9:30 on a Thursday. The cafe is still empty. Two people reading a book. No laptops in sight.

One of the baristas starts laughing out loud, Her collegue just made a joke about their adventure in the city from the day before. You can clearly hear them talking. Soft lofi music playing in the background, just hard enough to notice. At T’Koffieboontje there are no laptops. No screens at all. Just people talking to each other, reading a book or just enjoying their coffee.

Thirty minutes later the first regulars arrive. They order their coffee and sit down. The café was still empty but hey decided to sit next to me. I hear them talking about their gym session, that they walked 10,000 steps the day before. The ordinary conversation of a Thursday morning.

A few minutes pass, I look up and there is a line at the counter. People filled the café. All in pairs, all talking. As more people came in the volume started to rise. The music was not noticable anymore, conversations filled the room. The only other sounds were the occasional grinding of beans and steaming of milk. I felt surrounded by friends even though I came alone.

When everyone around you is talking to each other you start noticing different things, like a person reading a book on the hanging chair in the middle of the café. Fully focussed on the page she was reading, maybe she likes the sound of people talking while reading. Maybe this was why she came.

No laptops, no devices but people spending a real moment together. This is something more cafe’s should do.

Untill next week.

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