The best coffee shops are like public lounges
I love reviewing coffee shops and lunch spots around the world. Since I was a child, and especially from teenage years onwards, I have spent many hours in coffee shops, first in Austria, my birth country, and then in Cape Town, my chosen home and wherever else I may find myself at any given time.
For me, coffee shops are like public lounges, where you go alone or with friends and you can spend an entire afternoon, chatting and drinking coffee, maybe with a little lunch. For me, coffee shops are places to stay – you live there – part of the day anyway. And with wifi connection now in coffee shops around the world, many freelancers spend part of their working day in coffee shops as well.
It is not only about a great cappuccino, albeit that IS important, and the right brand of coffee made at the right temperature with the foam ‘just so’, or the decaf latte, … what is just as important is the service, the guy or girl who takes the order, gives you a genuine smile, even if you order your coffee with extra hot milk, tap water with ice and no lemon, and then ask for some more hot milk on the side.
The ambience is all-important too. It has to feel like your own public lounge, where you can sit and drink your coffee, with your conversation on Facebook or Whatsapp, or reading your kindle, or a good old magazine that the coffee shop provides. And then it is also about the clientele. A friendly smile from the gentleman at the next table, an offer to share a table with the two friends who cannot find a spot to sit… Coffee shops are an indication of who lives in the neighbourhood, and if the lunch menu of the day provides an additional incentive for the regulars to show up, the better.
And that is why I love reviewing coffee shops.