The first café in Europe is believed to have been opened in Belgrade, Serbia in 1522 as a Kafana ( Serbian coffee house). The first café in France is believed to have opened in 1660. 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. 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 trade relations. 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. The English words coffee and café derive from the Italian word for coffee, caffè -first attested as caveé in Venice in 1570 -and in turn derived from Arabic qahwa ( قهوة).
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In Southern England, especially around London in the 1950s, the French pronunciation was often facetiously altered to / k æ f/ and spelt caff. The Italian spelling, caffè, is also sometimes used in English. The most common English spelling café, is the French, Portuguese, and Spanish spelling, and was adopted by English-speaking countries in the late 19th century. The word coffee in various European languages.
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As early as the 1950s Beatnik era and the 1960s folk music scene, coffeehouses have hosted singer-songwriter performances, typically in the evening. A coffeehouse can serve as an informal club for its regular members. Since the popularization of Wi-Fi, coffeehouses with this capability have also become places for patrons to access the Internet on their laptops and tablet computers. An espresso bar is a type of coffeehouse that specializes in serving espresso and espresso-based drinks.įrom 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. Many coffeehouses in the Middle East and in West Asian immigrant districts in the Western world offer shisha (actually called nargile in Levantine Arabic, Greek and Turkish), flavored tobacco smoked through a hookah. A coffeehouse may share some of the same characteristics of a bar or restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. While café may refer to a coffeehouse, the term "café" generally refers to a diner, British café (colloquially called a "caff"), " greasy spoon" (a small and inexpensive restaurant), transport café, teahouse or tea room, or other casual eating and drinking place. Some coffeehouse chains operate on a franchise business model, with numerous branches across various countries around the world. Coffeehouses range from owner-operated small businesses to large multinational corporations. A coffeehouse may also serve food, such as light snacks, sandwiches, muffins, fruit, or pastries. In continental Europe, cafés serve alcoholic drinks. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee, iced tea, and other non-caffeinated beverages. It is celebrated for its famous clientele, which included high-profile writers and philosophersĪ coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, e.g.
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The Café de Flore in Paris is one of the oldest coffeehouses in the city.