Viva la coffee shop: Why we need to meet up in them, now!

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May I recommend … hangin’ out in coffee shops

Coffee shops may not save the world, but with every frothy cappuccino sip and crumbly blueberry muffin, they are doing more for your mental health and society at large than you probably realize.

On the one hand, they are the world’s living room. They’re chill “third spaces” — places other than the home and office where people gather — with opportunities for delicious food and drink, some conversation, or writing or reading or thinking, plus good music, and no one pressuring you to move along.

But these businesses are also a percolator of revolutionary thought leadership. For the last 500 years, coffee shops have been the platform for political, social and creative movements, incubators of artistic pursuits, and the marketplace of ideas.

Most importantly, coffee shops are easily accessible examples of what political scientists call “social infrastructure,” a way to connect us in an era when we are becoming increasingly solitary and divided. More specifically, these spaces can be what Harvard professor Robert Putnam calls “bridging social capital” that bring strangers together (as nearly everyone loves coffee).

In his book, “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community,” Putnam explains that the interactive and integrating effect of “bridging” correlates with community strength and societal tolerance. “If we had a golden magic wand that could miraculously create more bridging social capital,” he writes, “we would surely want to use it.”

A brief history of coffeehouses

Coffeehouses were the original CNN, where the public got news, commentary and feature stories from newspapers, magazines and fellow patrons sharing what they knew. In London they were known as “penny universities” in the 1600s for the knowledge you could obtain for the cost of a bowl (as it was served then) of coffee.

Not long after, coffeehouses in Philadelphia, Boston and New York were meeting places for colonialists making plans for revolution. They weren’t drinking British tea, that’s for sure. And taverns were less conducive to next-day follow-through.

In Vienna, the old kaffeehäusers of the early 1900s were practically a second home to writers and intellectuals (including Hemingway, Freud and Lenin), some accepting patrons’ mail, letting them host roundtables, and keeping a supply of pens and paper available for when lightning struck.

A lot of inspiring (if not downright subversive) thinking is brewed in these spaces where we now bring our laptops and friends. All of us, for generations, have been stimulated by the company and the coffee shop’s principal export — a beverage tasked with the dauntingly vital, and metaphoric, job of waking up the world. Add teahouses, more popular in some countries than coffee, and you have even more access to this setting.

Better than home

I like coffee a whole lot, but I love coffee shops more. The spaces aren’t just designed for talking, writing, reading and hanging out — they actually make you want to do those things. The baristas are all slightly cooler than your friends. The music is often reliably well curated (see previous sentence about the baristas). The din of the place and its caffeinated energy are life-affirming.

Some of these qualities are evocative of your home, but they are much better than your own kitchen or living room, unless you’ve invested heavily in a professional-grade commercial espresso maker and host a steady stream of friends.

But largely why I recommend hanging out in coffee shops is because of the people who historically appreciate hanging out in coffee shops: artists, musicians, poets, chess players, conversationalists, readers, writers, students and cultural revolutionaries — in short, my favorite types of people. They’re all there. Hangin’ out. Waiting for you to join the conversation.

Sip and stay awhile

I don’t understand why you would pay for a coffee and then walk out of the coffee shop with it. To sip it while you walk or drive? That’s like buying a concert ticket but listening to the music from the parking lot. Twenty years ago, if you went into a café in Paris and asked for a coffee to go, they wouldn’t know how to help you. The value is in the staying.

Think of your favorite coffee drink as the price of admission to the further enjoyable coffee shop experience. “I bought a cup of coffee, I live here now,” Jerry Seinfeld explained in an episode of his coffee shop-set series, “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” But staying is also what makes a community gathering space the bridging social capital we collectively need.

My first java hang was just off campus where I went to school, the University of Maryland at College Park. Planet X was a space that looked like it was decorated from the furniture section of a quirky secondhand store, including a lamp made from a golden Buddha statue. Enlightening! The coffee shop hosted (bad) poetry nights and occasional live music open mikes. The coffee wasn’t great, but the collegiate vibe was. We also had a Starbucks in the Student Union, but it wasn’t the same.

No shade on Starbucks and other chains — they helped usher in the so-called second wave coffee shop movement that created a consumer thirst for caffeinated beverages on every street corner and led to the third wave of artisanal coffee craftsmanship we now enjoy.

