"Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water"- The Women's Petition Against Coffee, 1674
The world’s first recorded coffee house, Kiva Han, was reputedly opened in Constantinople (Istanbul). Shemsi of Damascus and Hekem of Aleppo, are generally acknowledged as our first recorded coffee house proprietors having opened one in Talchtacalah, Constantinople in 1555.
The coffee house is known as al-maqhah in Arabic, qahveh-khaneh in Persian or Kahvehane or kıraathane in Turkish, Kafano in the old state of Yugoslavia, café in French/Portuguese, cafetería in Spanish, caffè in Italian, Kaffeehaus in German.
Since the 15th century, the coffeehouse was largely a center of social interaction and traditionally a place where men would assemble to drink coffee and entertain themselves with conversation, music, reading and playing chess Superluminal History of Coffee.
Coffee houses have been given various names at times during its long history beginning with the early Ottoman description of;
- ‘Schools of Wisdom’ (A meeting places of men of arts and literature),
- 'Penny Universities’ in England [1] (They became popular forums for the learned and the not-so-learned to discuss all manner of topics including politics and current affairs and a penny was the price of a cup of coffee)
- "Seminaries of Sedition’ in England (A view held by the authorities who saw them as anti-social and ordered them closed in 1675 due to The Women's Petition Against Coffee. From 1663 the coffee house in England had to be licensed.)
- 'KaffeeKlatsch’ in Germany (The derogatory term originally coined to describe a women's gossip session at afternoon coffee. It has since been broadened to mean relaxed conversation in general)
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| Image by tvol CC Attribution 2.0 Generic |
Whilst many of the significant and historic coffee houses of the past have since disappeared, a few are still with us and continue to serve patrons today. Here is a world roundup of some of the significant ones that have survived and some that have not.
"Coffee makes us severe, and grave, and philosophical". - Jonathan Swift, 1722
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| Baratti & Milano Caffe |
Baratti & Milano Caffe (still trading) is one of Turin’s most beautiful early Italian coffee house that was founded as a cafeteria in 1858 by Ferdinando Baratti and Edoardo Milano with the name “Fornitore della Real Casa” (Supplier of the Royal House). In 1875 it moved to its present location between the Piazza del Castello and the Galleria Subalpina, an area used for part of the infamous Austin Mini car chase scene in the original 1969 production of the film ‘The Italian Job’
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| Caffe Florian |
Caffe Florian (still trading) is the most famous Italian coffee house still operating on the Piazza San Marco in the shadow of the Campanile, the famous bell tower of Venice, Italy. It was opened by Floriano Francesconi on 29 December 1720 under the arcades of the Procurative Nuove using the name “Venezia Trionfante” ('Triumphant Venice') but was later renamed in honour of its founder Floriano Francesconi. It is a prime contender for the world’s longest continuing coffee house with its 287 years of coffee service to its Venetian, Italian and international patrons and takes its place amongst the city's chief symbols. Much of the paintings, wood carvings, high ornate mirrors, cosy booths and naked woods come from the refurbishments done in 1859. It is also home to the Venice Biennale, an exhibition of contemporary art that has been running since 1893. Famous patrons included Marcel Proust, Charles Dickens and the Venice born womanizer Giovanni Giacomo Casanova.
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| Pedrocchi Coffee House - Padua. |
Pedrocchi Café (still trading) is a famous neo-classical Italian coffee house located in Padua that was started by Franceso Pedrochin in 1760. The Pedrocchi Café is one of the biggest coffee houses in the world. Its operates in a magnificent 19th century building in the centre of Padua, Italy. Its rooms are decorated in various styles and show the great ecleptism of Giuseppe Jappelli, the famous architect who project managed the building. The coffee house is historically known for having been the centre of the 1848 riots in Padua as well as for having been the meeting point of great artists such as the French novelist Stendhal, the English poet Lord Byron, the Italian Nobel prize winner Dario Fo.
