PLANNING AHEAD: Coffee questions that consider how we socialize today

A recent article in CNN Health, “Viva la coffee shop: Why we need to meet up in them, now!” raised the fascinating question whether we are losing something today in our loss of common spaces to meet, discuss, and enjoy each other’s company.  Also, of course, it discussed coffee.

Frankly, I was amazed how a discussion of the simple coffee and “meet-ups” strikes such a chord today and does so across multiple areas of study including health, history, socialization, economics, business and more. Along these lines I found the “history” of coffee beginning back in the early Ottoman Empire and continuing through the American and French Revolutions, and English coffee houses to be much more enjoyable than might be expected and this was not simply for those who savor the beverage but also for others — historians, business owners and operators, economists, socializers, and just plain people who want to get together and discuss the latest state of the world or what might be happening at work or home.

The CNN article explains as to coffee shops “<o>n 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…” That assessment could change somewhat today, by the way, as more corporate influenced changes come about encouraging people in fact to “move along.”

Not to pick on Starbucks but I remember when not too long ago my most favorite location was a place where purchasers sat reasonably comfortably and college students and researchers hacked away at their keyboards (writing term papers maybe?). They could stay for hours. It gradually changed so that you needed to stand — no sitting — and then to the point where you needed to order in advance by phone and pick up only. Recently I migrated to another location where it is primarily drive through. Of course I understand that the earlier Starbucks was not making the same kind of money in its previous manifestations but it was enjoyable. Business owners and conglomerates could change again.

However, there are still other “coffee houses” in existence now and other places to share.  Some combine coffee with reading. Many are local and deserve loyal customers. There are coffee bakeries and coffee reading rooms. There are other “world living rooms” and I encourage them. If I were to follow the lesson of the original article I believe it is our duty to locate such places in these times as world conditions change so we have meeting places to meet and socialize with friends in a relaxed environment. It does not have to include alcohol.

More than 20 years ago there was a location in “downtown” West Chester known as the Lincoln Coffee House located in a building where the first biography of Abraham Lincoln was written/published. Local people, myself included, had many interesting conversations and discussions there. It continued later into a tea room with similar purposes.

Back to history, there are articles written about changes. See, for instance “How Coffee Fueled Revolutions — and Revolutionary Ideas. Also, “Starbucks’ ‘Open-Door Policy’ Reversal, Explained — Why It Matters,” in Forbes, Jan. 15, 2025, an economic and social review. Also, Wikipedia, “English coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th centuries.”

The latter source explained that “Europeans first learned about coffee consumption and practice through accounts of exotic travels to ‘oriental’ empires of Asia. According to Markman Ellis, travelers accounted for how men would consume an intoxicating liquor, (coffee) ‘black in colour and made by infusing the powdered berry of a plant that flourished in Arabia.’ Native men <to the area> consume this liquid ‘all day long and far into the night, with no apparent desire for sleep but with mind and body continuously alert, men talked and argued, finding in the hot black liquor a curious stimulus quite unlike that produced by fermented juice of grape…”

A more poetic description of the difference between caffeine and alcohol probably has not been written.  According to the same article, 17th and 18th century England coffeehouses “served as public social places where men would meet for conversation and commerce.  For the price of a penny, customers purchased a cup of coffee and admission.”

Costs a bit more now but worth it!

Janet Colliton is a Certified Elder Law Attorney recognized by the American Bar Assn and Pa. Supreme Court and limits her practice to elder law, retirement, special needs, estate planning and estate administration with offices at 790 East Market St., Suite 250, West Chester, 610-436-6674, colliton@collitonlaw.com. She is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and, with Jeffrey Jones, CSA, co-founder of Life Transition Services LLC, a service for families with long term care needs.