Chapter 4: The Enlightenment Café - Brewing Revolution

The 18th century transformed cafés from novelty establishments into "schools of democracy." As literacy rates rose and newspapers proliferated, cafés became reading rooms where citizens could access information and debate ideas. The price of entry—a cup of coffee—was far more democratic than the aristocratic salons.

Café Procope emerged as the epicenter of Enlightenment thought. Voltaire allegedly consumed forty cups of chocolate-coffee mixture daily at his favorite table. Diderot and d'Alembert planned their Encyclopédie over coffee. Benjamin Franklin held court there during his diplomatic missions. The café's mirrors didn't just reflect light; they reflected the age's revolutionary ideas.

By the 1780s, Paris boasted over 600 cafés, each with its own political flavor. The Café de Foy in the Palais-Royal gardens became a hotbed of revolutionary activity. It was here on July 12, 1789, that Camille Desmoulins jumped onto a table and called citizens to arms, leading to the storming of the Bastille two days later. Coffee, that sobering beverage, had helped intoxicate France with revolutionary fervor.