Caffe Greco (Antico Caffe' Greco - Still trading) is one of Europe's first coffee houses not far from the Spanish Steps. It was opened on 84 Via dei Condotti in the Piazza di Spagna in Rome Italy in 1760 by a Greek, Nicola della Maddalena. Still trading today and boasting famous past patrons including; Keats, Shelley, Lord Byron, Goethe, Ricard Wagner, Franz Liszt along with the infamous King Ludwi. It is the oldest and acclaimed as the most elegant café in Rome. The rooms of this café ooze with history displaying the signatures of the many former and famous patrons who frequented the place. Apart from those listed above other who’s who have sipped coffee here include Buffalo Bill, Felix Mendelssohn, Mark Twain, Orson Wells, the composer Rossini and Hans Christian Andersen who is said to have lived on the upper levels. Even Goethe enjoyed his coffee here when travelling through Italy in 1786. It remains open today serving the writers, politicians, artists and notable people in Rome that have made it their home. It was the influential pre-Surrealist Greek-Italian painter Giorgio De Chirico who suggested that this is the coffee house where you ‘sit and await the end’.
Ah! How sweet coffee tastes! Lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter far than muscatel wine! -"Coffee Cantata", J.S. Bach
Edward Lloyd’ Coffee House [2] was opened by Edward Lloyd near the Thames on Tower Street in London in 1685. The coffee house was "spacious, well built and inhabited by able tradesmen" according to a contemporary publication. Later in 1691 it was transferred to 16 Lombard Street which was very close to the centre of English maritime trade. It was from this coffee house that Edward Lloyd launched his "Lloyd's List" in 1696 which was filled with information on ship arrivals and departures and included some intelligence on conditions abroad and at sea. This list was eventually enlarged to provide daily news on stock prices, foreign markets, and high-water times at London Bridge and reports of accidents and sinkings. In 1771, seventy-nine of the underwriters who did business at Lloyd's subscribed £100 each and joined together in the Society of Lloyd's, an unincorporated group of individual entrepreneurs operating under a self-regulated code of behaviour. These were the original Members of Lloyd's; later, members came to be known as "Names." It was from this coffee house that Lloyd' s of London was established which eventually became the largest insurance company of the world.Waeshael English Coffee House
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| Turk's Head - The Strand |
Turk's Head Coffee House [3] was a name used by many coffee houses at the height of coffee’s popularity in London in the 18th century. Possibility the most famous one of these traded in the Strand in London from 1763 to 1783.
It derived its fame as the gathering place for such literary figures as Samuel Johnson, his biographer Boswell, Oliver Goldsmith, the actor David Garrick, Edmund Burke, and Sir Joshua Reynolds the painter. Other members of the circle were Thomas Percy, historian Edward Gibbon, and economist Adam Smith.
It derived its fame as the gathering place for such literary figures as Samuel Johnson, his biographer Boswell, Oliver Goldsmith, the actor David Garrick, Edmund Burke, and Sir Joshua Reynolds the painter. Other members of the circle were Thomas Percy, historian Edward Gibbon, and economist Adam Smith.
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| Plaque - St Michael's Alley |
St. Michael’s Alley Coffee House [4] is England’s first coffee house and was opened in Cornhill London in 1652. It is still unclear to this day wether it was opened by a Mr. Bowman or Pasqua Rosee although the weight of evidence suggests Pasqua Rosee. It is also uncertain as to wether he was a native of Armenia, a Greek from the Republic of Ragusa or from Ottoman Smyrna, a port in Western Turkey. What is clear is that he was a man-servant or employee to a Turkish merchant trader (one who dealt in coffee and other such luxury items) named Daniel Edwards. Some researchers also claim that Pasqua went into business with a coachman who was a relative of Mr. Edwards. The coffee house is famous for being the first known coffee advertising or prospectus in England with the original document, ‘The Virtue of the Coffee Drink’, still being on display in the British Museum.
