A New Kind of Power Lunch: The Pros and Cons of Restaurant Co Working

Co working’s proven to be the hottest workspace trend of the last three years — seemingly overnight, co working spaces have sprung up all over our city. From big, established brands to challengers who target their spaces towards a set demographic, you could be forgiven for thinking that every new variation on the co working trend has been tried — but you’d be wrong.

A new, ingenious type of co working space is taking over the USA — and the UK’s shores seem ready and primed to welcome it here. I’m talking, of course, about ‘restaurant co working’ — the practice of underserved restaurants opening their doors to entrepreneurs, offering a handy bite to eat alongside shared workspace-style facilities. But what’s the benefit of this kind of co working space, and how does it compare to what’s already currently available? Are we really ready to eat where we work? And is restaurant co working really the ‘win-win’ it seems?

How Did Restaurant Co Working Even Happen?

The restaurant co working trend seems to have evolved out of the restaurant crisis in New York — many restaurants are being forced out of business due to high rent and a lack of demand. Restaurant co working offers mutual benefits, allowing restaurants to profit during the slow daytime hours and simultaneously allowing entrepreneurs and freelancers to benefit from rates that are incomparably lower than those of traditional (if you can call co working traditional) shared workspaces.

The reason for this is that, compared to creating a dedicated co working space from scratch, converting an existing restaurant into a co working space requires minimal cost and effort. Restaurateurs simply upgrade the WiFi and ensure a plentitude of charging plugs. But are the benefits to the entrepreneurs and small businesses using these spaces worth it?

The Problem with The Restaurant Co Working Model

The restaurant co working model may offer rock-bottom prices compared to traditional co working spaces, but entrepreneurs will lose some of the benefits — such as a permanent desk space and virtual office services. Moreover, restaurant co working isn’t much different to the workspace cafes we’re already seeing here in the UK — and, as useful as they can be, every freelancer and entrepreneur knows the limitations of these workspaces.

This is why certain co working spaces, like East London chain The Brew, are now integrating coffee-shop co working spaces into their existing offering, rather than the other way around. By creating the ‘Coffice’, a free coffee-shop style co working space, they offer freelancers and entrepreneurs who are just starting out super-fast WiFi, plug sockets at every seat and a professional environment in which to work. This model allows entrepreneurs the flexibility of a café with the facilities of a shared workspace, for free –whereas restaurant co working can be seen as offering café co working, with a comparably substantial fee.

The restaurant co working trend is an exciting example of innovation within the co working industry, exemplifying how co working is developing to meet the needs of different entrepreneurs. But currently it seems to serve two needs imperfectly, rather than one need really well — and so it’s not likely to replace shared workspaces in London just yet.

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