"Damn coffee! Damn colonies!"
-Napoleon Bonaparte, 1803

Cafe Tableaux is a compendium of literary, anecdotal musings on coffee shop and cafe culture. At first glance, the tableaux may resemble reviews, but they are not bound by the limits of this form. Cafe Tableaux is a repository of subjective observations that can not be represented by a star rating or a shopping list of items on a menu or prices.

Cafe Tableaux is an open community; anyone may join and contribute a vignette. Cafe Tableaux is for writers - and readers - who see value in the cafe experience beyond the flavour of the coffee or the ease of parking.


Mark’s Cafe

poured in: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Mark's Cafe

Located in the basement of Penn’s library, Mark’s Cafe beckons like a seductive footnote. For years I have sought such a marriage—cafe and library—the way the mythologized, Arthurian knight sought the metaphorical Grail. I have long meditated upon the harmony of these fantasied scenes: sipping a dark, earthy brew while scrolling through a reel of microfilm; or, pausing after the fifteenth photocopied page, in order to request a refill from the carefully coiffed, demure barista, whose nose, as well, is too often buried in a book.

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