# Define the difference between a "Coffee Shop" and a "Cafe"



## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

I'd be very interested to see peoples definitions for "Coffee Shop" and "Cafe"

How do you classify a place as a coffee shop or a cafe?

Lets assume that both serve coffee and food, and are not classified as a restaurant

Discuss


----------



## Greenpotterer (Nov 29, 2009)

Easy to define in Amsterdam, Glenn

Seriously the quality of the coffee. In my eyes the term cafe is slightly derogatory and old fashioned If it went on looks alone Harlequin in York would be a Cafe and that would be a travesty.

Gaz


----------



## BanishInstant (Oct 12, 2009)

Coffee shop to me means the emphasis on good coffee and maybe sweet and potentially savoury nibbles.

Cafe means light meals and serve coffee although potentially with little emphasis and quality.


----------



## Eyedee (Sep 13, 2010)

Coffee shop to me means that the onus is on the coffee and they know what they are doing when they make it, the food is a side show.

A cafe is where you go to eat and maybe drink some sort of brew called coffee. Coffee could be good/bad/indifferent.


----------



## standard issue (Jan 10, 2010)

+1 for Eyedee.

I also think coffee shops can sometimes (easily) be determined by the name and "vibe" they portray.

My fave cafés/coffee shops for instance.

Nude Espresso (Shoreditch) - I buy coffee (maybe a cookie for the gf)

Croques (Leicester) - I buy scrummy toasties or jacket spuds with an interesting topping but never coffee, I'll usually go to a "coffee shop" after a café for my caffeine fix (maybe a cookie for the gf - I'm sensing a theme).


----------



## coffeeman (Mar 20, 2010)

A very interesting question,

to my mind a cafe is something close to a greasy spoon who have an expensive coffee machine but are not really sure how to use it.

A coffee shop is where they have built the shop around the coffee (not always getting the coffee right) and food etc is more of an afterthought


----------



## Eyedee (Sep 13, 2010)

You can always be seriously misled by the sign outside and lulled into thinking you are going to get something good. Just as an example of this, "Merry England Coffee Shop" has a few branches near me but serves basically flavoured milk.

Food is good though.


----------



## standard issue (Jan 10, 2010)

Isn't coffee shop defined by baristas dressed in all black (skinny jeans) with "interesting" haircuts???


----------



## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Some interesting answers, keep 'em coming


----------



## DonRJ (Apr 3, 2010)

Cafe`s for me were places you went to listen to the juke box, try and chat up girls, drink coffee or milk shakes and try and (unsuccessfully) look cool. The good ones had an Italian driving the espresso machine so the coffee was good. This was of course the late 60`s and by the early 70`s we had all decamped to pubs.

Coffee shops are hazy, smoky places in foreign parts where you tend to develop a strange loss of equilibrium and a chatty disposition for unknown reasons.


----------



## DonRJ (Apr 3, 2010)

I have now asked the lady wife for her definition.

Cafe`s sell nice toasted tea cakes.

Coffee shops sell rock hard biscuits (Biscotti) that are overpriced and taste like almondy Farleys rusks and must be dunked prior to consumption.


----------



## standard issue (Jan 10, 2010)

Farley's Rusks...Them were the days!


----------

