Workbar

I’ve been a member for a month, so there’s a fresh angle on the review.
Other worthwhile disclaimers: I’m new to working remotely, mostly extroverted and yet love to be left alone while I get my work done. I also really like carbonated water.
Okay, now the details.
Workbar is a brilliant use of space. This spot caters to 4 distinct work styles: café, shared desks, open layout and library-​esque. The café is downstairs and gives an immediate vibe of a more spacious Starbucks with more reliable wifi. Coffee is self-​serve and included (and good). People are kind enough to say «hi» if you’re looking around for attention and kind enough to let you be when you get into the flow. The upstairs is just a short elevator ride up and lands you by a front desk and another kitchen-​ish coffee area. They also have taps for water, community-​purchased kegs and what they call «fizzy water.» I LOVE it. My membership basically pays for itself when you consider all the seltzer I don’t have to buy.
Anyway, you can head to the right for the more conversational shared work spaces or to the left to what I call «the library.» Everywhere has reasonable ground rules that are well explained by friendly faces. Small breakout rooms for calls are plentiful and bigger conference rooms are bookable as needed.
The staff seems to really get it too. You’re not walking into a summer camp with big smiles and printed out maps and you’re not walking into a café where you feel obligated to buy a coffee in order to sit for a few hours. It’s a paid, professional and thoughtful space designed to let you get your work done.
The bonus comes from two efforts, both of which are centered on socializing. One of them is their web portal, where everyone gets a profile upon joining. It’s like an old-​school Facebook where you can casually get to know people’s names before you run into them around the space. It may sound awkward but it helps. The second effort comes in social events. They have a useful email list and occasional social hours that are just great ways to get away from the isolation of remote work.
That’s it. I find Workbar is the right balance of space, people and privacy for me to be in the city and productive at the same time. I’ve made friends around the space and look forward to heading there when I do.

Do you often do *real* work in Starbucks instead of just posing all angsty with a laptop and get tired of the noise and crappy bandwidth?
Workbar is for you.
Do you work from home and get tired of hosting business meetings in hotel lobbies and coffeeshops when vendors, business people and partners need to meet up in person?
Workbar is for you.
Are you a professional who occasionally needs a conference room or training setup but you don’t want to deal with Hotels or virtual office outfits that force mandatory catering and upcharge for internet access?
Workbar is for you.
Do you work from home and get a bit stir-​crazy due to sensory deprivation and lack of exposure to other humans?
Workbar is for you.
All of the above apply to me and explain why I’m a happy member of the «fiver» club at Workbar Cambridge.
This is the type of grownup place you graduate to when you finally realize how lame, inefficient and frustrating it is to try to get real work done in a café or coffeeshop.
I live and work from a home office in the ass-​end of Boston (Roslindale) but most of my biotech, edu and pharmaceutical clients are in Cambridge. Workbar gives me an excellent workspace where people can self-​sort themselves based on how much noise and interaction they want with other people (Café vs. Quiet zones …)
It also gives me a space to have professional meetings and even run instructor lead training workshops when needed. It looks and feels very professional and is far less expensive and an order of magnitude less hassle than dealing with hotel event people.
And on top of that the people are fantastic. The caliber of the startups and emerging companies represented by the membership means that you’ll always be in and around some really motivated and smart people doing clever stuff — often totally outside of your own particular realm or specialty.
It’s also good for networking as well — there are Google Group mailing lists for members to discuss things and post information about social events, technical events and other opportunities including workbar people looking to hire other workbar people. I’ve gotten serious value out of random email exchanges with random WB members.
Did I mention the robot beer keg that responds to an RFID card? Yep.
Cold still water AND sparkling water on tap? Yep.
A culture that encourages leftover catered meals to be left out for others to dig into? Yep.
And if you get lucky you may also run across the Unilocal Boston HQ team working from this location as well.

