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A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer shisha (actually called nargile in Levantine Arabic, Greek language, and Turkish language), flavored tobacco smoked through a hookah. An espresso bar is a type of coffeehouse that specializes in serving espresso and espresso-based drinks. Some coffeehouses may serve iced coffee among other cold beverages, such as iced tea, as well as other non-caffeinated beverages. A coffeehouse may also serve food, such as light snacks, Sandwich, , cakes, breads, Pastry or Doughnut. Many doughnut shops in Canada and the U.S. serve coffee as an accompaniment to doughnuts, so these can be also classified as coffee shops, although doughnut shop tends to be more casual and serve lower-end fare which also facilitates take-out and drive-through which is popular in those countries, compared to a coffee shop or cafe which provides more gourmet pastries and beverages. In continental Europe, some cafés even serve alcoholic beverages.
While café may refer to a coffeehouse, the term "café" can also refer to a diner, British café (also colloquially called a "caff"), "greasy spoon" (a small and inexpensive restaurant), transport café, teahouse or tea room, or other casual eating and drinking place. A coffeehouse may share some of the same characteristics of a bar or restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria (a canteen-type restaurant without table service). Coffeehouses range from owner-operated small businesses to large multinational corporations. Some coffeehouse chains operate on a Franchising, with numerous branches across various countries around the world.
From a cultural standpoint coffeehouses largely serve as centers of social interaction: a coffeehouse provides patrons with a place to congregate, talk, read, write, entertain one another, or pass the time, whether individually or in small groups. A coffeehouse can serve as an informal social club for its regular members. As early as the 1950s Beatnik era and the 1960s folk music scene, coffeehouses have hosted singer-songwriter performances, typically in the evening. The digital age saw the rise of the Internet café along similar principles.
The English word coffee and French word café (coffeehouse) both derive from the Italian caffè—first attested as caveé in Venice in 1570—and in turn derived from Arabic qahwa (قهوة). The Arabic term qahwa originally referred to a type of wine, but after the wine ban by Islam, the name was transferred to coffee because of the similar rousing effect it induced. European knowledge of coffee (the plant, its seeds, and the drink made from the seeds) came through European contact with Turkey, likely via Venetian-Ottoman Empire trade relations.
The English word café to describe a restaurant that usually serves coffee and snacks rather than the word coffee that describes the drink, is derived from the French café. The first café in France is believed to have opened in 1660. The first café in Europe is believed to have been opened in Belgrade, Ottoman Serbia in 1522 as a Kafana (Serbian coffee house).
The translingual word root /kafe/ appears in many European languages with various naturalized spellings, including Portuguese, Spanish language, and French language ( café); German language ( Kaffee); Polish Language ( kawa); Serbian Language ( кафа / kafa); Ukrainian ( кава, 'kava'); and others.
Coffeehouses in Mecca became a concern of who viewed them as places for political gatherings and drinking, leading to bans between 1512 and 1524. However, these bans could not be maintained, due to coffee becoming ingrained in daily ritual and culture among Arabs and neighboring peoples. The Ottoman Empire chronicler İbrahim Peçevi reports in his writings (1642–49) about the opening of the first coffeehouse ( kiva han) in Istanbul:
However, it is now widely accepted that the first Viennese coffeehouse was actually opened by an Armenian merchant named Johannes Diodato (also known as Johannes Theodat). He opened a registered coffeehouse in Vienna in 1685. (2025). 9780415927222, Routledge. ISBN 9780415927222 Fifteen years later, four other Armenians owned coffeehouses. The coffee culture was itself widespread in the country in the second half of the 18th century.
Over time, a special coffee house culture developed in Habsburg Vienna. On the one hand, writers, artists, musicians, intellectuals, bon vivants and their financiers met in the coffee house, and on the other hand, new coffee varieties were always served. In the coffee house, people played cards or chess, worked, read, thought, composed, discussed, argued, observed and just chatted. A lot of information was also obtained in the coffee house, because local and foreign newspapers were freely available to all guests. This form of coffee house culture spread throughout the Habsburg Empire in the 19th century.Friedrich Torberg "Kaffeehaus war überall" (1982) pp 8.Wolfram Siebeck "Die Kaffeehäuser von Wien. Eine Melange aus Mythos und Schmäh" (1996) pp 7.
