Coffeehouse Culture

History of Coffee and Coffeehouses

Course 1 · Chapter 6 · Cafés as Public Rooms

By the nineteenth century the café had become part of the life of European cities, and each city developed its own style. The Viennese coffeehouse, the Parisian café and the Budapest literary café are among the best known. This chapter looks at what they offered and what the writers who used them said. Dates and names are flagged "check".

Key Ideas

Vienna

The Viennese coffeehouse is known for marble tables, newspapers on holders, and customers who could stay for hours. The tradition has been placed on UNESCO's list of intangible heritage (check the date).

Paris

Paris cafés were meeting places of writers, artists and political groups. Cafés such as Les Deux Magots and the Café de Flore are tied to twentieth-century writers (check).

Budapest

The New York Café, opened in 1894 in the New York Palace, became a meeting place for writers and the journal Nyugat (check). See Hungarian Literature 5.

At a Glance

CityTypical features (check each)
ViennaNewspapers, marble tables, a glass of water with the coffee, no pressure to leave.
ParisPavement terraces, writers and artists, political debate.
BudapestGrand interiors; writers' tables; later closure and restoration.
Trieste, Prague, LisbonOther cities with famous literary cafés.
The third place Sociologists describe cafés as a "third place" outside home and work, where people can meet informally. Their value is in the lack of a fixed purpose.

Further Points

  • Writing in cafés. Many writers worked in cafés, partly because of cold lodgings and the company (check specific claims).
  • Nostalgia. Accounts of the golden age of cafés are often written later, by regulars, with some romance.
  • Women. Access varied by place and period.
A British comparison British readers may think of the Edwardian tea room, the Lyons Corner House and the modern independent coffee shop as local versions of the same idea.
Check the details Dates, names and figures here are from general knowledge and flagged "check". Verify them against specialist histories and primary sources, and label unproven stories as "claimed".

Exercises

Exercise 1

Describe what a Viennese coffeehouse offers beyond coffee.

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Exercise 2

Why should accounts of the golden age of the café be read with care?

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Exercise 3

Choose a café you know and explain how it acts as a "third place".

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Quick Reference

  • Vienna: marble tables, newspapers (check)
  • Paris: terrace and politics
  • Budapest: New York Café, 1894 (check)
  • Idea: a third place