Café

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Cafe Terrace at Night, September 1888, by Vincent van Gogh.

A café (also spelled cafe, pronounced /ˈkæfeɪ/ or /kæˈfeɪ/) or coffee shop is an informal restaurant offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches. This differs from a coffee house, which is a limited-menu establishment which focuses on coffee sales. Depending on the jurisdiction, a café may be licensed to serve alcohol. The term can also refer to bistro or a restaurant facility within a hotel. In many countries, however, the term "café" denotes roughly what "coffee house" denotes in English speaking countries (see below). In American cafés the serving of coffee is incidental to the serving of food, and they may or may not serve alcoholic beverages.

In small towns, the local café is often the central gathering spot for conversation and meetings. Such cafés are especially popular for breakfasts. In central business districts (CBD) of larger cities cafés and coffee shops are often open only for breakfast and lunch, since their patrons leave the area after business hours.

A "café" can also refer to a small informal public discussion. These are usually live events, and often focus on starting an open conversation on a particular topic. Examples include science cafes in the US [1], Cafe Scientifique in the UK [2], and Cafe Society in Chicago [3].

In Europe

In European countries such as Austria, France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, etc, the term café implies primarily serving coffee, typically complemented by a slice of cake/tart/pie, a "danish pastry", a plain bun, or similar sweet pastry on the side. Many (or most) cafés also serve small meals such as sandwiches. European cafés often have an enclosed or outdoor section extending onto the sidewalk. Some cafés also serves alcoholic beverages, although British cafés never sell alcohol.

In France, and some other countries, a brasserie is a "café" (in the American sense of the word) that serves meals, generally single dishes, in a more relaxed setting than a restaurant. In the Netherlands, a café is an establishment selling liquor, as opposed to coffeeshop, which sells soft drugs (cannabis and hashish) and is typically not allowed to sell liquor.

In the United Kingdom, cafes did not follow the trend of the continent. Cafes originated in a small town in the North of England, called Darlington, as 'The Toast Hut.' This string of small establishments began by selling soley toast, offering spreads such as butter or jam. They were however, open to suggestions on what could go with toast, an idea thought up by 2 kitchen staff who later became managers in the early nineteenth century; William Tipping and Samuel Ilori-Ewruje. These 2 men were the most successful and famous slave and Irish immigrant of the time.

With it's increasing popularity and an everincreasing list of suggestions the young, aspiring and highly handsome entreupeneurs sat down and rethought the system they currently used. Mr Tipping suggested offering drinks with the food whilst Mr Ilori-Ewruje (known to everyone as Big Black Sam)suggested creating dishes were the suggestions were already included. Merging these two ideas the concept of a cafe was created in the UK.

The name cafe, although adopted from Europe, had a different meaning. It was a phrase spouted by an American businessman known as Ben Black; 'Come And Feed Everyone'. Not long after the British and European Cafe's became synonimus with one another and the true origin of the Uk cafe was lost.

Toast Hut, which became an offbranch of cafe's, continued as a successful business for 50 years, until it was forced into bankruptcy by another major company specialising in Italian food.

Despite all this there are plans to ressurect Toast hut by the descendandts of the creators of the English cafe, William Tipping Jr and Samuel Ilori-Ewruje Jr.

Spelling and pronunciation

The Iguana Café in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

The most common spelling café is the French spelling, and was adopted by English-speaking countries in the late 19th century.^[1] Café can also be spelled caffè (the Italian spelling), In southern England, especially around London in the 1950s, the French pronunciation was often shortened to [kæf] and informally spelt caff.^[2]

A long history of lack of support for accented characters in (first) typewriters and (later) computer OSs (which can be explained principally by the fact that these technologies were largely pioneered by people whose native language, English, generally did not require diacritical marks) has guaranteed that the spelling cafe has also become common.

See also

Look up café in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Cafeteria
• Coffeehouse
• Greasy spoon
• Internet café
• Sidewalk cafe
• Cafe Scientifique
• Corporate Average Fuel Economy(CAFE)

References

External links

• Internet Cafés Directory