Talking on my way back from coffee with Randy about "third places", which I really don't know anything about other than a few references I've heard here and there. We went back to my office and in 3 google searches I found this. On my first google search I found information about Oldenburg's ideas, but I wanted to find something with a better description:

"Some essential ingredients for successful third places include:
1. They must be free or relatively inexpensive to enter and to purchase food and drinks.
2. They must be highly accessible, ideally one should be able to get there by foot from one’s home.
3. A number of people can be expected to be there on a daily basis.
4. All people should feel welcome, it should be easy to get into a conversation. A person who goes there should be able to find both old and new friends each time they visit." - Jerry Kloby

Such a great concept, and I really do wish that we had more "third places" in the US.