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| Queen's Lane Coffee House |
Queen's Lane Coffee House (still trading) is a historic coffee house dating from 1654 located on Queen's Lane which is a historic street in central Oxford, England. It was named after Queen's College located to the south and west and is close to St. Edmund Hall one of the smallest colleges in Oxford. It is one of the oldest coffee houses in England and is the oldest still trading coffee house in Oxford, England. It is a popular coffee house with both Oxford University students and tourists.
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| Painting - John Dryden at Wills |
Will’s Coffee House was established by William Urwin in Russell Street, Covent Garden at the end of Bow Street London in 1660. Starting as Red Cow, then The Rose and finally Will's, it achieved a fame when the London's poets, patrons and critics made it their home. John Dryden was the literati genius and poet who made this coffee house the resort of the wits of his time and it was for a long time the open market for libels and lampoonshis stage for thirty years. Dryden shaped the public taste for thirty years and served as an inspiration to poets and writers of prose by passing judgment on the latest poem or play. John Dryden had his own seat at Wills, by the fireplace in winter and by the window in summer. So great was Dryden's reputation, and with it the reputation of Will's, that the most famous of England's men of letters, including Samuel Pepys, Congreve, Pope and Wycherly frequented the coffee house earning Will's the title "The Wit's Coffee House". The death of Dryden saw the demise of Will's and about 1712 the custom was transferred by Joseph Addison to Batton's coffee house on the opposite side of the street.
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| Plaque - Exchange Alley |
Jonathan's Coffee House was founded by Jonathan Miles, in Exchange Alley, around 1680. In its early years it was known more for its revolutionaries than for its businessmen which is why in 1696, several patrons were implicated in a plot to assassinate William III, and it was thought to be associated with the Popish Plots. In 1698, it was used by John Castaing to post the prices of stocks and commodities which was the first evidence of systematic exchange of securities in London, England. That year, other dealers expelled from the Royal Exchange for rowdiness migrated to Jonathan's. The coffee house was the centre for the speculations during the great “South Seas bubble" days of 1719-1720, and in 1745, during the panic caused by the Young Pretender's march on London, men won and lost fortunes in speculations on the rebellion's success. In 1761 a club of 150 brokers and jobbers was formed to trade stocks. The club built its own building in 1773 in Sweeting's Alley, which was dubbed the New Jonathan's, but was later renamed the London Stock Exchange. The coffee house building continued to serve as the scene of a lottery office after the departure of the jobbers in 1773 until it was ultimately destroyed by fire in 1778.
"Without a coffee break some work would just not get done"
House under The Blue Bottle Coffee House (‘Hof zur Blauen Flasche ') was one of the first and most notable coffee houses in Vienna and was opened at Schlossergassl near the cathedral in 1686 by Georg Franz Kolschitzky from Poland. Tradition has it that Kolschitzky played a part in freeing the besieged city of Vienna by infiltrating the Turkish lines and getting Poland's King Sobiesky to send an army to free Vienna. The fleeing Turks left a vast number of sacks of brown beans that nobody wanted. Kolschitzky knew their use and value from his travels to Turkey and so claimed them as his booty. Kulczycki's helped to popularize coffee in Austria and his coffee house soon became one of the most popular places in town. It is noted that Kulczycki served his mortar-ground coffee wearing a Turkish attire, which added to the exotic authenticity of his coffee brew. Another of his innovations was to serve coffee with milk which was a serving method unknown to the Turks or Austrians at that time. Vienna - Blue Bottle
"Black as the devil, Hot as hell, Pure as an angel, Sweet as love" Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord
Cafe Le Procope (still trading) is acknowledged as the first true coffee house and the oldest restaurant in Paris and located right at the heart of the famous Quartier Latin. It was opened in 1686 by Sicilian Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, a former lemonade vendor, on a street then known then as rue des Fossés-Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The cafe faces the Theatre Francais, where it drew a clientele of artists and actors and so it became known as the "theatrical" coffee house although only for gentlemen. Today the coffee house sits on the now named rue de l'Ancienne Comédie. Throughout the eighteenth century the Procope became the meeting place of the intellectual establishment. The Phrygian cap, a symbol of Liberty, was first displayed at the Procope and became the meeting place of revolutionaries including the Cordeliers, Robespierre, Danton, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot and Marat. Alexander von Humboldt and George Sand were among the famous 19th-century regulars. It holds some claim to be the birthplace of the Encyclopédie, the first modern encyclopedia. Closing its doors briefly in the late 1800’s it remains today as an historical landmark of Paris.