Scientific theories, political plans but also artistic projects were worked out and discussed in Viennese coffee houses all over Central Europe. James Joyce even enjoyed his coffee in a Viennese coffee house on the Adriatic Sea in Trieste, then and now the main port for coffee and coffee processing in Italy and Central Europe. From there, the Viennese Kapuziner coffee developed into today's world-famous cappuccino. This special multicultural atmosphere of the Habsburg coffee houses was largely destroyed by the later National Socialism and Communism and can only be found today in a few places that have long been in the slipstream of history, such as Vienna or Trieste.Helmut Luther "Warum Kaffeetrinken in Triest anspruchsvoll ist" In: Die Welt, 16 February 2015.Riha, Fritz "Das alte Wiener Caféhaus" (1987), pp 12.
From 1670 to 1685, the number of London coffeehouses began to increase, and they also began to gain political importance due to their popularity as places of debate. English coffeehouses were significant meeting places, particularly in London. By 1675, there were more than 3,000 coffeehouses in England. The coffeehouses were great social levelers, open to all men and indifferent to social status, and as a result associated with equality and republicanism. Entry gave access to books or print news. Coffeehouses boosted the popularity of print news culture and helped the growth of various financial markets including insurance, stocks, and auctions. Lloyd's of London had its origins in a coffeehouse run by Edward Lloyd, where underwriters of ship insurance met to do business. The rich intellectual atmosphere of early London coffeehouses was available to anyone who could pay the sometimes one penny entry fee, giving them the name of 'Penny Universities'.
Though Charles II later tried to suppress London coffeehouses as "places where the disaffected met, and spread scandalous reports concerning the conduct of His Majesty and his Ministers", the public still flocked to them. For several decades following the Restoration, the wits gathered around John Dryden at Will's Coffee House, in Russell Street, Covent Garden. As coffeehouses were believed to be areas where anti-government gossip could easily spread, Mary II and the London City magistrates tried to prosecute people who frequented coffeehouses as they were liable to "spread false and seditious reports". William III's privy council also suppressed Jacobitism sympathizers in the 1680s and 1690s in coffeehouses as these were the places that they believed harbored plotters against the regimes.
By 1739, there were 551 coffeehouses in London; each attracted a particular clientele divided by occupation or attitude, such as Tory and Whigs, wits and , merchants and lawyers, booksellers and authors, men of fashion or the "cits" of the old city centre. According to one French visitor, Abbé Prévost, coffeehouses, "where you have the right to read all the papers for and against the government", were the "seats of English liberty".Prévost, Abbé (1930) Adventures of a man of quality (translation of Séjour en Angleterre, v. 5 of Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité qui s'est retiré du monde) G. Routledge & Sons, London,
Jonathan's Coffee-House in 1698 saw the listing of stock and commodity prices that evolved into the London Stock Exchange. Lloyd's Coffee House provided the venue for merchants and shippers to discuss insurance deals, leading to the establishment of Lloyd's of London insurance market, the Lloyd's Register classification society, and other related businesses. Auctions in salesrooms attached to coffeehouses provided the start for the great auction houses of Sotheby's and Christie's.
In Victorian era England, the temperance movement set up coffeehouses (also known as coffee taverns) for the working classes, as a place of relaxation free of alcohol, an alternative to the public house.
Today, the term café is used for most coffeehouses – this can be spelled both with and without an acute accent, but is always pronounced as two syllables. The name café has also come to be used for a type of diners that offers cooked meals (again, without alcoholic beverages) which can be standalone or operating within shopping centres or department stores. In Irish usage, the presence or absence of the acute accent does not signify the type of establishment (coffeehouse versus diner), and is purely a decision by the owner: for instance, the two largest diner-style café chains in Ireland in the 1990s were named "Kylemore Cafe" and "Bewley's Café" – i.e., one written without, and one with, the acute accent.
Several cafes emerged in Lisbon such as: Martinho da Arcada (being the oldest café still functioning, having opened in 1782), Café Tavares, Botequim Parras, among others . Of these several became famous for harbouring poets and artists, such as Manuel du Bocage with his visits to Café Nicola, which opened in 1796 by the Italian Nicola Breteiro; and Fernando Pessoa with his visits to A Brasileira, which opened in 1905 by Adriano Teles. The most famous of these coffee houses was the Café Marrare, opened by the napolitan Antonio Marrare, in 1820, frequently visited by Júlio Castilho, Raimundo de Bulhão Pato, Almeida Garrett, Alexandre Herculano and other members of the Portuguese government and the intelligentsia. It began its saying: « Lisboa era Chiado, o Chiado era o Marrare e o Marrare ditava a lei» (English: "Lisbon was the Chiado, the Chiado was the Marrare and the Marrare dictated the law").
