David Fisher : What is Noise Blog

What?

Many technologists, consultants and entrepreneurs find themselves working from non-traditional locations in lieu of an office, and finding such a place that is reliable and welcoming is occasionally difficult. Coffee shops are the new garages, and surely if started in 2009 Apple’s origins would have smelled of fresh roasted beans instead of an automobile.

Co-Working is the act of working with a friend. You aren’t generally working on the same project, but rather finding company in working at the same place on separate projects. Co-Working can be as simple as two friends hanging out at Starbucks and each studying or working on separate things and bouncing the occasional idea off each other, or something more formal like having desk space in a coworking office/loft.

Here I’ve put together a list of some of the best places in Boston to work out of if you aren’t doing the standard office thing. If you know of somewhere that should be included, please email me. My contact information can be found on the About page. This is a listing for the Boston/Cambridge area and I have no intentions of listing things outside of this area currently, as I will only list things I can personally vouch for.

Considerations

In seeking a place to work, there are some important considerations to make. You need a place with solid WiFi (sometimes free, sometimes not), available power, good seating, consistency/reliability, and the right volume level and lighting that you prefer. The price considerations are also important, as you can quickly go through $10/day at a coffee shop and some are certainly more expensive than others.

View Coworking around Boston in a larger map

Coffee Shops

Most locations for coworking are coffee shops and other eating establishments. Oddly, few alcohol serving establishments encourage use of laptops.

Starbucks

Starbucks is the ubiquitous coffee shop, sure to be found every few blocks. If you find one that works well for you, that’s great. Often they are a mixed bag at best. The WiFi is not generally free, although you can get up to 2 hours free per day with the registration of a refillable Starbucks Gift Card. The same WiFi is often slow. Some of them have plenty of power outlets, but others have none to be found (this is especially true of many New York area ones). Most Starbucks have seating that isn’t all that comfortable to stay in for too long. The vibe is never all that great but hey, you know what I’m talking about. You’ve been to a Starbucks right?

One hidden gem of Starbucks however is the one located in Chartwell’s inside of the Curry Student Center at Northeastern University. It helps if you appear to be a student, but they aren’t checking IDs. This is the absolute cheapest Starbucks in town, and if you really blend in as a student then they waive sales tax for some reason. They also have unlimited WiFi through Northeastern’s guest network, and its almost always fast and reliable. Seating of all types is plentiful and there is other cheap food to be found in the attached student center.

Espresso Royale

A local Boston-area coffeeshop chain. The drinks and vibe are much more hip than Starbucks, and they have expensive but tasty bagel sandwiches and wraps plus some vegan friendly treats. The seats are a bit uncomfortable at times, and the music is at the whims of the staff and generally 6dB louder than anyone would realistically want it. Around lunch time (as is true with most coffeeshops) there is a large rush and seating is difficult to obtain.

WiFi at most locations is limited to an hour or two, and then it kicks you off (although spoofing your Mac address and a few other tricks can get around this). The location on Gainsboro Street near Huntington Ave however has unlimited free WiFi and plenty of power. Not a good place to make a conference call, but not a bad place to bash out a few hours of code and have cool people around. Other locations include one on Commonwealth Avenue near BU and one on Newbury Street.

La Roma Cafe

This Newbury Street gem has gone downhill a bit over the past few years with its ever changing management. Its a great place to meet, go and read for a bit and have some great coffee but there is little to no power, and WiFi is nonexistent mainly due to the super tight seating. During Summer hours you can sit outside on the patio with a laptop and possibly grab some neighboring WiFi and that’s not so bad.

June Bug

This Jamaica Plain coffee shop is pretty cool. It’s cash-only which bothers me. There is free WiFi and some good seating. Never seems to get too crowded and there’s plenty of power. Not a bad place to work if you’re out this way. If working isn’t what you feel like doing, but just having great coffee, instead go down the street to Cafe Velouria for some of the best coffee in the Boston area.

Diesel Cafe

At the heart of Davis Square in Somerville lies one of the coolest coffee shops in the Boston area with an awesome vibe. This GLBT-friendly cafe offers paid WiFi, pool tables, an old-school photo booth, ever-rotating local art on the walls, plenty of seating of various types (although almost always full) and some killer drinks. Plus plenty of vegan friendly food and some of the most interesting people you’ll find in the Boston area. It’s occasionally a little loud, but the room is large enough that it absorbs most of it, and the music is rarely annoying. It’s cash-only, but within 1 block there are all major ATMs so for once that isn’t a problem. Definitely worth stopping by and not a bad place at all to hack on your code or hatch your startup plans.

Uptown Espresso

This South End coffee shop used to be one of my favorite places to work. It’s quiet, accepts cards, has free WiFi, plenty of natural light, and an outdoor patio and sunroom that you can work from. Then the removed all power outlets to increase the turnover of the tables. While I still go there to read, it killed it for me to be able to work there.

1369

There’s two locations of this shop actually, and one of their addresses is 1369, and the other isn’t! I haven’t done that much work here, but I know that seating is limited, its cash only last time I checked, and the wifi isn’t free. Not too bad of a place otherwise though. Will update on this one more later.

