Coffee shops, Coffee houses and Cafes

Everyone (almost) likes seeing friends, drinking coffee and eating a cake or something else instead at the same time. Whereas home is not always an appropriate place for such meetings – your fridge is empty, you ran out of coffee just yesterday, your house is a big mess or you simply wish to go out so bad that nothing else matters, you make an appointment at...

So where do you go in such case? Is it a coffee shop, a coffee house (coffeehouse) or a cafe? I doubt you have ever focused your mind on that topic but do these notions are that different as they seem (leaving aside the word "coffee")? Let's sort it out.

Cafe is an informal restaurant in the United States providing a customer with a great variety of hot meals and various sandwiches. In other countries, especially, Europe, cafe is a place where people are served mostly with coffee and dessert. Cafes are also referred to as places where a group of people gather together to talk, discuss, read and/or write something.

Coffee house or coffeehouse is similar to cafe where people are served with hot non-alcoholic beverages (including coffee and tea, of course) and light snacks. Many coffeehouses situated in the Middle East also offer shisha (nargile in Turkish and Greek), flavored tobacco smoked through a hookah.

From the cultural point of view, this is a place where people gather, discuss and interact, thus helping the society to socialize.

Coffee shop is the same as coffee house and is primarily intended to provide people with hot meals and usually coffee and other related products. Its other meaning is a place where people go to in order to buy coffee and other related products.

So what do you choose first? I think, the name is just a sound and everyone likes going to the place where a hot flavorful coffee is served along with a dessert (or a hot meal) and a friendly atmosphere predominates.

See also: Coffee bags Coffee business Coffee gift Coffee Pods Coffee tables Coffee to Go Coffee Tourism Coffee trade Famous Equipment Brands K-Cup Liquid Coffee vs Coffee Syrups