What's Your "Third Place?"

One of my thoughtful, much-missed friends from Minnesota, Carreen,  often speaks about our "third place", the place other than our home or our workplace that we go to regularly.  It may be the place we go to get work done, or meet neighbors, or grab a coffee with friends, or even make new friends.  We may go there to complete a project on our laptops away from the distractions of home or work.   Often, what we're really seeking is to connect with our community, or to be recognized.

One of my "third places" is the little tea house that is in our neighborhood.  Once a week, whoever is around gathers there for an hour or two and we get to know who our neighbors are.  I've gotten to know some wonderful and interesting women that I otherwise would never see.  We share information, but mostly obsess about Downton Abbey!

Another is my husband's and my favorite restaurant.  We have a standing reservation every couple of weeks normally.  It's a small restaurant with an attentive and friendly staff.  It's a distinct kind of comfort to walk into a place where they know your name, they know your dietary restrictions and take care of that without being asked.  We got to know the staff a little better a few weeks ago when they came to our house for dinner.   We'd enjoyed so many amazing meals there, it was time for us to wait on them.  It turned out to be a fun evening, and so interesting to find out more about each one of them.  A little intimidating to find out that most of them were graduates of culinary schools!  One is a published novelist, one an artist.   That night, two of our guest's significant others made me aware of what I think is a great "third place".

The Baker's Table in Lancaster is just such a community gathering place.  It's in the block of buildings that used to be the Lancaster Cork Works in the 19th century but that is now known as Urban Place,  at 480 New Holland Ave, Lancaster.  It's tucked into the corner of two buildings and is actually in Building 6, on the first floor.  It is a large but comfortable and warm space, a mix of old and new.

There's a large communal table in the center, and also smaller tables if you're there to get some work done.  The table is made of old wooden beams that were in the former factory.  Mixed in throughout the room are antique baking tools, old scales, and a great assortment of gift items.  Great cookbooks, accessories for entertaining, greeting cards, wooden cutting boards and rolling pins.  The room is flanked on one side by windows looking into the baking area.

The Baker's Table serves organic Blue Bottle Coffee, from a Brooklyn-based coffee roaster, and 

brews each customer's cup of coffee individually.  They serve croissants, eclairs, tortes, cookies, and the wildly-popular Lancaster favorite, whoopie pies.  All the baked goods are made right there.  The Bakers's Table also serves lunch, and is available for business and/or celebration events.

I'll be meeting friends there for coffee.  If you're looking for a drop-in kind of place with great vibe, grab a seat at the Baker's Table.  Tell Daniela, one of  the pastry chefs, and Janelle in front of the house, that I sent you!  What are some of your "third places"?

To read more about "third places", check out my friend's blog at www.cpheegard.blogspot.com.

Any Day Now!

Spring has been very slow in arriving in our part of the world this year.  Winter hung on just a little too long, and other than one or two days of spring-like temperatures to tease us, the unfolding of all the lushness and green, and the great sigh of relaxing into warmth, has eluded us so far.  The trees are poised but hesitant.

But there are the little harbingers out there if you're willing to look.  Last week my friend and I drove to an Amish farm to buy pansies.  Every year I say I won't plant them because it's soon too hot for them and they need to be replaced.  But, every year I'm charmed by their wonderful yellows and blues and purples and sure enough, I have a tray of them on my front porch.   I love the johnny-jump-ups for their cheerful little faces.  My daughter used to plant them with her dad, when she was a toddler in her denim overalls, needing two pudgy hands to wield her trowel.  In they'd go right next to her dad's vegetable garden.

The Amish children at the farm told me about the little twin goats that had been born this year...they didn't look alike...one brown...one black.  The frisky little black one was entertaining us as he leaped over and over again,  straight up onto the other animals' backs!

Today we are still in our warm jackets, but here in my neighborhood is a trail through woods along a creek that is full of brave little trailblazers heeding no mind to the temperatures and just doing their best to delight us with color and hope for the season to come!

Even the poor, lowly and usually-maligned dandelion looks great this time of the year!