All stories about "Cafes"

As we mentioned last summer, Paris provides free Wi-Fi access from more than 260 public parks, gardens, and monuments. A beautiful idea, but those of us with real work to do need a table and a beer. Helping us out are a number of cafés and bistros that serve free Wi-Fi along with their liquid offerings. And profiling these joints is a nifty little website that rounds up more than 140 hotspots in Paris and plots them on an easy-to-use map. Cafés Wifi selects their monthly favorites -- those cafés that provide a free, fast, and always working connection, along with pleasant working atmosphere -- and reports on the price, the clientele, and the number of electrical outlets. It's a freelancer's wet dream. This very article, including the photo, was posted from #4, la Fée Verte.

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There's a graffiti war going on in the bathroom at the Tenth Street branch of the Park Slope Tea Lounge. The bathroom at the popular cafe is filled with several heated exchanges that reveal the ongoing turf wars in the neighborhood. One prominent note on the wall reads: "To the Tea Lounge Nazis, do us the favor and f*** off." Below that lovely missive, someone scrawled an angry retort: "Then stay out of the Slope." Nearby, a seemingly innocuous message saying "music is the weapon of the future" provoked this reply: "disagree it's baby strollers." This graffitti is like a hate crime against the stroller yuppies in their holy inner sanctum. Can't we all just get along?

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I'm blogging live today from the Park Slope Tea Lounge. There is a surprising lack of stroller mommies here at the moment, but I do see some hardcore homeschoolin' going down at one of the desks. There was also this one great hipster guy in a pinkish flannel shirt having a serious nose picking session on the couches in front. I'm seated in the back near the bathroom and it's a bit awkard since I'm working on something that involves naked ladies and the people heading to the toilets keep catching glimpses of nipples on my screen. I've been experiencing some intensely disapproving glances from my fellow coffee house loafers. Bloggers clashing with chai drinkers! Only in Park Slope people, only in Park Slope.

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Believe it or not, the world doesn't end at Brunnenstrasse. You are not at risk of falling into an abyss, or at least a cultural void, when going northwest from Prenzlauer Berg into neighboring Wedding. Despite the general attitude toward Wedding as the ugly stepsister to the now prim and preened P'Berg, the neighborhood isn't some urban frontier waiting for settlers to make it habitable. In fact, Wedding is doing just fine without the cosmopolitan hipigencia -- and probably doesn't even care if you ever come to visit. If being told you're not wanted isn't inducement enough to stumble off the beaten track of renovated altbau, well-heeled hipsters, and procreating creative professionals, give the following some consideration.

As the neighborhood motto touts, Der Wedding kommt anders ("Wedding is different/diverse"). And therein lies its charm. For starters, there's architectural variety. Sure, a good portion of it pales aesthetically in comparison to P'Berg. But tucked away among the monstrous postwar buildings you'll find industrial buildings old and new, early-twentieth century developments, and late-nineteenth century altbau. The same goes for the neighborhood culturally. It may not be as polished as its popular neighbors, but it's authentic, lived in, and multifaceted.

It's also far less homogeneous than its trendy neighbors to the south and east. Wedding is home to blue-collar workers, professionals, an artistic bohemia, Turks, and various other ethnic communities, including one with people of African decent. It's also got what's will seem a novelty to those spending too much time in Berlin's trendier neighborhoods: people old enough to be grandparents. Yes, there are old people there. Finally, it's worth noting that there is a ton of green space, including not only Plötzensee and Volkspark Humboldthain but lots of other nooks, like the idyllic walking and biking trail running along the Panke and the swath that follows the Berlin-Spandauer Kanal.

All this makes a trip "to the edge of the world" worthwhile. Here's a list of Wedding bars and cafes to try while you're there.

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The British reputation as tea connoisseurs is overblown, and most locals are content to fuel up with daily mugs of builders brew drowned with milk and sugar. When Americans come to town, they tend to do the fancy tourist high-tea scenario -- which is more about the finger sandwiches than the tea. Nevertheless, a handful of boutique tea salons have popped up in recent years, determined to teach the British what a real cup of quality tea tastes like. At the following highbrow London venues, the discerning tea snob or the merely discerning can choose from hand-tied Chinese green or organic chamomile flowers come teatime. London's top specialty tea spaces range from the uber-chic to the cozy and casual, but all offer only the very best cuppa the world has to offer.

