Enjoying a cup of Ethiopia Yirgacheffe at Chinatown Coffee Company (@ChinatownCoffee) 3,000 miles away from the Washington I call home, here in Washington DC coffee remains a drink that stimulates, but the coffee shops and conversations they help enable are different.
In this policy charged Washington where I previously lived, local news is national and international; many of the conversations I overheard were held by well dressed federal employees. Though I wasn’t able to spend a great deal of time at coffee shops on my visit because of one of the largest snow storms in DC history, I was again reminded that they are far from homogenous.
No two coffee shops are the same. An hour after landing at Regan International, I met with a friend in Alexandria at Le Pain Quotidien. A small bakery / coffee shop, this quiet and reserved place was very conversation friendly. No music played. No one was plugged in. No one was typing away. When getting work done is on my friends’ agenda, Buzz Coffee is more conducive, as WiFi is available; I wasn’t able to check the place out.
When I want a single origin drip from Kenya via a HARIO (@HARIOUSA) v60, I go to coffee shop A even if the tables are small, the seats uncomfortable, and WiFi limited; the coffee served is most important here. When I want to work and chat online, I go to coffee shop B even if the coffee is so-so because the WiFi is secure, and I know that fellow customers will be going for the same reason. When I want to initiate a conversation, I go to coffee shop C, knowing that community is what this place has going. The conversations that emerge at coffee shops are in part influenced by their location and the interests of its customers. So, I’ll go to coffee shop D near the university if I want to socialize with professors and college students. Place matters.
My intention here is not to categorize coffee shops, but simply suggest that each has unique qualities; each has something different to offer. And of course, many are conversation and WiFi friendly, offering excellent coffee; culture is still going to vary.
Different places. Different coffee shops. Different conversations. What coffee shop are you going to today?
2 Comments
Jason … I completely agree with you. I frequent a handful of coffee shops in and around the Minneapolis (where my son plays hockey), St. Cloud (where I work) and Hutchinson (where I live) [all in Minnesota] for various reasons. Some are more conducive to conversation with friends, business associates and donors (I’m a fundraiser during the day), while others are inspirational – where I go to read, write a blog post, or sketch out the road map for a new project or idea I may have.
Each shop helps me achieve the goal I have for that moment in time. It’s just like a good bottle of wine….you never drink a Cabernet when the mood calls for a Pinot!
Thanks for sharing.
Marc
@Marc Vaillancourt Agree. For this reason, I think it’s fine that some coffee shops have pulled the plug on WiFi. Ultimately, every coffee shop has the right to shape its place as it wishes. When I was in DC, I actually shuffled across the street from one coffee shop that didn’t offer WiFi to another that did because I needed to check email. This didn’t bother me; both places offer something different.