urban landscape as of the citizen's daily life and, invariably, they come to dominate the image of the city. Thus the numerous sidewalk cafes seems to be Paris, just as the forum dominates one's mental picture of classic Rome. The soul of London resides in her many pubs: that of Florence in its teeming piazzas. Vienna's presence is seen and felt most within those eternal coffeehouses encircled within her Ringstrasse. The grocery store-become-pub at which the Irish family does its entertaining, the bier garten that is father to more formal German organizations, and the Japanese teahouse whose ceremonies are the model for an entire way of life, all represent fundamental institutions of mediation between the individual and the larger society. In cities and towns blessed with their own characteristic form of these Great Good Places, the stranger feels at home--no, is at home, --whereas in cities without them, even the native does not feel at home. America does not rank well on the dimension of her informal public life and less well now than in the past. Increasingly, her citizens are encouraged to find their relaxation, entertainment, companionship, even safety, almost entirely within the privacy of homes that have become more a retreat from society than a connection to it. In their kind and number, there has been a marked decline in gathering places near enough to people's homes to afford the easy access and familiar faces necessary to a vital informal public life. The course of urban development in America is pushing the individual toward that line separating proud independence from pitiable isolation, for it affords insufficient opportunity and encouragement to voluntary human contact. Daily life amid the new urban sprawl is like a grammar school without its recess period, like incurring the aches and pains of a softball game without the fun of getting together for a few beers afterward. Both the joys of relaxing with people and the social solidarity that results from it are disappearing for want of settings that make them possible. A number of recent American writings indicate that the nostalgia for the small town need not be constructed as directed toward the town itself: it is rather a "quest for community" (as Robert Nisbet puts it)--a nostalgia for a compassable and integral living unit. The critical question is not whether the small town can be rehabilitated in the image of its earlier strength and growth --- for clearly it cannot---but whether American life will be able to evolve any other integral community to replace it. This is what I call the problem of place in America, and unless it is somehow resolved, American personality will continue to be quiet and unfulfilled. Max Lerner America as a Civilization 1957 Part one: The Problem of Place in America Clearly it cannot- but whether American life will be able to evolve any oter intergral community to replace it. This is what I call the problem of place in America, and unless it is somehow resolved, American personality will continue to be quiet and unfullfilled Max Lerner America as a Civilization The years that followed have confirmed Lerner's diagnosis. The problem of place in America has not been resolved and life has become more jangled and fragmented. No new form of integral community has been found; the small town has yet to greet its replacement. And Americans are not a contented people. What may have seemed like the new form of community --- the automobile suburb -- multiplied rapidly after World War II. Thirteen million plus returning veteran qualified for single-family dwellings requiring no down payments in the new developments. In building and equipping these millions of new private domains, American industry found a major alternative to military production and companionable marriages appeared to have found ideal nesting places. But we did not live happily ever after. Life in the subdivision may have satisfied the combat veteran's longing for a safe, orderly, and quiet haven, but it rarely offered the sense of place and belonging that had rooted his parents and grandparents. Houses alone do not a community make, and the typical subdivision proved hostile to the emergence of any structure or space utilization beyond the uniform houses and streets that characterized it. The suburb, with its single family residences, condominium and apartment complexes, have become just a base from which individuals reach out to find some sort of identity, in a fragmented way. One works in one place, sleeps in another, shops somewhere else, finds pleasure or companionship where they can, and cares about none of these places. The missing "Informal Public Life" Americans do not make daily visits to sidewalk cafes or banquet halls. We do not have that third place of satisfaction and social cohesion beyond our own homes and apartments and work that for others is an essential element of the good life. Our comings and goings are more restricted to the home and work settings, and those two spheres have become preemptive. Multitudes shuttle back and forth between the "womb" and the rat race in a constricted pattern of daily life that easily generates the familiar desire to "get away from it all." A two stop model of daily routine is becoming fixed in our habits as the urban environment affords less opportunity for public relaxation. Our most familiar gathering centers are disappearing rapidly. The proportion of beer and spirits consumed in public places are isappearing rapidly. This is due not only because of the prevailing attitudes of the populous but also due to the stricter drinking and driving laws. Because of the void that the absence of informal public life has created, we have become slaves to consumerism more than we even can conceive. There is such an important element in the informal public gathering spot to relieve stress and makes our life so much more enjoyable. In the absence of an informal public life, living becomes more expensive. Where the means and facilities for relaxation and leisure are not publicly shared, they become objects of private ownership. Boredom is constant. The American spends much time relieving that boredom by re-decorating their homes. They depend on new wall coverings or furniture arrangements to add zest to their lives. Like the