Anyone who has known me within the last, say 6 years, probably knows that I am an avid coffee drinker. My first year in college I started on iced, blended mochas, but soon enough they weren't enough and I developed a taste for the pure stuff, and haven't looked back. I'm not much of an espresso person these days, but I really love a nice filter coffee. Fortunately for me this is something of a specialty in the bay area, and so when I'm at home I have the choice of many cafés where friendly baristas will happily enable my addiction.
After the crummy day out that I wrote about in my last entry, I decided to spend a day in to get some work done, which I did. It was good to get some things done, but it left me a little bit stir crazy, even though I'm still feeling a little like I want a break from doing the tourist thing. Then it occurred to me that I should find an interesting café where I could work, soak in a little Paris ambiance, and cure a little bit of homesickness. So far my only coffee here has been the espressos in the cute little cups which are the standard offering... it's what you get here if you ask for a coffee. Brewed coffee is not popular in Europe, hence the creation of the "Americano" mix of espresso and water for the American GI's stationed in Europe for WWII who wanted something more like what they drank at home. I often asked (rather self-consciously) for an Americano while I stayed in England, where most places offered a standard range of espresso drinks, but here it seems like most cafés just offer the little cup of espresso, and don't offer other drinks like cappuccinos and so on, or if they do, they're prohibitively expensive.
Paris cafés of course have a long, storied history. Interestingly, coffee houses in Europe started out as culturally central gathering places where people (actually just men; women were barred) debated issues and shared news. Legend has it that Voltaire drank huge amounts of coffee and wrote much of his work in coffee houses. Initially, I was thinking that I would just find a famous café, where I expected to purchase the standard cup of coffee, and pay a little bit more for the knowledge that I was sitting at the very same café where Sartre or someone else notable frequently spend time. However, a little bit of time doing internet research yielded an article about attempts to revive the Paris coffee scene, which is perceived as not being very good, and a list of new cafés which are trying to provide a better product. A lot of these places looked like they'd be a bit more like what I'm used to at home, so I was curious to go.
So, this morning I headed out to the Café Coutume down in the 7e arrondissement, which was established within the last year and has lots of types of coffee on offer, including coffee from their cold brew set up, like the one that Blue Bottle has. I ordered a coffee and then stayed long enough to have a nice lunch, followed by another cup of coffee. It was a really nice time. The staff were friendly, and judging by the conversations I was hearing, the place seems to draw a lot of English speakers. I'm not sure if this is because of the place specifically or the neighborhood, which was quite highbrow and seemed to have a steady stream of wealthy tourists coming through. I wouldn't be surprised if I go back to this café, now that I've had their coffee, which I would say was on par with the better coffee I've had around the bay area. Plus I haven't yet tried any of their baked goods, which looked tasty and interesting, including a carrot cake spiced with cumin.
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