Other coffee houses soon opened across the country, such as Café Vianna, opened in Braga, in 1858, by Manoel José da Costa Vianna, which was also visited by important Portuguese writers such as Camilo Castelo Branco and Eça de Queirós. During the 1930's, a surge in coffee houses happened in Porto with the opening of several that still exist, such as Café Guarany, opened in 1933, and A Regaleira, opened in 1934.
In a well-known engraving of a Parisian café c. 1700, the gentlemen hang their hats on pegs and sit at long communal tables strewn with papers and writing implements. Coffee pots are ranged at an open fire, with a hanging cauldron of boiling water. The only woman present presides, sex segregation in a canopied booth, from which she serves coffee in tall cups.
Aside from the discussion around women as guests of the coffeehouses, it is noted that women did work as waitresses at coffeehouses and also managed coffeehouses as proprietors. Well known women in the coffeehouse business were Moll King in England, and Maja-Lisa Borgman in Sweden.Du Rietz, Anita, Kvinnors entreprenörskap: under 400 år, 1. uppl., Dialogos, Stockholm, 2013
Coffeehouses in the United States arose from the espresso- and pastry-centered Italian coffeehouses of the Italian American immigrant communities in the major U.S. cities, notably New York City's Little Italy and Greenwich Village, Boston's North End, and San Francisco's North Beach. From the late 1950s onward, coffeehouses also served as a venue for entertainment, most commonly Folk music performers during the American folk music revival.Shelton, Robert "Something happened in America", in: Laing, Dave, et al. (1975) The Electric Muse. London: Eyre Methuen; pp. 7–44: p. 31 Both Greenwich Village and North Beach became major haunts of the Beat Generation, who were highly identified with these coffeehouses. As the youth culture of the 1960s evolved, non-Italians consciously copied these coffeehouses. The political nature of much of 1960s folk music made the music a natural tie-in with coffeehouses with their association with political action. A number of well-known performers like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan began their careers performing in coffeehouses. Blues singer Lightnin' Hopkins bemoaned his woman's inattentiveness to her domestic situation due to her overindulgence in coffeehouse socializing in his 1969 song "Coffeehouse Blues".
In 1966, Alfred Peet began applying the dark roast style to high quality beans and opened up a small shop in Berkeley, California to educate customers on the virtues of good coffee. Starting in 1967 with the opening of the historic Last Exit on Brooklyn coffeehouse, Seattle became known for its thriving countercultural coffeehouse scene; the Starbucks chain later standardized and mainstreamed this espresso bar model, now prevalent throughout the country.Sources: Chase Purdy, author, "That joke about a Starbucks on every corner? It's actually true and hurting the company's sales", Quartz, 2017.
From the 1960s through the mid-1980s, churches and individuals in the United States used the coffeehouse concept for outreach. They were often storefronts and had names like The Lost Coin (Greenwich Village), The Gathering Place (Riverside, CA), Catacomb Chapel (New York City), and Jesus For You (Buffalo, NY). Christian music (often guitar-based) was performed, coffee and food was provided, and Bible studies were convened as people of varying backgrounds gathered in a casual setting that was purposefully different from traditional churches. An out-of-print book, published by the ministry of David Wilkerson, titled, A Coffeehouse Manual, served as a guide for Christian coffeehouses, including a list of name suggestions for coffeehouses.Sources: Tim Schultz, Director, "Jesus For You". A Coffeehouse Manual, Bethany Fellowship, 1972.
One of the original uses of the café, as a place for information exchange and communication, was reintroduced in the 1990s with the Internet café or Hotspot. The spread of modern-style cafés to urban and rural areas went hand-in-hand with the rising use of mobile computers. Computers and Internet access in a contemporary-styled venue help to create a youthful, modern place, compared to the traditional pubs or old-fashioned that they replaced.
In India, coffee culture has expanded in the past twenty years. Chains like Indian Coffee House, Café Coffee Day, Barista Lavazza have become very popular. Cafes are considered good venues to conduct office meetings and for friends to meet.