Having become familiar with cowkorking spaces in Philadelphia like the very awesome Indy Hall, I think I became too comfortable in what I imagined a space to be. I wanted to work from a space in Boston a few months ago, and gave Workbar’s new-​ish Cambridge location a try. But whereas Indy Hall is an inspirational, creative space full of amazing people who make you feel at home in their community, Workbar is much less so. In fact from what I can remember, only one person one their staff spoke with me during my entire week there, and almost reluctantly so. It was a huge shock coming form a city where most people in the coworking space try very hard to make others feel included and supported.
Quite honestly, Workbar feels less like a coworking space and more like a real, regular working space The downstairs area, where I spent most of my time, tries to be a hip café, with long communal tables and music playing. This does not, however, appear to translate into the kinds of transient conversations between strangers you might find in an actual café. Meanwhile, the upstairs feels like a cubical farm without any cubicles, with long work tables full of people quietly tapping away and conference rooms lining the outer walls. It actually felt uncomfortable to walk through, like I was invading an actual company’s prviate space. It was uninviting and a little unnerving.
Maybe spaces like this in Boston are meant for Very Serious Startup Workers funded by Large, Important Venture Funds. If that’s the case and that’s the environment you’re looking for, then by all means, give Workbar a try. But if you’re not into the sterile, quietcore worker scene and go to coworking spaces to interact with other people, you might just want to work from a café instead.

I LOVE going to Workbar. They are so friendly! Even though I’m young, I never feel like I don’t belong there (like I sometimes even feel when I pull out my laptop to do work at Starbucks around the corner!)
They really make a community for the businesses that make their home there. They’ll post congratulations to businesses that are doing well or who have been recognized for their success. They even have a fun blackboard with polls and fun facts to help you learn about the people you see every day.
The conference rooms are clean and filled with all of the technology you could need. It’s close to the T as well as a variety of dining options so you can take those long lunch breaks we all look forward to.

I’ve never «worked» here, but I have been to a few events and each time the place was really clean, modern, and well laid out. Great big windows and lots of open space — what’s not to love?

This is an absolutely amazing place to work. I joined a startup that was working out of WorkBar Cambridge as employee #1. We’re now a team of 7 people and we have no plans to leave anytime soon.
The space is clean and they care a lot about the overall aesthetic. Additionally, the other people we work around are all smart, high-​caliber people. By working here we get all sorts of benefits — stocked kitchen, nice meetings rooms w projectors, fast wifi, great views, camaraderie + community — that we definitely wouldn’t have if we rented some tiny office ourselves or worked from our homes.

I may be new to mobile officing (is that a phrase/*trademarked*) but I know that this place is a phenomenal spot to get work done in a casual setting.
The first time I went in was for an interview. Naturally, I felt a little eager and nervous I may be in the wrong place. However, as soon as I walked in, the woman moderating the space welcomed me, offered coffee, and pointed me in the right direction of my interviewer. All with a smile? Before noon?!? Let’s just say that experience definitely contributed to my hiring (probably).
My second time there (my first meeting as an employee!) was equally enjoyable. Welcome. Coffee. He’s over there. *Smile*
Wifi is great and the music selection is really on point. Can’t recommend this place any more.

I have been working at Workbar since it opened in Central Square in May. We have five people here with a range of full time and part-​time memberships. The membership plans are very good and flexible – many options to fit the style of your business and the cost is a great deal for the value. Workbar is comparably priced to other cooperative work set ups in Cambridge and Boston. But it is extremely well located in the heart of Central Square with T access and a lot of local meter and garage parking.
These places are made or broken by the staff and it is here that Workbar excels. All of the people who run the space are absolutely first class. Service is superb. They are incredibly helpful about anything you want or need.
The space is very beautiful and very comfortable for working. It is divided into areas for quiet, talking and phone calls so you can pick the amount of noise you want to hear. The café which is open to guests is a bit noisy but it is designed to be the «public» space. It is still very comfortable for working.
There are several very nice conference rooms that can be reserved by the hour. Rules limit 10 hours of reservations at any one time so it is always possible to find a room the day before your meeting, if not the day of.
I can’t say enough about how great this place is for my business. It gives us a beautifully designed workspace, access to wonderful programming that is done through the workbar, a place to network with other start-​ups, and a place I’m proud to bring visitors.
I’ve looked at all of the cooperative work spaces in the area and Workbar is by far the best. Kudos to Bill and his team!

Love Workbar!
It’s not just a place to park yourself to do work, but a community. There’s a wide range of spaces to choose from, from very public (café) to very private (1 person phone booths), and that should meet most peoples needs.

Pros: convenient to central square, cool ambiance, nice staff, available by the day for just $ 30, good light. lots of space, coffee and tea available, nice private meeting rooms are also available at $ 100/​hr.
Cons: REALLY loud. They have music playing (not blasting, but still…), and a lot of conversing going on (which oddly seems to be among the staff and management – they do know people here are trying to work, right?).