Andrew Vietze > Quotes

“Abroad here meant one sort of space in particular: the London coffeehouses, which were the very center of English social life and public information. By the eighteenth century, as many as five hundred coffeehouses were situated around London, mostly in areas inhabited by the wealthy and middle class. Coffee and the institution of coffeehouses were first brought home to England by merchants from Ottoman and Muslim Smyrna. These neighborhood cafes offered the sociability of the tavern without the intoxication.”
― Andrew Vietze, Boon Island: A True Story of Mutiny, Shipwreck, and Cannibalism