Coffee With The People Dates and Times
- 02/06/26 Reunion Coffeehouse noon-1
- 02/20/26 Greyhond Grounds noon-1
- 03/06/26 Reunion Coffeehouse noon-1
Join us for Coffee with Candidate Scanlon at one of several Community Uplift Partnership (CUP) locations usually on alternating Fridays.
Learn more about CUP via the link below.
Coffee With The People is always a good thing!
Many important decisions have been made over coffee or tea such as:
Political Movements:
The Boston Tea Party protest against British tea taxes helped popularize coffee as a “patriotic” drink in the American colonies. Taverns and coffeehouses like the Green Dragon Tavern, nicknamed the “Headquarters of the Revolution” hosted meetings of the Sons of Liberty.
In Paris, cafés such as the Café de Foy and Café Procope, were centers of republican agitation and intellectual discussion during the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Thinkers like Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot gathered to discuss and finetune their philosophies.
Business and Finance:
The London Stock Exchange and Lloyd’s of London insurance market both originated from discussions held in 18th-century London coffeehouses. Jonathan’s Coffee House and Lloyd’s Coffee House were places where merchants and stockbrokers met to trade and conduct business.
More recently, early conversations that led to the global brand of Starbucks took place in coffee shops, inspired by the Italian coffeehouse concept.
Many modern venture seed rounds and business deals are informally initiated and refined during meetings over coffee.
Creative and Cultural Work:
Creative and Cultural Work:Coffeehouses have also served as incubators of creativity. The early concepts for the Harry Potter series and the photo-sharing app Instagram were reputedly developed and refined in coffee shops.
Famous writers and artists, including Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, and T.S. Eliot, used cafés as places to work, argue and create.
International Agreements and Policies:
The International Coffee Agreement (ICA) is a formal, international commodity agreement aimed at stabilizing coffee prices and ensuring sustainable production, which has been renewed and amended multiple times since its inception in 1962.
Earlier in the 16th century, religious jurists in Mecca once decided that coffee was forbidden due to its association with informal, potentially dissident social gatherings. This ban was quickly overturned by higher authorities.
To summarize:
To say something was “decided over coffee” highlights the role of the coffeehouse environment as a unique, informal setting conducive to groundbreaking ideas, social connection, and significant decisions across history and modern life.