The Optimist doesn’t have a true office, and my home’s not big enough for two kids and a home office — and I’m required to keep the kids. That means I’m a working nomad, pulling up all over town with a laptop. I usually try to pick places that fit the mood of the story I’m working on, or match the energy I want around me in the moment.
We don’t really do “best this” or “top that” lists, but this is one area where I thought I could be helpful. Here are a few spots I visited last week where, if you have a device and five bucks, you can knock things out.
History hive: I started last week with a Monday morning at Archive CLT on the west side, ahead of an interview I’d scheduled in McCrorey Heights that afternoon. The whole shop is dedicated to Black culture, with a focus on Charlotte’s Black culture. The walls have old magazine covers and newspaper clips, and there’s a cool old print ad for Harvey Gantt’s 1990 Senate campaign.
Civic hive: Speaking of Gantt, I had a Tuesday lunch at Community Matters Cafe in Third Ward and saw the former mayor walking out of the place while I was walking in. Inside, I wound up in a five-minute conversation with Johnson C. Smith President Valerie Kinloch and her chief of staff Boris Henderson.
Brainy hive: The coffee shop and working space at The Pearl, called the Assembly, is like a student life center for professionals. The big perk for low-brow souls like myself is simply being in the presence of super-intelligent medical professionals and students, working on whatever it is super-intelligent medical professionals and students work on. I spent a big chunk of last Wednesday here, taking two meetings. I bring the average IQ in the room way, way down, but it’s fun to soak up the ambition of the place.
Nomad hive: I’ve had a Switchyards membership since launching the Optimist last year. It puts me in a room with other traveling workers. Switchyards has two Charlotte locations, in Belmont and Oakhurst, and all the coffee and tea you can drink. I tend to go here when I need to do admin things and pay bills.
The old socks hive: Salud in NoDa fits just right. I had lunch — Call of da Wild sandwich — here on Friday, but it’s got coffee and beer, too. The walls are tributes to OutKast and 1990s NBA basketball, and it’s all wrapped up in Dominican flavors representing co-owner Dairelyn Glunt’s heritage. I go here to write.
The meaningful hive: We wrote about Central Avenue’s Changebaker Place — the new haunt from Manolo Betancur and his wife, Leidy — a couple of months ago. It’s quiet and powerful, if you know the story behind it. Great place to read and think.