The lounge is for losers. Bring back the airport bar.

Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI

There's something special about the airport bar. There are no rules. No one will bat an eye at what you order — or what time. It's one of the last true democratic spaces left, a place that holds the full range of human emotions, from anxiety to excitement to despair. You bond with a stranger over a drink, swap stories, commiserate about a flight delay, and then disappear to separate gates, never to cross paths again. In a world where third spaces are dying, and...