While some people find comfort in the familiar chain, I prefer the personality of a one-off. The independent coffee shop is designed with the owner’s style and personality rather than the franchise-mandated-sameness manual handed down from corporate. Plus, all coffee drinkers know the dark stuff tastes better from a mug than a paper cup.

But no matter the quality of the scone, the alchemy of a creamy yet strong cortado, the hipness of the playlist or the comfort of the couch, it’s the patrons who give a coffee shop its essence.

What makes coffee shops so special

I seek out coffee shops when I travel, in the way my brother visits record stores on his trips and my older daughter explores thrift stores. I’ll size a place up quickly and decide whether it’s worth writing a review of it in my journal, rating the coffee shop by various categories (seating, ambience, treats, cupwear, customers, and so on). I track them as a way to remember next time I’m in that city or to recommend to others going there.

But what makes the coffee shop experience important to us as individuals and a society is something greater than the sum of its parts. The specialness is probably best categorized by Putnam’s term, “bridging social capital.” All walks of life come together in these spaces, sitting elbow to scone in the more popular places. Even going alone, you’re going to interact, make connections, enjoy the company of strangers.

I asked the owners of some of my favorite coffee shops what they think is so valuable about the spaces they curate. Here’s what they said.

Rebecca Henson, co-owner of Wildflour Bakery & Cafe in Emigrant, Montana: “I read recently that folks these days are at a deficit of ‘third places,’ ie, not work or home. It really got me thinking about how important having another place to feel at ease can be, particularly in these wacky times, where finding your place in community can seem confusing. Food and travel are both such connectors, and we try our best to facilitate an openness that is evident immediately when you step through our doors.”

Amanda and Anthony Stromoski of Rough Draft Bar & Books in Kingston, New York: “Coffee shops, especially when they’re designed with comfortable and communal seating in mind, can fill the need for that important ‘third space’ where people can escape, feel comfortable, meet friends, and make new human connections.”

Mica Burgess, manager of The Den in Washington, DC: “I think historically they’ve been such an important gathering place for intellectuals, for creatives, for revolutionaries. I don’t think this has changed. They are places of comfort, places you can rely on when perhaps life has you in a whirlwind. They are places where people from all walks of life can connect over food, drinks, and ambiance. It can feel difficult to find that connection lately. Ultimately, coffeeshops are havens for anyone and everyone who needs one.”

Ken Leonard, owner of Mozart’s Coffee Roasters in Austin, Texas: “You have a lot of people who have fractured lives and moved from where they’re from. You have people who viscerally need a place to connect to people. A stranger can quickly become a terrific friend just by sitting next to each other at the coffee bar.”

Cameron Moores, co-owner of C&P Coffee Company in Seattle: “They foster a sense of community that is hard to find in this world of electronic gatherings. In our instance, we help develop relationships by introducing customers (neighbors) to each other, supporting causes (fundraisers, arts and crafts fairs), promoting local business like dogwalkers and housepainters, supporting arts, music, poetry. It’s so fun to see a community grow but also continue a sense of place and stability.”

Gísli Marteinn, co-owner and co-founder of Reykjavík, Iceland’s Kaffihús Vesturbæjar: “When done right, the coffeeshop is a democratic, open, public space that can give you a rest from the rest of the world, kind of a safe space. It is also a meeting point for friends to celebrate happy moments, space to focus, think, read or work.”

Buffy Maguire, co-owner of San Francisco’s Java Beach: “I think it becomes a reflection of the neighborhood and then becomes part of the culture. It’s about the art of hanging out, about what happens in those slow moments with those you’re hanging out. And something magical happens in those moments that are unscripted. And I think our society benefits from those moments and needs more of them.”

I have other favorites, of course, spread all over the world. My coffee shop ideal is the cozy-rustic Macy’s European Coffeehouse & Bakery in Flagstaff, Arizona. In Los Angeles, it’s the outdoor Trails Café in Griffith Park. In Atlanta, where I live, I favor the low-key cool of Chrome Yellow. In San Francisco, where I used to live, it’s Java Beach across from the dunes and Pacific Ocean. In Manhattan, another former home, I love the Hungarian Pastry Shop next to Columbia University, with its stale coffee, dim lighting, and hit-or-miss pastries. It’s packed with earnest students, arguing about communism, free will and other topics you only really think about when you’re in college and hanging out in coffee shops.

And that’s the great thing about coffee shops. These gatherings of friends and strangers is where you have a real opportunity to think about something new, or something old in a new way — for example, a seemingly ordinary, yet extraordinary coffee shop.

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