The oldest cafe' in the world
Bistro/Restaurant/Cafe
France-Paris- (Established 1686)
In 1686 a gentleman from Palermo, Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, opened a coffee-shop in Paris.
For more than two centuries everyone who was anyone (or who hoped to become someone) in the worlds of the arts, letters and politics, frequented the CAFE PROCOPE. Voltaire came here, and Rousseau; Beaumarchais, Balzac, Verlaine and Hugo; from La Fontaine to Anatole France the list of the habitues of the PROCOPE is a list of the great names in French literature. It was here in the 18th century that the new liberal philosophy was expounded; this was the cafe of Encyclopedistes, of Diderot, Voltaire, d'Alembert and Benjamin Franklin; the history of the PROCOPE is closely linked with eighteenth century revolutionary ideas. Robespierre, Danton and Marat used the cafe as a meeting place, and the young lieutenant Napoleon Bonaparte left his hat here as a pledge.
Antico Caffè Greco
Rome
Since 1760, this has been Rome's poshest coffee bar. Stendhal, Goethe, Keats, and D'Annunzio have sipped coffee here. Today you're more likely to see ladies who lunch and Japanese tourists, but there's plenty of atmosphere. In front is a wooden bar, and beyond is a series of small salons. You sit at marble-topped tables of Napoleonic design, against a backdrop of gold or red damask, romantic paintings, and antique mirrors. It was Giorgio de Chirico who suggested that this is the cafe where you sit and await the end.
HammarsKonditori
oldest standing cafe in Sweden
Just beyond the brick church. Try the Princess cakes, with the pink or green coloured marzipan.
Probably my most memorable hot chocolate
Café Commercial
Madrid
A Madrid institution that's seen it all since before the Civil War. On a bustling intersection in the business district it's ideal for a lunch or post- work rendezvous. Inside is all heavy wooden tables and leather-lined seats while the walls are mirrors that reflect the clientele: office workers and artists, artisans and intellectuals, the young and the old. Alcohol is straight up beers and spirits but why not prepare for a night on the town with a shot of Pacharan - a fruity Spanish liqueur. Salud!
The old Cafe'
(Romania)
The centuries of Ottoman domination influenced lifestyle, habits or cloths in the former Romanian Countries. Turkish gastronomy also left its mark on modern Romania. The names of several beverages and cuisine products are still of Turkish origin (e.g.: sarmale, ciulama, pilaf, baclava, sarailie, cataif). Coffee makes no exception in this respect. Coffeehouse (cafenea, cahvenea) comes from the Turkish kahvehane, kávé-hané, i.e. a public local where people drank coffee, prepared according to Turkish fashion, played dice, backgammon, or ghiordum (a card game) or smoked tobacco, all at a relatively small price. Though highly popular amongst Romanians, most coffee houses were owned prior to World War II by Turks, Greeks, Jews or Armenians.
The first known coffee shop in Bucharest was founded in 1667, during the reign of ruling prince Radu Leon (1664-1669). A former Janissary from the Ottoman imperial guard, a certain Kara Hamie, was its first owner. The coffee shop was located in downtown Bucharest, near the later Şerban Vodă Inn (replaced in the early 1880s by the Palace of the National Bank). In 1781, ruling prince Alexandru Ipsilanti gave permission to Ştefan Altîntop (baş-alai ceuş) to build a coffee shop, "for him and his family", near the upper gate of the princely palace (Curtea Domnească). The costs of this act of princely goodwill were limited to a rent of 10 Thalers a year. A decade later the ruler allowed the same businessman "to build in Bucharest three cahvenele with tahmisul (another Turkish word, meaning a place where the coffee is grind and roasted), free of the taxes paid by the other similar shops".
On the north side of St. Anthony Market on the corner of Covaci Street, is located the Old Café (Romanian: Cafeneaua Veche or Cafeneaua Domnească), another remarkable building of Bucharest - the coffeehouse build by Ştefan Altîntop in 1781. The coffee shop changed the owner in 1812, then in 1825. The coffeehouse has a very picturesque look: the white color of the walls is emphasized by the dark-colored roof and window-blinds. Under the cornice, a number of sober niches decorate the top of the facades, in contrast with the sophistication reliefs with portraits in the Renaissance style, placed between window archways. Doors, also signed with the arches in a semicircle, complete the picturesque ensemble. The interiors preserve some vaulted ceilings.
Today, the Old Café is called Monaco Lounge Café and was transformed into a restaurant with Mediterranean cuisine and at the basement a lounge with live blues concerts, jazz concerts, and original thematic parties...