Social Gathering Place

Social Gathering Place

The coffeehouse first make its appearance in Persia during the 16th century. Known as the qahveh-khaneh, the coffeehouse served as a social gathering place. Only open to males at the time, the early coffeehouse was a place where you could go to drink coffee or tea while listening to music or playing games like chess or backgammon. Often these early coffee shop dwellers went to the coffeehouse to listen to a recitation from the Shahnameh.

The next century, the coffeehouse began to be popularized in Europe. The first London coffeehouse opened in 1652 and these European establishments served the same social role as the coffeehouse in the Middle East. The coffeehouse was a place where people would go to meet, business was conducted, and newspapers were read. Coffeehouses throughout Europe became great centers of political activity. They became one of the freest places for regular people to discuss politics and exchange ideas. In fact this tradition continues. To highlight how quickly coffeehouses became popular in Europe, by 1739 there were 551 coffeehouses in London, less than one hundred years after the first coffee house opened.

It was from the espresso and pastry styled Italian coffeehouses that the current form of American immigrant communities there have always been European styled coffeehouses. Currently coffee shops in America continue to have a large social resonance. Considering that anybody under the age of 21 is restricted from entering bars, coffee shops are now primary social meeting places for America's youth. Often coffee shops will feature live music and commonly plays the latest in in die music or jazz classics. In addition to independent coffee stores that mirror Italian styled coffee houses, there has been arise of sophisticated coffee chains like Starbucks that have copied these early American coffeehouse but cleaned up its countercultural element to create the sophisticated mainstream cafe.

Another recent establishment in the coffeehouse has been the introduction of cannabis coffee shops where sales of soft drugs like marijuana or hash is tolerated by local authorities. Particularly prominent in Amsterdam, the cannabis coffee shop evolution of the social benefits of coffee.

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