Café Facts for Kids

A cafe is a type of restaurant which usually serves coffee and snacks. The term "cafe" comes from French, and means "coffee".

You can read newspapers and magazines there, or chat with other customers about current topics. It is known as a place where information can be exchanged.

A cafe is sometimes called a coffeehouse or a coffee shop in English, a café in French, Spanish, and Portuguese and a caffè in Italian. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria, which is a type of restaurant where customers can choose from many dishes on a serving line. In some countries, cafes more closely resemble restaurants, offering a range of hot meals, and possibly being licensed to serve alcohol. British cafes however, do not sell alcohol.

A new type of cafe, known as the Internet cafe, was introduced in the 1990s. The spread of modern-style cafes to many places, urban and rural, went hand in hand with computers. Computers and Internet access in a contemporary atmosphere created a youthful, modern public space, compared to the traditional bars, or old-fashioned diners that they replaced. Nowadays, many cafes offer wireless Internet or have computers customers can use, just as they offer telephones and newspapers.

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The Café de Flore in Paris is one of the oldest coffeehouses in the city. It is celebrated for its famous clientele, which included high-profile writers and philosophers.
Ottoman miniature of a meddah performing at a coffeehouse
Storyteller (meddah) at a coffeehouse in the Ottoman Empire. The first coffeehouses appeared in the Islamic world in the 15th century.
A coffeehouse in Cairo, 18th century
Coffeehouse in London, 17th century
"Discussing the War in a Paris Café", The Illustrated London News, 17 September 1870
A Viennese café
Trieste from where the cappuccino spread.
Caffè Florian in Venice
Café Tortoni is an emblematic café in Buenos Aires. Frequented by Jorge Luis Borges among many other figures of Argentina.
Caffe Reggio on MacDougal Street in New York City's Greenwich Village which was founded in 1927
Coffeehouses often sell pastries or other food items
A coffee shop in Angeles City, Philippines
Rumah Loer, a contemporary-style coffee shop (Indonesian: rumah kopi kekinian) in Palembang, Indonesia
A shop specialised in drip coffee in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
The Federal Coffee Palace, built on Collins Street, Melbourne, in 1888, was the largest and grandest Coffee Palace ever built. It was demolished in 1973.
Centre Place, Melbourne. Australia is considered the birthplace of the "flat white".
Interior of an espresso bar from Baliuag, Philippines
Café neon sign in Breda
Café Mélange, Vienna
Café Kampela, Helsinki
On-campus coffeehouse at Pensacola Christian College
A café in a former church, Utrecht
Roadside cafe on the summer terrace. Buryatia, Russia

Café facts for kids

Images for kids

See also