A real, intrinsic social need is being met in Philly's coffee houses. Some people doubt the sincerity of their patrons and assume all cafe go-ers are posing and posturing as the new elite class of coffee drinker. Sure, folks are talking about art and movies, reading Dostoyevsky or maybe Burroughs, reciting poetry and strumming on guitars in front of a nice, frothy cappuccino. These very people probably do the same things in their apartments and homes, the difference now is that they are meeting up at a more visible locale. So I'm going to a coffee house, it's going to be cool.
Some people think it's so exotic.
Perhaps it's the same mystique that once made rulers and religious leaders try to ban coffee's consumption. Only these days it's the strange new brews like espresso, cappuccino, latte and mocha that have people in a quandary. Heck, in the North Beach section of San Francisco the beverages in a cafe make up an entire blackboard, with foreign monikers like moccachino, macchiato, doppio espresso, cioccolata con panna, turkish cafe, cioccolata l'amour, and the list, il continue. It's a misconception to assume all coffee house habituees are of one variety. Sure, there are people with goatees that sit there wearing reading glasses, but that doesn't make them anything but themselves.