Singaporeans might dispute it but I believe it fair to observe that they don't have a café society.
They go out to socialize. They take food and drink together, but they don't gather to linger over a coffee and a small biscuit, chew the fat and watch the world turn. Or sit alone enjoying the coffee and simply being, for a while, in each moment.
Think of an image from a movie, a piazza in Italy, a bloke in linens and a fedora at a table set on flagstones, with or without umbrella, a few pigeons round a fountain in the background, a small expresso on the table....
Or a bench in front of a rural kafeneio in Greece, 2 people this time and backgammon, coffee and glasses of water....
Or even outside a café in Havant in the south of England; not posh, a woman with a tatty pram and a pooch of indeterminate breed and her friend with a wayward toddler, ash tray between them, two cappuccino (even though it is mid-afternoon) and a sticky cake (most of which is tacked around the toddler's face and T-shirt)... it doesn't look relaxing as they negotiate youthful demands and a dog that wants to follow strangers but it is their treat to themselves to meet here and chat over coffee.
There are cafes here, I don't dispute it. There are those big international chains with brand-names we all recognize - factories that churn out a million carbon copies of their image every hour: coffee in cardboard cups with their logo on the side. Cakes mass manufactured with an over processed texture and little flavour other than sugar.
There are local brands too. There are even attempts to reproduce the style of a European cafe. One such near my digs is styled on a French épicerie, café, and bistro. I found it while on a mission to seek out a leisurely Sunday morning coffee and croissant. (The croissant was optional - last week I settled for a banana prata with my Sunday coffee*.) This one had tables outdoors set in the shade of a high wall but with good natural light, plenty of greenery for a fresher feel, bistro tables, chairs with blue and white striped cushions; overall a really pleasant courtyard setting.
There ended any resemblance to a French café. In France you sit at an available table (here there were about 30 in different alcoves) and a waiter trots out to take your order. Here you try 4 doors before you find a way into the place, order and pay at a counter, carry your own coffee and plate to a table and "not outdoors please madam, those tables are being set for lunch".
"But it's only 10.45."
"If you are only having coffee you sit here" and a hand was waved at a bar table and tall stool set in a dark corridor between the barista's station and the staff entrance to a kitchen. It was an area where to save the cost of installing a ceiling they had painted matt black all the upper concrete, conduit, cable trays, and fire fighting and plumbing circuits in the vague hope that those passing through would be dissuaded from looking up into the dark recesses. The lighting was dim to non-existent. Honestly? It felt like being shut in the cleaner's cupboard - a customer who is an embarrassment to the establishment - and it was embarrassing too.**
Score for ambience? Minus 9. The milk coffee was acceptable but tiny (I like my French breakfast coffee in a bowl; one you can dip your toast in), and I have no idea where Angus would have put the croissant on his 1-10 score card but I would give it about a 7.
*The lovely 'asian' establishment where I enjoyed my banana prata (prata is a Malay word apparently - means thin) and mediocre coffee last week will be the establishment of choice for my 'Sunday morning repast and leisurely regard of the world' for the rest of my stay here. At least I got a real chair (where my feet reached the ground and my back had support), outdoors, in good light and with happy service, and no urgency to leave.
** And as a footnote to the 'French' café disaster, their table had a notice banning laptops at lunch time - as if there was anything else to contemplate in that corridor! I did however notice later in the day, as I passed one of those 'international' brand cafes, an extraordinarily large number of people alone occupying tables for 4 but engaged exclusively with their laptops. Table blocking?
I haven’t noticed any here (yet) but seemingly there are more and more cafes ‘banning’ laptops. Whenever we’ve seen S/bucks on our travels they have always had table hoggers - years ago it was people with books & paperwork all over the table. . nowadays as you saw it’s laptops. Free wifi is one of the drawcards - certainly not the ‘coffee’ - well for me that is
ReplyDeleteI guess it depends on the café and ones relationship with the owners/staff - something you would seldom have with the outlets of the big chains where 'takeaway' is their preferred option. Carry-out advertising.
DeleteSingapore is missing g a trick!
ReplyDeleteYam, Nobby and I made a contribution to café society in Dunoon on Friday. Sitting outside in Scotland. ln late October. And very enjoyable it was too.
Cheers, Gail.
Indeed the photos made me very jealous of the setting, the company - and the culture.
DeleteHow very annoying. A leisurely coffee is one my pleasures in life.. but most definitely NOT Starbucks weak dishwater.
ReplyDeleteLife is too short for indifferent coffee.
DeleteAs an Aussie in the Melbourne metro area, and of Greek decent. I cannot even imagine a world without a cafe culture.
ReplyDeleteI think I would just be totally flummox by the idea
Yes - I have been rather flummoxed by it. It is so crowded and all moves a bit too fast here.
DeleteWhat is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare. (or sit and stare - apologies to William Henry Davies)
I can imagine the dark thoughts one would have sitting in a broom cupboard. It's one way of speeding the clientele out of the establishment.
ReplyDeleteLets say not the ambience I had been looking for.
DeleteWetherspoons will sell you a cup of coffee or tea for one twenty five I 🤔 think? You can refill your cup for free. When at home I fill my cafetiere with real ground coffee and drink it black.
ReplyDeleteMan after my own heart. I make a litre of coffee every morning (at home or work) in an insulated cafetiere (freshly grind the beans by hand each day just to remind myself that coffee is a luxury and I should savour every part of the process) and work my way through a litre by lunch time. Drink it black and unsweetened. No coffee for the rest of the day.
DeleteI have never seen or had coffee in a cafe, like the ones you describe. In Florida there are way to many people, and you would melt into a puddle if sitting outside. some of the fancy expensive waterfront resturants have out door covered tables for rich folk only and no one would dare buy just a coffee.
ReplyDeletewe do have 2 breakfast resturants in downtown, with a few small tables on the side walk. there is a coffee shop like starbucks on every corner, but only to drive through and pickup with maybe 6 tables to sit at.
I liked what you saw and showed to us in Greece... here everyone is in high gear, parking their cars and running inside and poking phones. and the waiters are upset if people do not eat and get out because it cost them tips. when living with a million people in one small piece of the world, i am sure we are much like Singapore.
Sandra that's really interesting. I don't know why but I would have expected a more leisurely approach to life in a place with a climate like Florida. I am starting to think that aircon has changed humans. Once we would have been active at dawn and dusk and have retired from the heat in the middle of the day. Now, all around the world, cultures that understood these diurnal rhythms are abandoning them and powering through. Maybe one of the human responses to human created climate change could be to bring back the siesta - slow down, take a nap, back off the power drain in the middle of the day. There is a whole other discussion subject in there too about cities made for cars....distances, lack of footpaths, lack of cover (vegetation), lack of public seating...I must blog something I have read about Barcelona (another hot place).
DeleteYou've gotta have a good coffee, I simply don't go back to any cafes that serve rubbish coffees, worst one I've had so far is at Hokitika Airport.
ReplyDelete