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I couldn’t find them in SF or Cambridge. I mean if the threshold is “hosts an open mic” sure, there are plenty. But places that have a substantial / interacting community, where regular customers become friends and the atmosphere is casual/inviting enough for strangers to join in, seem to be few and far between.

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From personal experience, a small college town can support exactly this kind of atmosphere. Someplace with a healthy mixture of faculty, students and "townies". The one I frequented almost every day of my master's, it had exactly what you describe. No open mic though :)

All the regulars knew each other, the proprietor was abundantly welcoming and chatty, and new-comers regularly got drawn into whatever the running topic happened to be that day. Opened in 2012 and still going strong as of the start of the pandemic.

I can't speak to larger cities. I imagine the rent issue is a significant obstacle there.

I know a few in LA.

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