{"id":19316,"date":"2016-11-10T18:07:54","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T18:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/?p=19316"},"modified":"2022-01-10T21:41:22","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T21:41:22","slug":"max-grigoryev-tells-us-about-the-glass-hour-cafe-the-european-way-for-a-unique-study-and-game-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/max-grigoryev-tells-us-about-the-glass-hour-cafe-the-european-way-for-a-unique-study-and-game-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Grigoryev Tells Us About The Glass Hour Cafe: The European Way for a Unique Study and Game Space"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-px0t04-a7add871bfd3ff99bb4155b15d647d70\">\n#top .avia-gallery.av-px0t04-a7add871bfd3ff99bb4155b15d647d70 .avia-gallery-thumb a{\nwidth:20%;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='avia-gallery av-px0t04-a7add871bfd3ff99bb4155b15d647d70 avia_animate_when_visible  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  deactivate_avia_lazyload avia-gallery-animate avia-gallery-1'  itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\" ><div class='avia-gallery-thumb'> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-1-773x1030.jpg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-1-773x1030.jpg 773w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-1-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-1-1125x1500.jpg 1125w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-1-529x705.jpg 529w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-1-450x600.jpg 450w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 773px) 100vw, 773px\" data-rel='gallery-1' data-prev-img='https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-1-495x400.jpg' class='first_thumb lightbox ' data-onclick='1' title='20161109newyork-1'  itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\"  ><img class=\"wp-image-21414 avia-img-lazy-loading-not-21414\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-1-180x180.jpg\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\"  title='20161109newyork-1' alt='' srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-1-180x180.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-1-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-1-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-1-120x120.jpg 120w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-1-450x450.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-3-619x1030.jpg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-3-619x1030.jpg 619w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-3-180x300.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-3-768x1279.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-3-901x1500.jpg 901w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-3-423x705.jpg 423w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-3-450x749.jpg 450w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 619px) 100vw, 619px\" data-rel='gallery-1' data-prev-img='https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-3-495x400.jpg' class='lightbox ' data-onclick='2' title='20161109newyork-3'  itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\"  ><img class=\"wp-image-21415 avia-img-lazy-loading-not-21415\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-3-180x180.jpg\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\"  title='20161109newyork-3' alt='' srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-3-180x180.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-3-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-3-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-3-120x120.jpg 120w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/20161109newyork-3-450x450.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/201611109newyork-2-1030x658.jpg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/201611109newyork-2-1030x658.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/201611109newyork-2-300x192.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/201611109newyork-2-768x490.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/201611109newyork-2-1500x958.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/201611109newyork-2-705x450.jpg 705w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/201611109newyork-2-450x287.jpg 450w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1030px) 100vw, 1030px\" data-rel='gallery-1' data-prev-img='https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/201611109newyork-2-495x400.jpg' class='lightbox ' data-onclick='3' title='201611109newyork-2'  itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\"  ><img class=\"wp-image-21416 avia-img-lazy-loading-not-21416\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/201611109newyork-2-180x180.jpg\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\"  title='201611109newyork-2' alt='' srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/201611109newyork-2-180x180.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/201611109newyork-2-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/201611109newyork-2-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/201611109newyork-2-120x120.jpg 120w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/201611109newyork-2-450x450.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<p>I happened to hear from a Polish friend that there are these Russian guys who have started a very cool anti-cafe concept called the Glass Hour in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I contacted <strong><em>Max Grigoryev<\/em><\/strong> who is one of the founders of Glass Hour Cafe. Let&#8217;s see in Max&#8217;s own words about the opening of the first anti-cafe concept in the US.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Max, I was reading a little bit about what you guys have done. You have an anti-caf\u00e9, is that my understanding? Located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes we are located on a quiet street in Williamsburg, just a few blocks from the Lorimer L train. The concept is the following:\u00a0 You have <em>unlimited<\/em> cocktails\/drinks; everything inside is unlimited.