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Slate visited Chelsea's Cafe Grumpy to check out their $11,000 dollar coffee maker, the "Clover." The pricey machine is essentially an automatic French press with precision controls and a five figure price tag. Slate's correspondent says the Clover allowed him to discover the "possibilities of a coffee bean in a way I've never considered before." The jasmine and olive notes that they tasted in the Cafe Grumpy brew convinced them that the Clover's arrival in coffee shops may mark the beginning of an era in which "$10 and $15 cups of recherché coffee" become "increasingly common." Great, now getting my caffeine fix is going to get even more expensive. [Slate]

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What goes together better than food and drink? Why, food, drink, and literature! It seems appropriate that in Paris, some intelligent soul thought not only to sell coffee alongside the books, but booze and snacks. Perhaps it's a leftover legacy from the days when "literary café" referred to a place where existentialists and avant-garde writers hung out. Sadly, those dancing days are gone -- though the myth lives on in guidebooks propelling droves of tourists to Les Deux Magots and Brasserie Lipp (it is kind of -- but only just -- still OK to go to the Flore, where today's literary crowd tends to hide on the second floor and badboy author Frédéric Beigbeder awards an annual Prix de Flore to a French writer). But the literary-minded still need a low-key place to get a cup of joe, so here's the lowdown on some of today's bookish joints where you can read or buy a book with your brew.

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A happy hour drink in Berlin may now leave you with a baby hangover, as tiny Berliners flood smoke-free bars and restaurants in the city's more fertile neighborhoods. Already on January 2, sitting in a café with a pregnant friend, there was a notable number of babies stopping by, ordering lattés, and flirting with the waitresses. Most were hanging out with grinning fathers, who were happily drinking pilsner and playing patty cake. All in all, they looked as if 2008 and the cigarette ban in bars and restaurants had given them a new lease on life. Peace and goodwill reigned, as neighbors big and small tipped their glasses (and bottles) to one another.

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So Berlin's cafes have indeed succumbed to the judicial constraints sweeping the western world and extinguished that beautiful vice of seductive self-destruction, the cigarette. Despite the so-called grace period, which some cafes are clinging to like a telephone pole in a tornado, the majority of coffee shops here have actually embraced the ban, leaving most Berliners shocked and dismayed. But Berlin cafes have other redeeming qualities, like comfy armchairs and unique interiors, melodic background music, and, on rare occasion, charming staff, all of which can sooth even the most agitated nicotine addict. So in an attempt to see the bright side of this turn of events, here's a list of choice cafes in Kreuzberg, one of Berlin's more colorful kieze (neighborhoods), that are resurrecting Berlin's café culture like a phoenix from the ashtray.

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According to a recent survey of by the Sky Real Lives channel, Londoners are the most likely of all Brits to make New Year's resolutions (at 55%). And while more than 70% of this 2,000-person sample group determined their good intentions were all but pre-doomed, the thoroughly unsurprising Top 10 New Year's Resolutions included the desire to get more exercise, lose weight, save money, stop smoking, learn a new language, and get green. In the spirit of optimism and self-improvement, forthwith are some London resources to help you make good on your earnest path to betterment in 2008.

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A few months ago, I was promising to better explore the cafes of Tokyo's busy Shinjuku district, and I'm afraid I haven't been doing a very good job. Even though Shinjuku has the city's biggest station, and there's certainly no lack of shopping or eating options, I continually find myself gravitating to other parts of the city. But I haven't given up, and so a recent stop in the area brought me to a branch of the Cafe La Boheme chain of budget Italian eateries.

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Coffee is one of the four food groups among most of the types I hang out with, cocktails, free bar popcorn, and mini-meals from Trader Joe's being the other three. Sadly, there is a lot of bad coffee in this world, and some of it is even in San Francisco. To arm yourselves with a few places to go where you won' t be served sludge (unless you like it that way) I've compiled a list of coffee places that aren't Starbucks that will fill the need for your favorite morning fuel.

