Just hanging out

It can’t just be me who has noticed it. I sense—call it the Drake Effect—that there are more people than ever before poking around downtown Wellington, looking to be entertained.

“Looking to be entertained” means there is a certain onus on our visitor to seek out his or her entertainment. But it also implies that there is more looking than finding; that there could be more for visitors to do in downtown Wellington.

“Entertained” supposes that we understand who our guests are and what would entertain them. We can’t simply run the World’s Largest Crokinole Tournament and expect our guests to be entertained by it merely because it might entertain us, the organizers. So the tourism planners have to put their brains to the challenge. In the meantime, fools and columnists can rush in with half-baked ideas about what would entertain our visitors. So, since at least half of that group is represented in this column, here goes.

Now I know we have wineries, restaurants, galleries, beaches, watercraft and fishing lakes to keep the active visitor amused, or at least slightly tipsy; but my proposal is that a large number of our visitors are looking for passive entertainment. In other words, they just want to ‘hang out.’ Take as exhibit ‘A’ for this trend our aboutto- be-opened piano bar, just steps away from the Drake.

Just how does one hang out? Here’s one definition:

HANG OUT (vb) has many dynamic meanings that range from: to be inactive, passive, at rest, to common colloquial and slang uses, which include to be lazy, not do anything, to wait, to spend time in a place, to be together socially, as well as to do something relaxing that hasn’t been decided yet.

So the term has a vibe to it, rather than a meaning. And to my mind, that vibe is directly struck by the presence of the ubiquitous (at least, ubiquitous everywhere other than here, if that’s not stretching the English language too much) coffee bar.

I think we need more coffee bars, so that more hanging out can be done. But not plain vanilla coffee bars. In order to relax and spend time in a place, hangers-out have to feel comfortable. So we need coffee bars each of which has its own statement to make about who would be most comfortable there. For example, our existing and much revered Tall Poppy has a ‘family-friendly, morning to mid-afternoon’ theme to it. Another coffee bar could open with a ‘late afternoon to evening, can’t stand kids’ theme.

The list could quickly be expanded. There could be a coffee bar for yoga fanatics, in which coffee would served while people contorted on mats. Or a coffee bar for cyclists, with shower booths at every table, clatterproof floors and very, very strong exhaust fans. Or a bar that also operated as a tattoo parlour, with special beverages to induce torpor while being inscribed and a law office in the back to issue ironclad consent forms. In fact, you could have ‘bank and coffee’ bar, a ‘drugstore and coffee’ bar or a ‘hardware store and coffee’ bar.

There is, when you think about it, a coffee bar for almost every niche. For example, someone just opened a ‘cat fancier’ coffee bar in Montreal, with multiple house cats specially trained in the receipt of affection. You could also also have a dog coffee bar, or a strollermom coffee bar, or a babysitting coffee bar, or a retro coffee bar featuring compact discs and newspapers.

One idea that I have no intention of pursuing myself, and that I therefore freely pass on to Times readers, is the ‘conversation’ bar, where patrons would not only be permitted, but actually encouraged, to talk to one another, instead of communicating by texting or browsing. Staff at the bar would be known as ‘conversationistas,’ and would not only be available to make lattes, but would also lead patrons through the elements of a conversation, such as making eye contact, speaking and listening.

Now starting a coffee bar is not a prerequisite to creating a hanging out spot; just one surefire route. There are no doubt others. Maybe one year, Wellington could organize a ‘just hanging out’ festival, where there were no events scheduled, but where everyone, well, just hung out with one another. Whatever routes are taken, I think that “Wellington: the coolest spot to just hang out” has the makings of a winning village slogan.

dsimmonds@wellingtonimes.ca