Nearly every place, from Venice's Piazza San Marco to L.A.'s Venice Beach, has a cafe where tourists go to talk, rest, look at their maps and drink coffee. The elixir knows no borders, which partly explains the special relationship between the cafe and the traveler.
Coffee is a natural for travelers, energizing and uplifting after too many flights of steps and museums full of Old Masters. It can be warming or cooling, depending on whether it's hot or iced. It makes some people loquacious, which encourages travelers and locals to socialize when they meet in cafes. Others turn ruminative under its influence, pondering the wonders of the wider world.
"Cafes are the best places in the world to be alone in company. Strangers can either people-watch or get involved in a conversation," says Stewart Allen, author of "The Devil's Cup: Coffee, the Driving Force in History" (Soho Press, 1999).
Coffee drinking and the rituals one can observe in coffeehouses reflect much about culture and lifestyle. Turks like it thick and sugary. Italians drink espresso standing up. The English used to live in coffeehouses, until they discovered tea. Americans come from the land of the bottomless cup.
Thus a good cafe serves more than good coffee, says Sherri Johns, a Portland-based coffee consultant. "It should represent the place where it's located," she says. "I want the exact opposite of Starbucks." She prefers cafes with strong character, such as San Francisco Coffee in Kuala Lumpur, where the people-watching never grows dull, and the Pierre Loti Cafe, perched above the Bosporus in Istanbul, with spectacular views and memorable Turkish coffee.
Still, Johns says that people all over the world "associate coffee with comfort and familiarity," which can make Starbucks an attractive option in even the most far-flung places. Though I tend to avoid Starbucks when I travel, I can see the appeal. After all, it is reliable and everywhere. The coffee company that started in 1971 with a shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market now has 1,100 stores in such countries as Kuwait, South Korea, Indonesia and Switzerland. The company says there will be Starbucks coffee shops in Greece by the end of the year.
But Mark Pendergrast, the author of "Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World" (Basic Books, 1999), doesn't think travelers will be lingering any time soon over Starbucks coffee beverages in Italy, the bastion of espresso.
