This excerpt was originally published in Pre Shift, our newsletter for the hospitality industry. Subscribe for more first-person accounts, advice, and interviews. Everyone needs a convenient, accessible place to socialize. But maintaining a cafe, bar, restaurant, or hybrid space that fits the bill has its challenges. In this three-part series, we’re partnering with Spectrum Business to put a spotlight on third spaces and how their operators make them work. Something I’ve noticed about third spaces—loosely defined as accessible community hubs—is that they tend to take a hybrid approach, like all-day cafes or bars centering an activity, whether it’s playing cards or line dancing. For operators, retaining regulars this way is obviously a win. But as Eater editor Nick Mancall-Bitel wrote in his piece about category-defying restaurants, maintaining the community feel also requires “negotiat[ing] their spaces and offerings with their customers.” Will Mester, from Baltimore’s The Wren, is quoted in that piece saying that “you have to turn it over to the public at some point, see what it does, and then see how you can succeed with it.” I was reminded of that when chatting with Joeleen Ng, who operates Bivy in Brooklyn and Georgie’s in Manhattan, two cafes in New York climbing gyms that have thrived off of adaptation. Ng took over Bivy, which caters to climbers on the roof of Vital Brooklyn, with little hospitality experience, figuring out how to prep at a high volume and how to manage a team along the way. When she opened Georgie’s a few…
