Coffeehouse

A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café, is an establishment that serves various types of coffee drinks like espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, as well as other beverages. An espresso bar specializes in serving espresso and espresso-based drinks. Some coffeehouses may serve iced coffee among other cold drinks, as well as non-caffeinated drinks. A coffeehouse may also serve food, such as light snacks, sandwiches, muffins, cakes, breads, pastries or doughnuts. Many doughnut shops in Canada and the U.S. serve coffee to accompany doughnuts, so these can also be classified as coffee shops, although doughnut shops tend to be more casual and serve cheaper fare (suiting take-out and drive-through, popular in those countries). In continental Europe, some cafés even serve alcoholic drinks, and in West Asia, coffeehouses may offer a flavored tobacco smoked through a hookah, called shisha in most varieties of Arabic or nargile in Levantine Arabic, Greek, and Turkish.

While café may mean a coffeehouse, it tends to have a different meaning in Britain: a diner or "greasy spoon"; it is also used for a teahouse or other casual eating and drinking place. A coffeehouse may resemble a bar or restaurant, but differs from a cafeteria (a canteen, a restaurant without table service). Coffeehouse operation ranges from management of an independent venue by its owner to franchises of a large multinational corporation.

From a cultural standpoint, a coffeehouse largely serves as a center of social interaction: it provides patrons with a place to meet, talk, read, write, entertain one another, or pass the time, whether individually or in small groups.