Coffeehouse

A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or cafe (also spelt café) shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on providing coffee and tea as well as light snacks. Other food may range from baked goods to soups and sandwiches, other casual meals, and light desserts. In some countries, cafes may more closely resemble restaurants, offering a range of hot meals, and possibly being licensed to serve alcohol. Many coffee houses in the Muslim world, and in Muslim districts in the West, offer shisha, powdered tobacco smoked through a hookah. In places where it is tolerated, notably the Netherlands, Christiania in Copenhagen, and certain parts of Canada, cannabis is enjoyed as well.

Contemporary Coffeehouses

The current spate of chain coffee shops such as Starbucks, Peet's, Seattle's Best Coffee, The Coffee Bean and Second Cup have a clear lineal descent from the espresso and pastry centered Italian coffeehouses of the Italian-American immigrant communities in the major US cities, notably New York City's Little Italy and Greenwich Village, Boston's North End, and San Francisco's North Beach. Both Greenwich Village and North Beach were major haunts of the Beats, who became highly identified with these coffeehouses. As the youth culture of the 1960s evolved, non-Italians consciously copied these coffeehouses. Before the rise of the Seattle-based Starbucks chain, Seattle (and other parts of the Pacific Northwest) had a thriving, largely countercultural coffeehouse scene; Starbucks cleaned up, standardized, genericized, and "mainstreamed" this model.

Related Topics:
Starbucks - Peet's - Seattle's Best Coffee - The Coffee Bean - Second Cup - Espresso - Italian-American - New York City - Little Italy - Greenwich Village - Boston - San Francisco - Beats - 1960s - Seattle - Pacific Northwest - Countercultural

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The liquor laws in many areas in the United States generally prevent anyone under the age of 21 from entering bars, so coffeehouses in that country can often be important youth gathering places.

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Since approximately the Beat era, the term coffeehouse has come to imply the availability of espresso drinks, and while "coffee shop" still could suggest an establishment where one would buy coffee, there has been an evolution so that it now suggests "diner" more than coffee-drinking hang-out per se.

Related Topics:
Beat - Diner

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Starting in the 1980s, a counter clerk in a coffeehouse has come to be known in English as a barista, from the Italian word for bartender.

Related Topics:
1980s - Barista

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The contemporary coffeehouse is just the latest example of a drinking establishment—bars, public houses, taverns and soda shops have also served this purpose—as the center for cultural exchange in a particular community, often fomenting social and political change. See, for example, the meetings of the Sons of Liberty of the American Revolution and the abortive Beer Hall Putsch by the German Nazi party in 1923.

Related Topics:
Sons of Liberty - American Revolution - Beer Hall Putsch - Nazi party

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