In China, an abundance of recently started domestic coffeehouse chains may be seen accommodating business people for conspicuous consumption, with coffee prices sometimes even higher than in the West.
In Malaysia and Singapore, traditional breakfast and coffee shops are called kopi tiam. The word is a portmanteau of the Malay language word for coffee (as borrowed and altered from English) and the Min Nan dialect word for shop (店; POJ: tiàm). Menus typically feature simple offerings: a variety of foods based on egg, toast, and coconut jam, plus coffee, tea, and Milo, a malted chocolate drink that is extremely popular in Southeast Asia and Australasia, particularly Singapore and Malaysia.
In Indonesia, traditional coffee houses are called kedai kopi, rumah kopi, or warung kopi which is often abbreviated as warkop. Kopi tubruk is a common drink in small warkop. As a coffee drink companion, traditional kue is also served in the coffee house. The first coffee house in Indonesia was founded in 1878 in Jakarta which named Warung Tinggi Tek Sun Ho.
In the Philippines, coffee shop chains like Starbucks have become the prevalent hangouts for upper- and middle-class professionals in such districts as the Makati CBD. However, carinderias (small eateries) continue to serve coffee alongside breakfast and snack dishes. Events called "Kapihan" (fora) are often held inside bakeshops or restaurants that also serve coffee for breakfast or merienda. There are also a number of establishments often referred to as "cafés" that serve not just coffee and pastries, but full meals, often international cuisine highly altered to Filipino tastes.
In Thailand, the term "café" is not only a coffeehouse in the international definition, as in other countries, but in the past was considered a night restaurant that serves during a comedy show on stage. The era in which this type of business flourished was the 1990s, before the 1997 financial crisis.
The first real coffeehouse in Thailand opened in 1917 at the Si Kak Phraya Si in the area of Rattanakosin Island, by Madam Cole, an American woman who living in Thailand at that time, Later, Phraya Ram Rakop (เจ้าพระยารามราฆพ), Thai aristocrat, opened a coffeehouse named "Café de Norasingha" (คาเฟ่นรสิงห์) located at Sanam Suea Pa (สนามเสือป่า), the ground next to the Royal Plaza. At present, Café de Norasingha has been renovated and moved to within Phayathai Palace. In the southern region, a traditional coffeehouse or kopi tiam is popular with locals, like many countries in the Malay Peninsula. (2025). 9789749273869, politikpress. ISBN 9789749273869
In modern Australia, coffee shops are ubiquitously known as cafés. Since the post-World War II influx of Italian and Greek immigrants introduced the first espresso coffee machines to Australia in the 1950s, there was initially a slow rise in café culture, particularly in Melbourne, until a boom in locally owned cafés Australia-wide began in the 1990s. Alongside the rise in the number of cafés there has been a rise in demand for locally (or on-site) roasted specialty coffee, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne. A local favourite is the "flat white" which remains a popular coffee drink.
The espresso bar is typically centered around a long counter with a high-yield espresso machine (usually bean to cup machines, automatic or semiautomatic pump-type machine, although occasionally a manually operated lever-and-piston system) and a display case containing pastries and occasionally savory items such as sandwiches. In the traditional Italian bar, customers either order at the bar and consume their drinks standing or, if they wish to sit down and be served, are usually charged a higher price. In some bars there is an additional charge for drinks served at an outside table. In other countries, especially the United States, seating areas for customers to relax and work are provided free of charge. Some espresso bars also sell coffee paraphernalia, candy, and even music. North American espresso bars were also at the forefront of widespread adoption of public Wi-Fi access points to provide Internet services to people doing work on laptop computers on the premises.
The offerings at the typical espresso bar are generally quite Italianate in inspiration; biscotti, cannoli and pizzelle are a common traditional accompaniment to a latte or cappuccino. Some upscale espresso bars even offer alcoholic drinks such as grappa and sambuca. Nevertheless, typical pastries are not always strictly Italianate and common additions include scones, muffins, , and even doughnuts. There is usually a large selection of teas as well, and the North American espresso bar culture is responsible for the popularization of the Indian spiced tea drink masala chai. Iced drinks are also popular in some countries, including both iced tea and iced coffee as well as blended drinks such as Starbucks' Frappucino.
A worker in an espresso bar is referred to as a barista. The barista is a skilled position that requires familiarity with the drinks being made (often very elaborate, especially in North American-style espresso bars), a reasonable facility with some equipment as well as the usual customer service skills.
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