Bohemia Revealed

No place has meant more to the bohemian lifestyle than the cafes in Vienna during he latter part of the 19th century. It might be a shocking revelation to a lot of folks that Starbucks neither invented the café or the coffee. They did invent the American coffee shop (i.e. very different from the idea of the European coffee shop in Amsterdam or the small cafe) and they did do invent the Café Latte (Milk Coffee?) – 90% milk and 5% coffee and 5% foam. I rest my case.

But Vienna created the meeting places for intellectuals, politicians and writers to have their daily dose of espresso and discuss the worldly affairs. These cafes were the first urban hangouts and created what we call the bohemian class / lifestyle.

I grew up – starting in High School – in cafes sipping Café au Lait (which means coffee with milk, not milk with coffee). From there on most of us – dreamers, writers and pre-intellectuals (i.e. pre-college) – headed south in Europe and spent the summers in France and Italy, doing very much the same: sipping Noisettes (France), Macciatos (Italy) and Cortados (Spain). All meaning an espresso with a sip of warm milk. Not only milk, just a sip.

Then San Francisco happened. Internet, bohemia and cafes all wrapped up in one tasty taco. I’d come to Ginsberg country, to where being on the road was the preferred lifestyle and where the counter culture had had it’s birthplace. But that might be getting ahead of time, since the beat generation moved from lower Manhattan to North Beach.

Bohemia is everyone’s real dream of a lifestyle that often ends up being Suburbia. Unfortunately they have nothing in common as it’s being lived but that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. Bohemia is about literature, art, open-mindedness, heart, passion, late night dinners and that has never – even though perceived – being a threat to the Suburbian lifestyle. We’ll, you might wanna ditch that Mini-Van.