https://freerepublic.com/tag/coffeehouses/ en-us Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:08:34 GMT Focus Forum 15 https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2576663/posts If you think that your favorite coffee shop is a great gathering place for discussion, you should have been around in the Ottoman Empire starting in the 1550s. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research examines the role of coffee houses in the evolution of the consumer. Authors Eminegül Karababa (University of Exeter, Exeter, UK) and Güliz Ger (Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey) dug wide and deep into the history of coffeehouses in the early modern Ottoman Empire and found they offered their patrons a lot more than coffee. They found that patrons engaged in gambling, taking drugs, meeting... University of Chicago Press Journals https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2576663/posts#comment Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:08:34 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2566870/posts Reporting from San Francisco — Housed in an old San Francisco warehouse, Four Barrel Coffee — with its vintage record player, 53-year-old coffee roasting machine, tables hewn from recycled wood and wall of mounted boar heads — calls one of the world's most wired cities home. But don't expect to get an Internet connection there. Coffee connoisseurs hooked on this roaster's beans won't find a working signal — or even a power outlet. The uninitiated often try to plug into a fake one that owner Jeremy Tooker spray painted on the wall as a gag. "There are lots of marks... Los Angeles Times / latimes.com https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2566870/posts#comment Sun, 8 Aug 2010 18:06:46 GMT https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1989349/posts In a San Diego County class-action lawsuit, a judge ordered the coffee giant to pay back tips, with interest, that the company had handed over to shift supervisors. Some baristas (coffee servers) could receive more than $10,000, according to their attorney. The ruling was met with cheers by California baristas. "I'm stoked," said Leekeisha Smith, who makes coffee drinks in the Starbucks at Sunset Boulevard and La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles. "Wow. I'm just shocked that we'll get that [money] back." Smith, 23, said she found out about the lawsuit from a letter sent to employees. Starbucks Corp. said... LA Times https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1989349/posts#comment Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:49:28 GMT