"I would rather suffer with coffee than be senseless" - Napoleon Bonaparte
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| City Tavern - Philadelphia |
City Tavern (Merchant’s Coffee House) was opened in the mid 1770’s in Philadelphia USA. It was built on Second Street by several wealthy nabobs of the social and mercantile aristocracy because their previous gathering place, The London Coffee House located at the once busy corner of Front and High Streets hard on the city's docks, had out grown their business demands.
Not only did the Tavern serve as the hub of the business community for about a half a century, it also played host to members of the First Continental Congress and such luminaries as Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Lafayette and John Adams — he called it "The most genteel tavern in the country."
Not only did the Tavern serve as the hub of the business community for about a half a century, it also played host to members of the First Continental Congress and such luminaries as Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Lafayette and John Adams — he called it "The most genteel tavern in the country."
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| The Old Tontine Coffee House |
The old Tontine Coffee House was located at the northwest corner of Wall and Water Streets. The Tontine Coffee house is where the NY Stock Exchange was organized. The City Museum tells us “Some historians date the birth of the New York Stock Exchange to the issuance of bonds by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in 1790; others claim that the exchange came into existence on May 17, 1792, at the Merchants' Coffee House at the southeast corner of Wall and Water Streets, when twenty-four stock brokers and merchants signed the "Buttonwood Agreement."
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| Cafe Reggio's - New York |
Café Reggio (still trading) a small coffee house in New York’s Greenwich Village, opened in 1927. It claims the title of “the original Cappuccino bar” because the owner Domenico Parisi imported and installed the first espresso machine in the United States. By the mid 50’s the Italian “La Pavoni” espresso machine, built in 1902, began offering espresso made the Italian way to a clientele including the Beats, Bob Dylan and the poet Joseph Brodsky. The original machine, an ornate brass-decorated beauty, still holds pride of place at Cafe Reggio’s today.
"I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake all afternoon" - Ronald Reagan
OTHER Espresso Coffee Knols
1 - To see an article about the current plight of the world's coffee growing peasant farmers and an idea that could reverse their fortunes,
see Project 10100 "Business ideas to change the world".
2 - This Knol is about 'How to make great coffee" and was written by the award winning Knol author Stephen Buchwalter in the for Dummies ... contest.
Hattox, Ralph S. Coffee and coffeehouses : the origins of a social beverage in the medieval Near East / University of Washington Press ed. Seattle : University of Washington Press
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Those who have read much on espresso coffee will know of Kenneths Davids’ passion for the subject. In this, a reprint of an earlier classical work and one of his many on the espresso coffee topic, Kenneth writes about the history of coffee and espresso machines and the development of espresso as a global phenomenon.
Sometimes his passion gets in the way of clear expression, and the layout at time with its numerous side-bars, small print and monotone brown illustrations disguises the real gems contained in his work. Still if you are a barista or skilled amateur wanting to learn some good tips on the art of making espresso coffee, then this book, from an authority on the subject, will give you a good grounding with its fun, jargon free approach.
References
- Ellis, Aytoun. The penny universities; a history of the coffee houses. London, Secker & Warburg, 1956.
- Lillywhite, Bryant. London coffee houses; a reference book of coffee houses of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. London: G. Allen and Unwin, 1963.
- Timbs, John. Clubs and club life in London. With anectodes of its famous coffee houses, hostelries, and taverns, from the seventeenth century to the present time. London: Chatto & Windrus, pref. 1872.
- Encyclopædia metropolitana; or, Universal dictionary of knowledge, ed. by E. Smedley, Hugh J. Rose and Henry J. Rose. [With] Plates By Encyclopaedia Published by , 1845 Original from Oxford University
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Petition against coffee?