Betty Diaries: This third place wins gold

I was sitting on a hill in City Park with some friends and watched a group of young children playing with a single red balloon. They were dancing barefoot with the balloon on the grass, bouncing around it and hitting it in the air to keep it in the air.

Dozens of people milled around. Some jammed to the sounds of the DJ playing in the pavilion. Others held plastic cups of dark beer with foamy head. People took off their shoes and sat on blankets. There were girls in summer dresses and boys with flannel shirts around their waists. There were babies in strollers clapping their hands and dogs on leashes hoping for serendipity.

People were chatting with friends and strangers while waiting in line for cold alcoholic drinks and empanadas. No one seemed to mind the wait. The only people I saw with iPhones were probably texting their friends to get their butts over there.

In other words, it was another idyllic summer evening in Park City hosted by Offset Beer. The craft brewery has hosted three parties so far this summer. The event charges a small entry fee but is authentic with beers for just five dollars, entertainment, and affordable options from local food vendors – The Pretzel Connection, Tina’s Bakery, Red Bicycle, to name a few. It feels as local as it gets.

And for Offset Beer founder, owner and jack-of-all-trades Conor Brown, that’s a gold medal win. When he opened Offset in 2020, his idea was to create a counterweight to Main Street – a place that would break up the tourist scene.

“I looked around and thought, no one is opening a business for the locals,” he said.

Conor, who moved to Park City from Vermont in 2006, deliberately located his business in the Prospector neighborhood to keep it affordable for himself and his customers.

“I wanted Offset to be a place where people could meet after mountain biking, skiing and all the other things we do here,” he said. “I would like a place where cell phones don’t work. Where like-minded people can be together in an open, free-spirited way.”

At the same time, he wanted to exceed people’s expectations of a craft brewery. In addition to serving great beer, Conor wants to provide people with the opportunity to meet up in a physically and mentally healthy way. That includes supporting the activities they love – skiing, biking, running, and yes, even dating.

In fact, I suggested it as a meeting place for a first date one evening in early summer. I told the guy it would be super relaxed and we could hear each other talk. When we got to the bar, there were about three other people in the taproom. Lucy, the taproom dog, a 14-year-old rescue with gray eyebrows, was lounging on the floor while the guy and I chatted.

Suddenly, dozens of people in running clothes streamed in. They set up party decorations, lit candles on a cake and, SURPRISE! We were in the middle of the 30^th birthday party.

But that’s exactly what Offset is about: it’s meant to be a kind of living room for the locals. In this way, it has become a so-called third place, the coveted space in people’s lives that lies somewhere between the first place, home, and the second place, work.

Third places include cafes, coffee shops, clubs, gyms, parks, libraries, hair salons and the like. These are the places where we feel connected, like we’re part of something bigger than ourselves. Like an Irish pub, third places are a microcosm of everyday life and reflect how similar – and different – we are. Just like the old billboard touting “Guinness is good for you,” places like Offset are as good for the individual as they are for the community.

So what does it look like when a business becomes an organic part of a place like Park City? At Offset, that means offsetting waste by donating spent grain to a local farmer, who in turn uses it as feed for his pigs and cows. It means providing opportunities to socialize in real life—the brewery sponsors a running club and mountain biking nights in the summer and uphill travel nights on Park City Mountain in the winter. And when Conor tells his waiters to “kill people with kindness,” that means no jerks.

But most of all, it means giving locals a chance to mingle with other locals and socialize in a casual, unpretentious environment that reflects our daily lives far better than a bunch of drunken bachelorettes in white plastic cowboy boots and sequined hats stumbling down Main Street in some sort of caricature of mountain town life.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just not who we really are. And it’s something simple and true – a shared love of people and places. The collective knowledge of how beautiful this place is. And how lucky we are to be able to call it our home.

It’s a little later in the evening at the party in the park and the kids with the red balloon have disappeared. Now a little boy is standing there all alone with the balloon. He hits it a few times and then just stands there not knowing what to do next.

Another child with red hair comes over, pulls up his shirt and pats his Buddha belly in a sort of unspoken toddler greeting. He takes the red balloon and together the two of them hit it into the sky.

Kate Sonnick is a freelance writer, creative director, and Glossier IPA fan. You can buy her a beer at the last Offset Party in the Park of the season on September 13.