With yesterday’s sad news about the Langdon Street Cafe closing its doors at the end of May, I’ve found myself thinking about other geek related places around the Montpelier area that might be able to sustain some of the activities that have gone on. There’s no way to replace the same blend of activities, ranging from supporting the arts to Geek Week to an incredible blend of music in an awesome locations. Where do we go from here?
There’s a couple of other places around Montpelier that have also supported the geek community to a certain extent.
The Book Garden: Run by Rick Powell, the Book Garden has become a really cool store that’s been growing with graphic novels and gaming on Friday Nights, as well as a fairly good selection of used Science Fiction and Fantasy novels towards the back.
Bear Pond Books / Rivendell Books: Stalwarts in Montpelier, these two bookstores host a number of events, and a wide selection of books. Rivendell has a much better selection in the speculative fiction genres, but Bear Pond tends to be a bit better with some of the newer entries. Rivendell’s second store up in the Berlin Mall also has an excellent comic and growing science fiction / fantasy selection. I’ve urged some of the people there to consider a gaming night.
The Kellogg-Hubbard Library: Anyone who follows along with the Geek Things post in the morning will know that the K-H library is an active one, especially when it comes to kids and instilling a bit of creativity in the young’uns. Plus, there’s a lot of space, tables, chairs and a great selection of speculative fiction to borrow out. And, WiFi.
Village Pizza: Decent enough resturaunt, but they also host a Monday Magic The Gathering card game every week. Not the first place that I’d expect to see gaming, but we’ll take what we can get.
Where else are some good places to look for things, or to fill space for Vermont geeks?
Looking around the area, there’s not a whole lot of places that can really replicate what the Langdon Street Cafe does, or the ambiance. However, there’s a couple of places that could likely do something similar, bringing in music and being suitable for small groups of people.
Fresh Tracks Farm is a place that comes right to mind; I pass it every day on the way to work. New building, open Wednesdays through Sundays (I’m pretty sure, although less sure about hours), with a lot of open space and dedicated to bringing in conversation with wine to go with it. (And their wine is pretty good, and local!) They host some things over the summer. It would be cool to see that place open up a bit more for music and things like that.
Capitol Plaza is another that comes to mind, although for something along the lines of a small gaming convention. That would be a fun thing to bring in, especially if local businesses get involved, such as TBG or BPB.
Where else?
Geek Mountain State 