Serving size 1 - Coming from Southeast US there is a rise in craft micro-breweries in many of the more 'hip' cities. These smaller locations tend to have groups of regulars who tend to know each other and provide such a 'service'. That being said I do agree with the thought of this phenomenon moving to the internet, things like city based slack chats work decently for this and these groups work to create physical meetups as well.

There are Third Places if you know where to look. You just have to decide what your Third Place is, or discover it.

I'm not sure what "HN-type people" means because I'm clearly way out of the standard demographic and my Third Place would not be yours. It pains me to think that there is a standard demographic here.