Constantine Stavropoulis could be considered DC's King of the Third Place.  In 1998, he created what has become one of the most successful Third Places in the DC Metropolitan area, Tryst on Adams Morgan Main Street.  He then opened The Diner nearby and he will soon open his third “third place” in Woodley Park, not coincidentally called, "The Third Place."  We tracked him down in Woodley Park to get his insights.

RDC: What does “The Third Place” mean to you.

CS: I first read about the Third Place in the 90’s in a New York Times article called "All Together, Yet All alone."  They talked about the concept of having your home, your office, and then a third place that balances out your life.  In the article, they were talking about how Starbuck’s wanted to be a third place and how they didn't quite get there because they hadn't created an environment where you could actually sit down, relax and make it a third place.  Instead, it was more a fast-food, get in, get out sort of place … a McCoffee.

A third place on the other hand is where you can connect with people.  I used to joke that third places in the US are shopping malls and movie theaters.  That is where people often gather in the US, but how can you connect with people in a movie theater, where you sit down and you don’t say a word to each other. 

Hours of operation are important to a third place.  There are so many different people with so many different schedules that to be open only a certain amount of time would limit the ability for someone to go to there.  There were times at Tryst that it was so slow that we used to sit and watch people’s hair grow!  Maybe at 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning … but the idea of not being available for that one, two, ten people would take away from what Tryst is. 

But there is a cost to being a third place!  From a strictly business model standpoint, being a third place is not the best.  At Tryst, we don’t break even until 5 or 6 in the evening.  From a purely business standpoint, we would be better off if we were closed the entire day.  We have a staff of 60 people and we could reduce our staff by more than half and reduce our costs significantly … but I think we would lose what we are.  There was sort of a karma that was created because of our business hours and I don’t want to change that.