bored and idle rich, they look to new clothing fashions for the same purpose and buy new wardrobes well before the old ones are past service. A lively round of after-dinner conversation isn't as simple as a walk to the corner cafe (if they can find one) --one has to Host the dinner. The home entertainment industry thrives in the death of informal public life and the demand for new vcr's sound systems, video rental stores, and new cable connections are satisfying the social exiled. This problem in America manifests itself in a sorely deficient informal public life. The structure of shared experience beyond that offered by family, job, and passive consumerism is small and dwindling. he "Third Place" solution There is no one solution to the problem of place in America but there are several emergent concepts that are becoming a real pressure release across the country. By definition, the third Place can be considered a "hangout", but its connotation is negative and the word conjures up images of a "joint" or "dive". For want of a more suitable term, the phrase Third Place will refer to what we have called "the core settings of informal public life." The third place is a generic designation for a great variety of public places that host the regular, voluntary, informal and happily anticipated gathering of individuals beyond the reals of work and home. Throughout the remainder of this essay, I will discuss the "third place" as it relates only to our cafe and the cafes that function under the characteristics that make them truly Great Places. Not all cafes have the elements that make the space function effectively but the Coffee Society does and will continue to meet the characteristics of successful Third Places. Third places the world over share common and essential features. These are basic gathering places where community is most alive and people are most themselves. Part Two The Character of Coffee Society A Successful "Third Place" The employee and anyone interested in our business should become familiar with the following characteristics and should monitor these elements anytime they are working or visiting our cafe. They are critical to the ongoing success of our business as well as providing value to the customer--our business partner and third place companion. 1. Neutral Ground In order for our cafe to offer the rich and varied associations that makes it successful, there must be neutral ground upon which people may gather. We must be a place where individuals may come and go as they please, in which none are required to play host, and in which all feel at home and comfortable. We are reating a living room experience and we are the host. 2. Our "Third Place Is a Leveler" Everyone that enters our cafe are equal. We are accessible to the general public and we do not set formal criteria of membership and exclusion. All customers must be treated equally,.from the student to the retired senior citizen executive that meets in our cafe daily. Because of this attitude, we will find there is an intermingling of all types of customers from all walks of life and conversation and associations will grow and inter- twine after time. 3.Conversation Is the Main Activity Neutral ground provides the place, and leveling sets the stage for the major activity of third places everywhere. That activity is conversation. Nothing more clearly indicates a successful third place than the talk there is good; that it is lively, scintillating, colorful, and engaging. The major stimulus for this conversation starts with our employee and the method by which each customer is greeted and some sort of banter or conversation is started. 4. Music Whatever interrupts conversations lively flow is ruinous to our cafe. Most common among these is the noise that passes for music, though it must be understood that when conversation is savored, even Mozart is noise when it is played too loudly. The music that is played at our cafe must be approved by management and must be neutral in its content. The volume is critical as well as the contnent. Classical, new age, and jazz are the predominant types of material that should be played and it must be played continuously during business hours. Seasonal music should be interspersed with regular programming during holidays. 5.Accessibility and Accommodation Third places that render the best and fullest service are those to which one may go alone at almost any time of day or evening with the assurance that acquaintances will be there. Our hours are set to accommodate just that feature. From early morning to late night, the cafe is open to satisfy the informal public place concept and as a result the sales of our products follow. Also, "A community life exists," says the sociologist Philip Slater, "when one can go daily to a given location and see many of the people he knows." A place that is a see and be seen environment. Successful third places have kept long hours and our cafe is structured on maximum hours while keeping the minimum number of employees, based on the customer load, which can be adjusted quickly and effectively. 6. The Regulars The lure of a third place depends only secondarily upon seating capacity, variety of beverages served, availability of parking, prices or other features. What attracts the regular visitor to a third place is supplied not by management but by the fellow customers. The third place is just a space unless the right people are there to make it come alive, and they are the regulars. It is the regulars who give our cafe its character and who assure that on any given visit some of the gang will be there. Our cafe is dominated by regulars but not necessarily in a numerical sense. It is the regulars, whatever their number on any given occasion, who feel at home in a place and set the tone of conviviality. Every regular was once a newcomer, and the acceptance of newcomers is essential to the sustained vitality and success of Coffee Society. As an employee we use a "three step rule" which says that a customer should be greeted enthusiastically before they reach three steps into the cafe door. Also the use of first names and the importance of remembering each customers name and using it several times in a transaction is critical. In order to develop a regular.customer. they must be made to