Original Hub Coffee Shop

My fascination with coffee began with the farmers and has grown to include many other facets, including the cultural geography of the coffee shop. As this obsession has become well known, friends and colleagues have shared with me an amazing array of findings and recommendations, including this review of Jane Kamensky's book about Boston's original Exchange Coffee Shop, which was part of a then-enormous structure that dominated downtown from 1809 until a 1818 fire. As always, the story is about far more than coffee itself. In this case, the shaky financing of the building itself led to the nation's first banking collapse. PhiloBiblos offers more insight in its review of the same book.