Barnes and Nobles and Third Places

Barnes and Nobles is returning to Georgetown twelve years after it last closed its doors on M St. At the time, I wrote how the closing would impact the availability of “third places” in Georgetown. I lamented, in part:

Why the closing of a large chain store struck a particular chord with Georgetowners (and others) is that it was a perfect “Third Place”. This term, coined by Ray Oldenburg in his book The Great Good Place, described those places in a community where people come together outside their home (first place) or work (second place). They can be bookstores, cafes, pubs, libraries, whatever. To Oldenburg, and those that follow him, these places are most essential parts of that community.

What made Barnes and Noble a particularly great Third Place was that it offered Georgetowners and visitors alike a place to escape from the heat or the cold (or just the crowds), but you didn’t have to pay anything to use it.
Many of the classic Third Places continue to exist in Georgetown–the Marvelous Market seating area jumps to mind–but as restaurants like Nathans get swapped for tourist traps like Serendipity, the price has gone up while the “community” quality has fallen.

It’s interesting to think how much Georgetown has changed since then on this very question. Barnes and Nobles closing was a loss. And the number of casual/affordable bars and restaurants has also declined greatly since then (in 2011, J. Pauls, Old Glory, Rhino Bar, Mr. Smith’s, the Guards, and Third Edition were all still around). So on a couple measures, Georgetown took some heavy losses in the “Third Space” department since Barnes and Nobles closed.

But on one measure it’s been nothing but massive growth: cafes and coffee shops. In 2011, there were only a handful of coffee shops in Georgetown that encouraged lounging around, such as Patiserie Poupon and Baked and Wired. Now there’s hardly a block without one. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but the growth has been robust (both before the pandemic, and then after). Georgetown didn’t lose its Third Places, they just changed forms.

So that’s the Georgetown that Barnes and Nobles now returns to. So much so that I would be surprised if the book store did not dedicate a large portion of its building to its own coffee shop. (Of course the old Barnes and Nobles had an in-store Starbucks on the second floor. If I were in charge of things, though, I’d put the coffee shop on the first floor, make it bigger and bring in a hipper brand.) Despite my doom and gloom twelve years ago, Georgetown adapted. Lets see if Barnes and Nobles can adapt to Georgetown.