Coffee-House
a house of entertainment where persons are supplied with coffee and other refreshments. Formerly the chief resort of every class for purposes of conversation and information. It was the central meeting-place of politicians, literary men, etc. Constantinople is believed to have been the first European capital in which coffee-houses were instituted, the year of their establishment there being A. D. 1554. In 1650 the first one in England was opened in Oxford. They were suppressed by Charles II. in 1675, but were soon again allowed to be re-opened.