Two or three points: What is a coffee house? The concept has blurred with, for instance, bookstores selling fancy coffees (including chains such as Borders). How has coffee house sociability changed? I have in mind, for example, working with laptops at coffee houses and often Internet access too. My underlying question: why the choice of place for coffee or whatever? On Mar 9, 2005, at 6:28 PM, bruce erickson wrote: > Re: Tim Horton's > > Does it detract from the Canadian chic that Tim > Horton's is now in Michigan (at least)? > > On a slightly more serious note, it seems to me that > the upscale coffee shop chain model followed the > beginning of the flavorful coffee boom, which began in > the Pacific Northwest in the late 1970s. Small and > somewhat Bohemian-style coffee shops started using > freshly roasted beans to make strong coffee, espresso, > etc. As they began to spread, it was only natural that > capitalism American style would develop, and from that > came small regional-chains (Allann Bros. and many > more). Starbucks, et al followed. > > It strikes me as I remember this that the > proliferation of micro-brewery beers started, or > restarted, around the same time in the same region. > And now many of them have grown and there are > mid-sized breweries that brew the recipes for several > labels. In a sense, history almost repeats itself on > this one. > > Forgive my rambling, obviously closer to coffee time > than beer time. > > Bruce A. Erickson > Le Moyne College > > > > > __________________________________ > Celebrate Yahoo!'s 10th Birthday! > Yahoo! Netrospective: 100 Moments of the Web > http://birthday.yahoo.com/netrospective/ >