Writer's Grove

The Coffee House is Dead

Please welcome turbo spiffy author Kameron Hurley to the Writer’s Grove. She has some very important things to say about beer so you can see why we get along. But also? Read her stuff. It’s great. —Kevin

The Coffee House for Writers is Dead: Long Live the Beer Lounge

I hesitated to write this article, because then everyone would know my secret, and the hipsters would descend on all the best writing hangouts in my town. Once I wrote this piece, the world would know that for me, the clackety-clack typing of novels at the coffee house is dead.

The tappity-tap at the beer lounge is ascendant.

Oh, to be sure, I spent a good deal of time writing Empire Ascendant, the sequel to my epic fantasy, The Mirror Empire, at a coffee shop. A variety of them, in fact, as I struggled to find a place that was both fun and eclectic without being packed so full of folks talking urban gardening and startups that my headphones couldn’t muffle the sound.

I live in Central Ohio, and if you’re thinking “How could there possibly be cool places to write there outside of one’s house?” I will note that when I moved here in 2007, that was a fair question. But today Dayton, Ohio is undergoing a bit of a secret renaissance. Cheap housing and even cheaper land have made this an affordable place for cash-strapped, job-poor, student-loan laden young people to start businesses and actually own real estate. The average home price here is $94,900. That’s not missing a digit, and yes, they are real, livable houses on par with anything you’d get on either coast. Add the low cost of real estate to the ease with which many businesses downtown are receiving and renewing their liquor licenses, and it’s resulted in a boom of small businesses, from restaurants to microbreweries.

To be sure, there are a lot of breweries, bars and restaurants around, from Main Street all the way up to Fifth Street and beyond. But bars and restaurants can get loud and crowded for writer-types who are actually there to work and not to be Seen Working. Those sorts of places aren’t so much made for lounging as sitting at a bar watching a blaring TV. But a beer lounge… well, that’s another thing entirely.

And what is it, you may ask, that makes for a great beer lounge for writers?

Enter The Barrel House, my lounge of choice in downtown Dayton. The key to building a good lounge is equal parts amazing beer and cozy surroundings. You want this to be a place people want to linger and congregate. I’m a binge writer, which means I’ll spend 4, 6, 8 hours a day writing on the weekends. I need a place that’s comfortable and soothing. The Barrel House does this right, with little clusters of couches and single chairs for writers like me who come in wanting nothing more than a beer and a seat. Come during the afternoons or weekday evenings instead of the packed weekend evenings and you’ll get a seat no problem. Free-standing stools scattered about the main sitting area serve as both additional seating and desk space for a laptop. Instead of seating at the bar, there are two nice long tables where people can write or play board games. And of course, what’s the lounge without the mini-library? The Barrel House comes stocked with both books – for the introverts – and games – for the extroverts.

We haven’t talked about the beer yet, have we? Even if your beer lounge of choice isn’t great for writing on a lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon, it better rate high as a must-visit for beer connoisseurs. As at The Barrel House, one must be able to choose from a seemingly endless variety of beers and wines on tap (yes, wine too because why not?), twenty at a time, with new ones being introduced every week as kegs are emptied out. If you love trying new beer, you’ll never be bored at a proper beer lounge, and the proprietors must be good at suggesting new brews for every palate.

Another issue I have with coffee shops around Dayton, especially the independent ones, is that they don’t have late hours. I need to wrap up my writing at about 4-5pm when I’m clacking away at the coffee shop, then head somewhere else as they shut down for the day, usually slogging back home to get distracted by dishes and dogs. A great beer lounge like the one I frequent is open late during the week, and will give you a few extra hours on Sunday to finish up that last chapter.

I’m a firm believer in moderation, of course, especially over a six hour writing session, so be sure to measure your intake carefully if you want to ensure all that writing was good for something besides a whole lot of editing. I never drink more than three drinks in a sitting, and I make sure I savor them and they’re all excellent because why drink if what you’re drinking isn’t amazing?

There may be all sorts of other things folks need in a beer lounge, but this final one is essential: the proprietors must never forget the most essential element for every bar or beer lounge from here to London: they cannot forget the towel. Hanging up at the front door of The Barrel House – perfectly placed for one who needs to grab it while fleeing quickly – is a towel. Yes, a towel, the most massively useful thing any interstellar hitchhiker can have. This clearly signals that the bar owners are, in fact, Our People.

Good mood. Great seating. Late hours. Exceptional beer. Preparedness.

This is how you build a great beer lounge.

I know where I’ll be this weekend. How about you?

About the Author

Kameron Hurley is the author of The Mirror Empire and Empire Ascendant and the God’s War Trilogy. Hurley has won the Hugo Award, Kitschy Award, and Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer; she has also been a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, Nebula Award, the Locus Award, BFS Award, the Gemmell Morningstar Award and the BSFA Award for Best Novel. Her short fiction has appeared in Popular Science Magazine, Lightspeed Magazine, Year’s Best SF, The Lowest Heaven, and Meeting Infinity. Her nonfiction has been featured in The Atlantic, Locus Magazine, and the upcoming collection The Geek Feminist Revolution.