Coffee: Business as Usual

with Daryl F. Mallett

The coffeehouses had a habit of metamorphosing into professional or business institutions. The coffeehouse became an ambiguous site for production and reproduction of civil society and of business professionals such as stockbroking, insurance, and banking, and for a brief time both discursive exchange networks overlapped in the same channels.

--P. Stallybrass & A. White, The Politics & Poetics of Transgression, 1986, p. 99-100.

The above statement reveals more about British business than we were really aware of. Many businesses, indeed, came out of the coffeehouse.

The English Stock Exchange started in one, having originally met at Jonathan's Coffee-House in "Change Alley," it moved to a room in Sweetings Alley, which subsequently became known as Stock Exchange Coffeehouse.

It was to Garraway's Coffee-House that the Sun Fire office, one of the earliest insurance companies, transferred to in 1711.

Lloyd's of London began as a coffeehouse for shipping owners and traders some time around 1688 and gradually moved into marine insurance over the next few decades.

The Phoenix Assurance Company was established following meetings at the Langbourne Ward Coffeehouse . And it is still going on today.

Avatar Travel Agency was started at See's Coffee House just this year. Watch the Riverside coffeehouses and see what else develops from them.

At See's Coffee House (located in the Canyon Crest Towne Centre here in Riverside), I ran into Riverside writers Harry W. Lawton and Arthur Loy Holcomb, and writer/actor Clint Zehner. Harry is working on a new poetry collection, and has over 80 pages written already (much of it done at See's). Art is busy with several projects (also mostly written at See's). Clint recently appeared in an episode of The Torkelsons and in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Kay Englehart's work is currently on display. She does very lifelike portrait art, which catches the eye with its photographic quality. She can be reached at 714/672-3442 for commissions.

Also, I apologize to Lydia See...it was not Colombian Antigua...it was Guatemalan Antigua. Whatever it is, it's delicious!

Another Riverside coffeehouse, Lorraine's, is located at 3787 7th Street (at Market). Normally they are open every day from 7 a.m. - 10 p.m. However, while their remodeling takes place, they will only be open every day from 7 a.m. - 3 p.m. They offer a wide variety of breakfasts, covering everything from Eggs Benedict to waffles to toast and bacon. During the Riverside Film Festival, they were open at 6 p.m. for dinner. Every other Thursday, the Riverside Storytellers Guild will appear at 8 p.m. for stories and fun. Check it out.

Also, for more coffeehouse history, see:

The English Alehouse: A Social History, 1200-1830, by P. Clark. London: Longman, 1983, which includes A Dissertation upon Drunkeness (originally 1727) reprinted in part.

If you're doing something at a coffeehouse and want to let me know, drop me a line c/o The Riverside Review Magazine, or catch me at See's.

(Originally published in The Riverside Review Magazine, Vol. 1:7, June 1992.)