Is Starbucks a café or coffee shop?
Dunkin’, for instance, would be defined as a coffee shop, while Starbucks, with its venti lattes, would be labeled a café. While some people use the two terms interchangeably, depending on who you ask or where you are in the world, you may find that cafés and coffee shops refer to two different things. A coffeehouse may share some of the same characteristics of a bar or restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria (a canteen-type restaurant without table service). Coffeehouses range from owner-operated small businesses to large multinational corporations.The english term café, borrowed from the french, derives ultimately from the turkish kahve, meaning coffee.