A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (French: [kafe] ), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee drinks like espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, and other beverages. An espresso bar is a type of coffeehouse that specializes in serving espresso and espresso-based drinks. Some coffeehouses may serve iced coffee among other cold beverages, such as iced tea, as well as other non-caffeinated beverages. A coffeehouse may also serve food, such as light snacks, sandwiches, muffins, cakes, breads, pastries or donuts. Many doughnut shops in Canada and the U.S. serve coffee as an accompaniment to doughnuts, so these can be also classified as coffee shops, although doughnut shop tends to be more casual and serve lower-end fare which also facilitates take-out and drive-through which is popular in those countries, compared to a coffee shop or cafe which provides more gourmet pastries and beverages. In continental Europe, some cafés even serve alcoholic beverages, and it is popular in West Asia to offer a flavored tobacco smoked through a hookah, called shisha in most varieties of Arabic or nargile in Levantine Arabic, Greek, and Turkish.
While café may refer to a coffeehouse, the term "café" can also refer to a diner, British café (also colloquially called a "caff"), "greasy spoon" (a small and inexpensive restaurant), transport café, teahouse or tea room, or other casual eating and drinking place. A coffeehouse may share some of the same characteristics of a bar or restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria (a canteen-type restaurant without table service). Coffeehouses range from owner-operated small businesses to large multinational corporations. Some coffeehouse chains operate on a franchise business model, with numerous branches across various countries around the world.
