Coffee Shops and Community: How Coffee Changed the World
A Day at the Cafe - How Coffee Shops Build Community
Picture this: you’ve just woken up for the day, look at the clock and realize you’re running late. You throw off the sheets and rush to get ready for the day. After getting in the car and beginning the drive to work, you settle into the commute and feel your eyes start to droop on the road. Coffee’s needed today.
You pull into the nearest coffee shop’s parking lot and step inside, order a latte from the barista, and then wait. While you stand there, you hear the sounds of the shop. The conversation of regulars seated about the shop drift into your ears along the burr of coffee being ground up, the whining gurgle of a steam wind frothing milk. You tap your foot, knowing that you’re going to be late for work.
Busy cafe at the Refuge Coffee Roastery in Fairhope Alabama
Then someone asks you “how’s your morning been?” It’s a regular, waiting for their coffee as well. You reply with an honest answer: it’s been a rushed morning, and you’ve got a lot on your plate. They relate, they’re on their way to work, and you both keep talking. Then a latte finds its way into your hands, but as you pick it up, you notice your friend at a table, in a meeting with a client. You walk over and say hi, and catch up as you take that first sip of coffee. Eventually you realize you really need to go, so you say goodbye, and head off to work.
The day wears on, and you feel more focused and intentional with your workday, even though you were late. But maybe it wasn’t just the caffeine that helped invigorate your day. Maybe it was those fulfilling little interactions that filled a brief space in your morning.
Take that scenario, and think about how a situation like that may never have happened without a cafe space. Coffee shops fill a role in day-to-day life other than just fueling your caffeine needs; they’re a place to connect in a unique way. We at Refuge make it our personal mission to provide both good coffee and good connection at our locations in Fairhope Alabama.
Coffee and Daily Rituals
A Cappuccino for here at Refuge Coffee in Fairhope Alabama.
Coffee’s place in society is centered around daily routine. Some make it a priority to have one every single morning, while others use it as a regular sweet treat for the day.
Whatever the case, coffee consumption has been on the rise in recent years. According to NCA, 66% of all Americans drink coffee at least once a day, and usually 3 cups a day. But when it comes to espresso-based coffee, there has been a 17% increase in consumption since 2020. More and more people are looking to have the kind of specialty coffee that we at Refuge strive to make.
However, there’s a key aspect to our shops that we feel is just as important: a space to drink it in with others.
You may have noticed that we don’t have a drive-through lane, and that’s by design. Though there’s nothing wrong with getting a coffee to go, there’s a social aspect to a cafe that gets sacrificed when the easiest way to get your coffee is through a window. We feel that our cafe space helps us all make face-to-face connections that would never be.
According to a survey by Statista, eight percent of coffee drinkers in the U.S. are visiting a coffee shop every day, while 26.9 percent visit a few times a week. Those regulars wind up making a community with other regulars or their baristas, forming relationships that can last for years.
None of that would be possible without a single shared intersection in their lives: coffee, and a place where people can share their morning cup of joe with others.
Kiva Han - The World’s First Coffee Shop
Coffee Shops Through History
Historically, the coffee cafe has always been a place for people to connect with one another. The very first coffee shop we know of was in Constantinople, now modern-day Istanbul, in 1475 A.D.
Though coffee was already popular throughout Eastern Arabia and Africa at this time, this small store named Kiva Han was unique in that it was the first to be a communal space for coffee enthusiasts.
Providing this public space in the already culturally vibrant Istanbul made it and others like it become a hotspot for intellectual, philosophical, and political discussions.
“Penny Universities”
Coffeehouse in London in the 17th Century “Penny University”
This association of cafes as places for discussion and connection carried over to other coffee shops of England, Paris, and the Americas as well. A lot of notable cafes in England through the 17th century were called “penny universities.” “Penny” was because of their affordable coffee, but the “university” moniker carried much more weight with it.