feel like one from the start. Acceptance into the Society cafe circle is not difficult, but it is not automatic either. There must be a conscious effort on all the employees parts to make it a conscious on going effort. Most enthusiastically greeted should be the returning old regular, the individual who had earlier been a loyal and accepted regular but whom circumstances had , in more recent months, kept away. Next in order of welcome is the regular making his or her anticipated appearance. The cafe was counting on their arrival and greets them accordingly. Next is the stranger or first timer who enters in the company of another regular. Then come strangers in pairs and, at the bottom of the order, is the lone stranger, whose acceptance will take a little longer. Yet it is the lone stranger, the new customer, who is apt to become a regular if treated properly., Using their first name, giving them a sincere welcome, and providing information on just how our cafe procedure works, is our rule. Sometimes it is important for the shift leader or manager to pop out from behind the counter when an new customer enters the cafe , and show them the coffees and the self service bar and give them that special , unexpected service which is so rare in our fast paced self centered world. Service and enthusiasm is the mainstay of our success at Coffee Society and it goes a very long way in making this "third Place" more special than any other place the new customer has ever been. 7. A Low Profile As a physical structure, the third place can and should be attractive, plain and clean. It is unfortunate but newer places tend to emerge in prime locations with the expectation of capitalizing on a high volume of transient customers. Newer places are also likely to be chain establishments with policies and personnel that discourage hanging out. It is critical to Coffee Society cafes that we never create that attitude and it is entirely up to the management to guard against this. 8. Art and the Community Creating an ever changing environment utilizing local artist is another important factor in the success of our cafe. Our concept is to provide space for community artist to display and sell there work without any proceeds being received by the cafe. The public relations and interest this creates make this third place more appealing and produces increased attendance by the circle of influence of the displaying artist. The exhibits change every thirty days. In addition to the art, a bulletin board of sorts is provided for local community activities and events that are primarily cultural in nature, giving the regulars some interest in the immediate activities of the area. Contributions to local non-profit groups again creates a public image that enhances the third place concept and the overall business of the cafe. 9. The Mood Is Playful The persistent mood of the Coffee Society is a playful one. Those who would keep conversation serious for more than a minute are almost certainly doomed to failure. Every topic and speaker is a potential trapeze for the exercise and display of wit. As an employee, you should be as playful in spirit as you can. The majority of employees of coffee society are hired and trained to entertain and create a spirit of friendliness. Whether pronounced or low key, however, the playful and friendly spirit is of utmost importance. Here, joy and acceptance reign over anxiety and alienation. At our cafe, we try to create a subtle spirit of excitement at which everyone stays longer than intended because they are enjoying themselves and hate to leave. The urge to return, recreate, and recapture the experience is there. Invariably the suggestion is made, "Let's do this again!" The third place exists because of that urge. 10.A Home Away from Home Third places compete with the home on many of its own terms and often emerge the winner. One suspects that is the similarity that a third place bears to a comfortable home and not its differences that poses the greater threat. The third place is often more homelike than home! A congenial environment is the closes parallel to home for our customers. We try to create an arena that allows all of our customers to feel like members in good standing in our cafe. To be a part of the group that makes the place is our goal. In addition, our cafe creates a theme of "at - hominess" which is a feeling of being at ease or the "freedom to be." It involves the active expression of personality, the assertion of oneself within an environment. And finally, the is warmth. It is the least tangible of the home like qualities. Warmth emerges out of friendliness, support and mutual concern. It radiates from the combination of cheerfulness and companionship, and it enhances the sense of being alive. 11.The Product and Service Ultimately, because we are profit driven, none of the elements of the cafe, of our Great Good Place could exist without the sale of more than an environment. The ultimate success is measured by the consistent quality of the products we offer and the speed and friendliness of the service we offer to those who visit our third place for the enjoyment of coffee and related items. We pride ourselves on the knowledge and service that we provide to each and every customer that walks through our doors. As an employee, you should be ultimately interested in our products and can be knowledgeable about all aspects of our business. Summary Coffee Society is a third place that exists on neutral ground and serves to level its guests to a condition of social equality. Within our cafes, conversation is the primary activity while enjoying superb coffee and espresso drinks and pastries. We are open in off hours to allow the flow of informal lifestyles. The character of our cafes are generated by the regular customers and is marked by a friendly and playful mood, which is a contrast form our customers involvement in other places. Though our cafe is radically different from a customers home, the cafe place is remarkably similar to a good home in the psychological comfort and support that it extends. Such are the characteristics of the Coffee Society cafe that appear to be universal to all successful great third places. CoffeeSociety.com 1875 South Bascom Ave., Suite 112 Campbell, CA 95008 (408) 377-7734