\u00a0 We have high-speed WiFi.\u00a0We have lots of cool features, and the only thing patrons pay for is time.<\/p>\n<p>We charge five cents per minute, three dollars per hour, or twelve dollars per day.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Note:<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0 The real bargain is to stay all day because time is free after you hit the four-hour mark ($24).<\/p>\n<p><strong>How did you get the idea of \u2026 I know it\u2019s a European concept, but how did you guys decide to bring it to Brooklyn and to New York?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We are from Russia where this concept was born in Russia. We used to go to Shish Kalpesh in Moscow.\u00a0 We learned\u00a0 how to organize the space, how to work in it, and how to manage everything inside.<\/p>\n<p>We moved to New York a year ago. We realized that there were no cafes, where people could work or just chill out with their friends. Not a noisy place with lots of drinks; just a place to relax, or play board games, for example. We checked around the local places where people can play board games.\u00a0 There were many cafes or bars, but patrons needed to pay for drinks and food; otherwise.\u00a0 They couldn\u2019t sit there and play. That\u2019s why we decided to create a completely new concept in NYC. People like the concept a lot. They tell us how great and calm the atmosphere is.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Max, how do you differ from Starbucks and other cafes in your opinion?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t place any pressure on people. They can serve themselves if they get coffee, take snacks, and other things. It\u2019s real calm; a real good place to work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So you are open from morning until night, or seven days a week? How does your hourly structure work?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re open from 10 am to 10 pm every day. We can expand the hours, if you want to book the whole space until 1 am or 2 am for special occasions such as to celebrate your birthday party, or you want to invite your friends to just chill out. On the weekends, we can work until 12am or 1am.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you ever have live music, or special guests or anything? Or is it more just very low-key \u2026?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We have music there, but it\u2019s not live. We have some really cool board games. We would like to have special guests, lectures, meet up with designers, and host live music, but we need to get the audience together. We\u2019re trying to move forward in that and work with more creative experts, like designers or marketers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So you\u2019re looking to also bring in artists, and different people as well, and do different things so you can get a wide range of different audiences?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We had a few exhibitions in Williamsburg a few weeks ago. We\u2019re planning to have a few\u00a0exhibitions\u00a0next month.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How many people does your caf\u00e9 fit if it was at capacity? And special events\u00a0 &#8211; how does that work? Or do people bring their own stuff in?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The total capacity is around 25 people who can sit. We have two floors. If this is an event where people want to sit, walk around, and drink some champagne, we can have 30 or 35 people. We allow people to bring their own stuff to the caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>If you need to work the whole day long, the only thing we have is snacks, water and tea. If you want to get lunch, you can go buy lunch and come back. If we host an event, we\u2019ll allow everybody to bring their own food and drinks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Are you looking to, now that you\u2019re open here, are you looking to expand to different cities, or are you just looking at more here in New York, or any other cities ?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Right now, we\u2019re going to expand here in New York City. We\u2019re going to probably create some really good events. Right now, we\u2019re trying to reach out to different publishers to write about us. We think we can stir things up here. The tourists seem really interested in this concept. Probably in the future, we will open a few cafes in Boston or in Washington.<\/p>\n<p><strong>That makes sense so you can get people to know more about it. Then once people know more about it then you can expand to other larger cities too.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>People are not familiar with the concept. We always need to tell people more about how it works, to explain to people how they can benefit from it. It takes time. Once this concept spreads around, then we\u2019ll probably think of new markets and new locations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>When people come in to either work or socialize, do they pay \u2026 I know you can pay a daily fee, but do you do like monthly memberships and give discounts, or, how does that work?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The payment scheme is the following. When you come in, you pay $3 fixed for the first hour, it doesn\u2019t matter how much time you spend there. After the first hour, you pay by the minute. It\u2019s five cents a minute. For example, if you need to work the whole day long, it will be cost $12 for four hours. If you want to pay one month ahead, it\u2019s two hundred dollars and you have a month\u2019s access to our caf\u00e9. The monthly membership is best.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you give monthly people priority as far as working in your caf\u00e9 if you\u2019re close to capacity? Or how does it work?