In the 1600s, higher education was a luxury that only the rich or high class could afford, while many regular people struggled to learn easily. However, many coffee shops were frequented by teachers and educators from nearby universities like Oxford to trade, debate, and share ideas on all manner of subjects. The shops were open to people from all walks of life, which meant it wasn’t a rare sight to see ship captains, scholars, landscapers, merchants, and politicians discussing subjects like economics, art, and religion.
Coffee Shops, Lloyd’s List, and the American Revolution?
Sons of Liberty Meeting at a Coffeehouse
Coffee shops became havens for learning and discussion for anyone, leading to people changing the world itself. The Grecian Coffee House was frequented by many scholars of the Royal Society, including Isaac Newton and Edmund Halley. Lloyd’s Coffee House was a gathering place for sailors, shipbrokers, and merchants of all kinds, and their discussions led to the Lloyd’s List, Lloyd’s Register, and other maritime shipping and insurance services that still operate to this day.
Cafes even helped birth the American revolution. The Sons of Liberty, the group that planned the Boston Tea Party and included members like Samuel Adams and Paul Revere, met in Boston’s Green Dragon Tavern and Coffee House.
Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams were all known to frequent coffee houses. The First Continental Congress met in the Merchant Coffee House in Philadelphia.
Coffee shops didn’t just serve as planning centers for revolutions in just America either. They were central to revolutions in France, Egypt, and other nations where the world was changed over a cup of coffee.
Coffee Shops as Gathering Places
But what makes the coffee shop cafe so suited towards this kind of connection? Broadly speaking, most people have their life divided between two places: work, and home. Coffee shops, like libraries or other public spaces, occupy a “third place” in people’s lives. They provide a neutral, relaxed setting separate from everything to do with work and everything to do with home.
But cafes have a portion of both work and home sprinkled in their identity. You can have a meeting with coworkers at a coffee shop, or go there to get some kind of work done. You can have important conversations with loved ones, or get together with friends to just hangout.
Like the coffee houses and penny universities of old, people sometimes come to a coffee shop more for the people and connection they have there rather than the coffee itself.
Refuge Coffee Roasters and Community
Jim (Owner) & Ben (General Manager) enjoying a Macchiato together at the Refuge Coffee Roastery in Fairhope Alabama
Refuge has always had a priority on community just as much as our coffee, and we do that through a few different ways. One practical way is through our partnerships with several businesses, outreaches, and schools in the regional county. We provide our coffee in bulk so they can serve it to people who may have never even heard of Refuge. We like to make someone’s day with a good coffee even if we never see the joy it brings.
Just as important, our staff has a focus on genuine service and connection not just with our customers, but with our fellow co-workers.
With the little moments of downtime in business hours, our staff has a tradition of “mach time” where we share a traditional Italian macchiato with one another. It’s a small moment in a hectic day, but it gives us the room to breathe and check in on our hearts and minds before launching into the rest of the day refreshed and ready to serve.
How to Make Space for Connection with Coffee
We love encouraging those meaningful moments shared over a cup of coffee in a cafe. But walking into a new cafe for the first time just expecting community or connection to show up, it probably won’t lead to much. But there are some practical things to do to get started.
If there’s a cafe near you, plan a coffee catch-up with someone you haven’t talked to in a while. If there’s a friend you know who loves coffee, invite them to try out a drink neither of you have had before. If you want to know more about coffee, ask a barista about how they make their coffee.
If there’s no cafe near you, or you just want some solo quiet time, you can even make coffee at home as a place for connection with yourself. Get a special mug, get more hands on with brewing your own coffee, or invite someone to have coffee at your place like some of the Founding Fathers did.
Whatever you do, be open to connection. Don’t just keep your head down when you’re in a coffee shop, invite those moments for connection by sparking conversation with others, or letting yourself pause and process the day.
At the end of the day, coffee is about more than just a caffeine high: it’s about the people who share it with each other. Challenge yourself this week to plan a coffee day with someone you know. You might be surprised what will come from it.
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