Everybody has one. Your favorite spot to socialize, to recharge or be super productive.
This is an ode to the coffee shop.
It can be a hole in the wall (shout out to the New Yorkers) or, if you’re lucky enough to live in Europe, a beautiful, spacious café. It is your happy place—your home outside of home.
The story of the coffee shop is as interesting as drinking coffee itself. It’s not a coincidence that there’s a term: “coffee culture.” It has been coined for centuries. Let’s appreciate this process for a moment, shall we? Here are some of the most interesting highlights:
1. It all began in Muslim culture between 1511 and 1524.
![Storyteller (meddah) at a coffeehouse in the Ottoman Empire. (NYPL)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F16%2FMeddah_story_teller.png&w=1200&q=75)
2. The very first cafe was opened in Damascus in 1530. It would have been similar to this:
![The coffee-shop of Cairo in ca 17th century. (NYPL)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F19%2Fnypl.digitalcollections.510d47e0-0edb-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.001.w-674x492.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
![A café in Istanbul, 19th century](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F16%2FAmedeo_Preziosi_-_Istanbul_cafe-674x459.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
3. It took exactly 99 years for a first coffee house in Europe to appear. It was in the beautiful city of Venice, thanks to a bustling business route between Europe and the Ottoman Empire.
![Piazza San Marco , Basilica, Venice, Italy, ca. 1895. (Public Domain/Wikipedia Commons)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F19%2F1280px-Flickr_-_%E2%80%A6trialsanderrors_-_Piazza_San_Marco_%5E_Basilica_Venice_Italy_ca._1895-674x499.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
4. But, as Europeans quickly realized the potential of coffee houses, they quickly spread all over the continent. Most of them were established by Armenians.
![Cafe Griensteidl, Germany, 1897. (Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F19%2F7161777_orig-674x534.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
![Coffeehouse in London, 17th century](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F16%2F17th_century_coffeehouse_england_1-580x400.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
6. Women were not allowed to step in at that time, which lead to the “Women’s Petition Against Coffee“ published in 1674.
![To Upholsterers, 1876 (NYPL)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F11%2Fnypl.digitalcollections.510d47e0-fc8c-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.001.w-674x482.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
7. London coffee houses were nicknamed “Penny Universities,” referring to the price of a cup of coffee, and the conversations to be had with the thinkers of the day, who could be found there.
![A 17th-century depiction of a coffee house in London. (Public Domain)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F16%2FInterior_of_a_London_Coffee-house_17th_century-674x431.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
8. England is also where tipping originated. A jar was placed on a counter reading “To Insure Prompt Service.”
![London's coffee house. (Public Domain)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F21%2Fcoffeehouse_reading.gif&w=1200&q=75)
9. Allegedly, some men were spending so much of their time in cafes, their mail was delivered there directly.
![At The Authors' Club, New York, 1886 (NYPL)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F11%2Fnypl.digitalcollections.510d47e1-10e2-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.001.w-674x480.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
10. The insurance marketplace Lloyd’s of London originated as a coffee house.
![Lloyds coffee house in London, by William Holland. (Public Domain)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F19%2FLloyds-coffee-house-london-by-william-holland.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
11. A French café, Café Procope, opened in 1686 and is arguably the birthplace of the Encyclopédie, the first modern encyclopedia.
![Intérieur d'un café public, sur la place de Top-hané, Paris, 181?, (NYPL)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F11%2Fnypl.digitalcollections.b3e9f102-9862-93ab-e040-e00a180657f4.001.w-2-674x489.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
![George Franz Kolschitzky. (Public Domain)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F19%2FGeorg_Franz_Kolschitzky-674x922.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
14. He was also the first one to serve coffee with milk.
![Vienna's first coffee house. (Public Domain)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F21%2Fmain-qimg-7e0095c94beddb0c50ad98522a09c242.jpeg&w=1200&q=75)
15. America’s first coffee house was opened in Boston in 1676.
![The Cafés of the Paris Exhibition: The American Café (1886), via artsemerson.tumblr.com](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F19%2Fcafe7.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
![Café of the Democratic Club, showing prominent leaders of the Democratic party and of Tammany Hall, NYC, 1899 (NYPL)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F11%2Fnypl.digitalcollections.510d47e1-10e7-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.001.w-674x537.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
17. During the 19th century, and reaching a peak between the 1st and 2nd world wars in the early 20th century, cafes were important meeting points for many political, literature or art groups.
!["Discussing the War in a Paris Café", The Illustrated London News, 1870. (Public Domain)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F16%2FParisCafeDiscussion-674x669.png&w=1200&q=75)
18. Café, cafe or coffee house? Different names for same magical place!
![Café Lafayette, 1914, New York. (NYPL)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2F11%2Fnypl.digitalcollections.c315f854-2b01-eb9a-e040-e00a180649a2.001.w-674x524.jpg&w=1200&q=75)