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t have lots of members right now, so we don\u2019t need to give special priority to those people. But as we get more members, we will provide more perks\u2026 The monthly pass will have special access to the computers, special access to the desks, and so on.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What made you guys decide to actually, one, come from Russia to New York, and also why did you want to open up the anti-caf\u00e9? Was it just something that you really loved when you were abroad? Or is it just you want to do something different?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We just wanted to create some new sort of environment for different entrepreneurs to work wherever and whenever they want to. We actually worked in that type of place in Moscow, and that\u2019s why we decided to open one here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you see a lot of differences from Russia versus New York as far as the people that you work with? How do the different countries \u2026 I guess, how do you say that? I guess the differences.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a very difficult question because the whole concept was born a few years ago in Moscow and there are a lot of cafes like that in Moscow because people like it.In New York, people want to use it. We just opened three weeks ago and everybody is coming in to our cafe.<\/p>\n<p>In Moscow, people are interested in making a career in a big, huge company. Here those people think about entrepreneurship, they\u2019re self-motivated, they want to go out or go into the bar. The audience is completely different. For example, in Russia, people typically use it to chill out,or play some board games. Here people come to work, and they usually chill out on the weekends. That\u2019s the big difference with the audience.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I feel like in the US a lot of people are very entrepreneurial and like to, as you said, work longer hours, and really want to build and do more things and build stuff, like you guys are doing here with your anti-caf\u00e9.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Exactly, and the whole concept is how you can pay for one hour at our place,and it\u2019ll cost you less than what you pay for a cup of coffee at Starbucks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is there anything as far as food or different things you miss from Russia?\u00a0 Can you find all the different things that you had there in New York?\u00a0Is there anything you miss as far as either food or culture or just the lifestyle?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To be honest, it\u2019s like two separate worlds. People in Moscow, people in Russia, people in the United States are completely different, and that\u2019s because, for example, this financial crisis in Russia, ruined people a lot. The whole economy and lots of people are suffering. Here in the United States, you have more opportunities to grow.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve lived in Moscow, I\u2019ve been to St. Petersburg, and I\u2019ve been there a few times. People are scared of going somewhere really far from their home country, and they always think bad things happen there. It could happen all the time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In your free time, outside of working and being in your caf\u00e9, are there any cool things that you enjoy doing on the weekends or when you do take nights off and do things?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I used to play hockey when I was in Moscow. I moved here a year ago, so I\u2019m trying to find a place where I can play. I want to get back to hockey. I also like travelling, so when I have a free day or two, I\u2019m trying to travel. Everything depends on how much free time I have as I like meeting new people.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is\u00a0there anything else that you want to share about either your caf\u00e9 or living in New York or anything else you want to share with us?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We can host an event, we can work with different designers, architects, we are open to anything. The concept is straightforward. You basically can get snacks, coffee, tea, and everything.<\/p>\n<p>We have a website. It\u2019s glasshour.co. Plus, we have different social networks. We have Twitter and Instagram accounts, and appear on Yelp. You can also find an article about us on Out Loud.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Connect with\u00a0 <em>Max Grigoryev<\/em> and the Glass Hour Cafe:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Our company twitter handle is: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/glasshour\">glasshour<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Our\u00a0instagram handle is: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instagram\/glasshour\">@glasshour<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Our website is\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.glasshour.co\">www.glasshour.co<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Facebook is\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/glasshour\">glasshour<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I happened to hear from a Polish friend that there are these Russian guys who have started a very cool anti-cafe concept called the Glass Hour in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I contacted Max Grigoryev who is one of the founders of Glass Hour Cafe. Let&#8217;s see in Max&#8217;s own words about the opening of the first [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21414,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19316"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29459,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19316\/revisions\/29459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}