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Part of winter's charm is being able to step out from the cold and into a warm bistro-bar. Amidst the heartiness and understated chic, brooders and the bubbly alike can sit side by side and yield to their respective temperaments without qualms. Some bistros are so smattered with that special something, you want to return over and again. The ones we've selected are interchangeably cafés, restaurants, and snack bars. Each, however, is touched with that panache one looks for when visiting a European city. Should you decide to return to Berlin, I guarantee you'll want to keep these noted for their old-world draw.

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Animal lovers the world over find novel ways of dealing with their lonely urban pet-less existences. But residents of Tokyo may have found the best solution with cat cafes. These "cafes" are basically just big rooms filled with cats and kittens, air fresheners, comic books, and lonely cat lovers. Customers pay around $7 an hour to play with the animals and take their photos. Though I find this immensely creepy, I guess it's a pretty sweet deal both for the fat felines and their admirers. [via]

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Should I stop to consider the number of wasted minutes spent in Parisian cafés and bars waiting for bar staff to acknowledge both my existence and my drink order, I daresay I would come to one of three conclusions. Firstly, Harry Potter's invisibility cloak ain't got nothing on me. Secondly, at least 50 percent of Parisian bar staff suffer from such extreme long-sightedness that any person sitting within 100 feet of them is reduced to an unrecognizable blur. Or, thirdly, that the French government has launched a subversive plot to curb the nation's consumption of alcohol by installing secret service bar staff chosen for their extraordinary ability to remain staunchly ignorant of any and all attempts to attract their attention. Whatever. Following is a list of bars where the term serveur appears to have been lost in translation. Give 'em a wide berth.

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It's finally happening. Berlin is following in the footsteps of other metropoli -- albeit slowly. As the smoking ban looms, proprietors are gradually getting a head start, creating partially sectioned-off areas for nonsmokers. Others have gone the full mile and slapped the nonsmoking sticker on the door already. Before you know it, the yuppies will raid the city, and Berlin will be another East Village for young bankers. The following cafés are some personal favorites for a quick and yummy bite in clean-air settings. Only keep in mind that a smoke-free café is an open invitation for parents with toddlers.

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You don't have to have a degree in philosophy to get embroiled in a weighty conversation over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine with friends in a Parisian cafe, questioning the nature of life, love, and existence. And you always arrive at the same conclusions, and move uncomfortably on to a less substantial topic. But wouldn't it be great if you had a bunch of professional philosophers around to help you break out of your hermeneutic circle? Here is a roundup of some of Paris' more reputable cafés philo, along with some institutions which sponsor conferences, debates, and lectures to get those wheels turning.

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Recently, Buenos Aires municipal blog Pasa en Buenos Aires pointed to an article put out by the city's tourism board listing the BA's top 10 bars. Now, leaving aside the question of who could have paid who to get on a city-published top 10 list, it's a good roundup. These are not the top bars to get plastered at, not the best places to meet a member of the opposite (or same) sex. They are, instead, the best of the classics -- from the uberfamous but still beautiful Café Tortoni to the billiard salon Los 36 Billares to the underground cool of Bar 12 de Octubre. So what makes a Buenos Aires cafe unique?

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There are a stack of breakfast options hidden throughout Sydney's Potts Point, with something for every taste and budget. The most visible cafés line the wide Victoria Street that runs almost parallel to the Kings Cross strip, and weekend breakfasts are their bread and butter, so to speak. There are also some great breakfast haunts in the slightly more upmarket streets off this small suburb's main thoroughfare of Macleay Street. The vibe at these niche cafés is pumping on weekends when breakfast is usually served all day, but watch out for the surcharge that's lopped onto the end of the bill at most of these outlets on weekends and public holidays. It's usually 10% but can creep up to 15% with little upfront warning. Here are some of the more interesting options.

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Despite there being 249 Starbucks within 10 miles of downtown Washington, DC, independent coffee shops thrive in the capital. This is in large part because of the city's substantial population of two groups who subsist on a caffeine-fueled lifestyle of sitting around and bitching: liberals and Europeans. In addition to great coffee, most of DC's independent coffee shops offer free Wifi access, food selections that transcend muffins and pre-made sandwiches, and an environment without tourists in "You don't know me: I'm in the Federal Witness Protection Program" t-shirts. And some of these establishments sell booze too, so you can save your flask for when you really need it--like when you're on the Metro, sitting next to a family of seven from Des Moines arguing about where to go for dinner: the ESPN Zone, or Hard Rock Cafe.
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