When Cafe culture meets Mindfulness. A take on the sacred sub-culture of cafes, and their promising future as sanctuaries from our digital lives.
"Trade cell connection for human connection." –Temple Cafe
Picture you are a future anthropologist, time-traveled to a present-day city. It is a Sunday. People slowly wake from sleep and start what they hope will be a refreshing, sunny day. Some put on dress clothes and head to church, or another service. Some drive out to the country for the day. Yet, walking down the street, you hear another chatter amongst the bells. It comes from two cafes, right across from each other, both brimming full. People mill in and out, talking, eating, working, sipping and sighing. These are the cafe-goers. And in all likelihood, those coming out of the church down the street will join them soon too.
The cafe today has become more than a place to work, talk and drink coffee, as we might casually say. It serves, rather, as a new semi-sacred communal ground, a place to refresh oneself from the rest of your life, to get mental space or see an old friend. The cafe has quietly become a temple--a secular alternative to the religious centers or ceremonial meeting grounds of a tribe. Gourmet coffee is the new sacrament of the internet workplace. However, cafes still may have ways to go to fulfill their ceremonious potential. The anthropologist visiting us from the future would say, they have not yet become altogether self-aware of this special function they serve.
The Pitch
What’s missing from the cafe scene today?
Scientific technology tends to outpace social technology. Our age of the internet and rapid technological acceleration is a frenzied one. I believe we crave, on a deep level, new social structures, customs and spaces to help us adapt to this onslaught of change. The marketplace seems to favor the creation of mechanical technologies over social ones, perhaps because of our individualistic cultural values. In any case, with business and digital addictions continuing to rise, the time is ripe to step back and build "social-techs" that help us find a new sense of calm and connection.
What is already there serving this function? The cafe has become like a sought out haven for people to get out of the office or house, yet most cafes don't go far enough to create a restorative environment, which is one of the key services they subliminally provide. There is a missing niche here.
Inspired by the regeneration offered by meditation and yoga, and the power of connecting over a cup of coffee, Temple Cafe will offer a tech and internet-free space for people to read, write and intimately connect, to have their tea or coffee, some healthy food, and relax, reset and contemplate, complete with a meditation and prayer room.
To-Go Cups were the Final Straw
This idea first came while listening to an Oprah conversation with the former CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz. Schultz was telling Oprah how his central vision for Starbucks, what started it all, was to create a place between work and home where people could come to get things done or just chat and enjoy some coffee, much on the model of the thriving cafe life he witnessed in Italy.
This sounded great... but something was off about it when thinking about the typical experience at a Starbucks. What rubbed me wrong to start, was the simple fact that if you go to Starbucks, at most locations, it is nearly impossible to get a mug or "for-here cup." For a place whose vision is to create a space between work and home, they make it awful easy to get up and go, (and waste another cup). Starbucks, it seems, has made the idea of the to-go cup so salient that we are happy to take it even if we plan to be there for several hours.
"A cafe where you have to check your phone like you would a jacket at a concert."
I kept thinking how nice a cafe it would be that has the model to first default offer you a for-here model, unless you specifically ask for or need a to-go cup. Environmental concerns aside (which are big, when you are churning out to-go cups for customers who are drinking their coffee in front of you), there is something much more comforting, aesthetically pleasing and warming to being served a big hot mug of coffee, making you feel welcome and at home. A For Here Cafe.
The idea grew from this seed. What can we do to make a cafe as nurturing, calm and restorative as possible? The list built itself: For Here Cups, a yoga / meditation / prayer room, a fire place, bookshelves / library, plants, more plants, bamboo wood lining, a trickling small fountain, and no laptops, no wifi. Wait what?
Temple could become a total wellness center, connected to a Yoga studio and alternative medicine treatment rooms and offices: a health education center and community hub.
Atmosphere
Let's imagine for a second a cafe where you could check your phone like you would a jacket at a concert. A little cubby of lock boxes with locks provided. At a concert, you take off your jacket to cool down inside. Similarly at Temple Cafe, you would check your phone at the door to cool down your psyche from the overstimulation it has become so used to.
Laptops will also need to stay closed in Temple Cafe. This one is harder because of the popularity, usefulness and ubiquity of cafe laptop culture. However, there are many cafes where you can go with your laptop, let's give you one where you go to cool down when it (or you) overheats. Temple will enlarge the cafe ecosystem, create a new slice of the pie. It will provide the perfect space for an intimate interview, a meeting of friends, a place to reflect, a place to focus on your health. Notebooks, sketch pad and books encouraged. The zen Cafe, the unplugged Cafe:
TEMPLE CAFE.
-A mini phone locker by the entrance for guests to safely put their phones
-Healthy Food (mostly vegetarian, sandwiches, soups and light fare)
-Organic coffee and tea options
-Books and a library of inspiring books
-Plants and potentially a back patio garden
-Yoga and Meditation Classes
-Open Meditation / Prayer / Yoga Room
Temple will host events, classes and book groups in the evenings. A full Temple Cafe will require some space, but in a smaller retail space the same ethos and principles would hold it together as well.
Business & Membership
Don't you know everyone goes to a cafe with their laptop, expecting wifi?! Yes, but not when they are going to yoga class. We will pivot between these two markets, attracting customers who enjoy the meeting and working space of a cafe, and who also crave the nourishing holistic elements of the yoga center. We aim to become an integrative community staple and eventually perhaps a chain of communities and centers, always with a focus to provide a relaxing environment where people will feel peaceful.
Different from most cafes , Temple will offer memberships as well as walk-in customers. Members will have access to yoga and meditation classes, and evening events, book clubs, and lifestyle workshops. Members will become a part of a powerful new creative community for change.
Membership:
-Yoga, Meditation, Tai Chi, and Nutrition courses (Pricing by class, by month, or in packages)
-Monthly membership events (Free to Members, Small fee for other guests)
-Free coffee, food and special member gatherings
Interested?
We believe the internet and smartphone are amazing tools, but not all the time. We also believe we need and deserve to give ourselves structure and space away from them and that there is a growing community of people who agree. Please contact us if this resonates, or if you are interested to get involved in this movement.
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