JP Licks

There’s multiple JP Licks locations around the Boston area, but the flagship location in Jamaica Plain is the most suitable for coworking. There is free wifi, a decent number of power outlets and a decent amount of indoor and outdoor seating. The place can get a bit crowded on a nice day, and there’s generally a large number of children around. They have great coffee that is roasted on premise, and excellent ice cream and other cold desserts as well. Not a bad place to stop by and knock off an hour or two of emails, but probably not the best place for an 8-hour coding session. They have signs that ask you to help keep the tables in frequent rotation during busy hours, which is understable.

Thanks to Sean M. Brown for the contribution of reminding me about JP Licks.

Clear Conscious Cafe

In the front of Central Square’s Harvest Co-Op grocery is C3 (not to be confused with C3 below). Its a neat organic/sustainable coffee shop, and they have good seating, good drinks and plenty of power. The downside is that their wifi is capped to an hour now, so your time is a bit limited.

Anadala Cafe

One of the best places in Central Square (aside from betahouse) for coworking. Great staff, good drinks, and plenty of varied seating. The wifi is stable and you can even smoke a hookah outside on the patio if you so desire. Also, if you stop by on Wednesday mornings, you’ll run into a ton of startup geeks likely at the Open Coffee meeting. Definitely worth checking out!

2nd Cup Cafe

I’ve only been in here briefly and it was ok then. I don’t go to Allston much, but my friend Selina recommends it. Free wifi. I think it was cash only when I was there last. Will have to look into

La Luna Cafe

I haven’t been there yet, but I’ve gotten to “meh” type responses on it. There’s wifi, but no one seems to be too happy about it from a coworking standpoint

Trident Cafe

Some people I know absolutely love this place, and I’ve done my fair share of coworking there. I personally think that the service is sub-par, the food overpriced and the wifi is unreliable. Plus its always crowded, and the only power outlets are at the bar near the back. Yet the location is right, and everyone knows the place.

Panera

Some Panera locations used to be really awesome (like the one on Harvard Ave in Brookline), but then they removed all power outlets. Their wifi was always crap to begin with, and I highly suspected it was a single 768k DSL line or something lame like that. One person using YouTube (or one asshat using Bittorrent) brought the entire thing down.

Miracle of Science

The only bar on the list. They have beers and wifi! Sure there’s other hotel-bars in the are that probably have wifi, but none stand out as a good home for a road warrior. The AC power situation is unknown here, but you have beer! They don’t seem to mind laptops as long as you are drinking.

Other Working Locations

betahouse

This private Central Square coworking loft is the heart of the Boston Ruby on Rails community and considered by some to be the heart of Boston’s grassroots startup community as well. Often hosting events, parties and meetups, betahouse rents desks out by either part-time or full-time basis for reasonable rates ($200-400/month I think, which can be less than your daily damage at a coffee shop). Desk space is limited and mainly software developers are accepted to join. It isn’t just a place to work, but a community, so you aren’t just renting a desk and it isn’t all that unlike a fraternity. I worked there for over a year and enjoyed it greatly.

c3

Thanks to Mark Doerschlag of Mark’s Guide for pointing out this one. There’s a great xconomy article on the coworking space at Cambridge Innovation Center in Kendall Square. Now that I think about it, I knew about these, but never went by. Its definitely a different vibe than betahouse but if you’re needing a slightly more corporate feel to your coworking, then this is well worth looking into.

MIT Stata Center

It seems that all of MIT now has open wifi (as opposed to their prior super-convoluted wifi guest registration process, which while open was annoying as hell), but the Stata Center is of particular note. One of the coolest looking building that you’ll ever see (ignore the leaking roof), it has free wifi, plenty of power and good seating. There’s a really cool outdoor ampitheatre too. Other interesting places are MIT to check out include the infinite hallway and the Dome. Then again, if you really want to check out MIT right, you need an Orange Tour…

Boston Public Library- Copley Square

The BPL at Copley Square has free wifi, plenty of power, and plus one of the most beautiful places to work in Boston. The main study hall (quiet!) upstairs is amazing. Just sign up for a library card, and you’re all set. No food/drink in the main halls, but aside from that if you need to concentrate or be away from people, then this is the place to go. There’s a cafe inside also with a tea room that does formal tea daily! How cool is that?

Boston Common Gardens/Park

Yes, there’s no official WiFi, but around the edges you can almost always find an open network. Plus you get to enjoy the sights and sounds of the park. Working outside can offer the motivation needed to get a 3G wireless card and make it a daily habit. There’s a few places around the park that you can actually find power if you look carefully.

Docks of the Esplanade

Maybe this is stretching things, but I’ve gotten some great work done here. Again, no power/wifi to be found, but you’d be shocked how much you can get done in 3 hours without the distraction of the internet, and with the water to inspire your work and creativity.

Coming Soon!

I’ll try to update this with a handful of more locations, and an interactive Google Map mashup and links to the locations soon, but right now… I’ve gotta run to one of those betahouse events!

Special Thanks

This list comes as a recommendation from @sooz. Many thanks to her for nudging me on this. She’s a great photographer, local music connoisseur, event planner and social media consultant.