Cambridge has one “double café” – that is, one café with stores in two neighborhoods. This is the 1369, special “third spaces” with character and sense of place. Regulars are greeted and newcomers are served hospitably, but it’s possible to feel like an observer, and there are several markers. If you take too long to choose a beverage you aren’t a regular; if you hover over an occupied table silently encouraging someone to leave before their accustomed two-hour visit is finished, you aren’t playing by local rules; if you aren’t recognized by anyone … it’s still a good place to spend time and a little money, understanding that you are a guest, not an habitué. 

Sometimes a café represents a neighborhood, and sometimes the neighborhood is created by its café. We pay special attention to location today as the cafés command their spaces.

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Inman Square has a strong sense of identity in its geography, where Cambridge, Hampshire and Beacon Streets come together and splay out, not at all a “square,” just as all local “squares” defy geometry. Inman’s strength of character is all the more notable as it has no subway stop. It does have history, another element of which, the S&S Deli, closes in June and is already being lamented. Among its many other memories are the old Inn-Square Men’s Bar (“Ladies Invited”!) that was a music venue like Ryles, where every sort of Latin dance music was played and is now a bank on Hampshire. There is still music at the Druid and the Lilypad. (Hot tip: On the first Wednesday of the month, Bert Seager’s Heart of Hearing quartet plays at 6:30 p.m. It’s the best hour of original jazz you’ll ever hear.)

Inman is also known for food of every flavor. There’s Olé for Mexican; Moona’s for Middle Eastern (now with another storefront on Main Street near Central Square); Punjabi Dhaba for Indian; and Trina’s Starlite Lounge for hot dogs and attitude. One need not (but does) regret the passing of East Coast Grill, now Bom Dough. There is a high-end menu at Oak Bistro and many small feeding stations. 

1369 Coffee House, Inman Square

We are here for the coffee. And that’s at 1369, the original, opened in 1993 at 1369 Cambridge St. Both sites use Square One Coffee from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And both, to my satisfaction, use medium roast for their house drip and offer an 8-ounce cup. (What is “small” in many places is 12 ounces, and I don’t know who can finish that before it gets cold, though maybe that doesn’t matter.) Beyond hot or cold, there are many ways to have your coffee at 1369, and I am dazzled by the syrups and add-ons available. Like many other cafés now, 1369 offers Vietnamese coffee, but I do not know if it is made from Vietnamese beans or dripped through the metal filter called a phin. There’s malted coffee and cold brew; there are espresso-based drinks for spring made on a La Marzocco espresso machine. The featured spring drinks have interesting syrups such as black sesame, maple, lavender and honey rose, though how those compute with coffee is beyond me. Milks include housemade oat and almond. Beyond beverages, 1369 offers an array of pastries. Popular last Sunday was the kouign-amman, though hummus and caprese plates and avocado toast with pickled red onion and everything-sprinkles had their fans. 

Not a regular, I notice those who are. Sunday midmorning I see couples and drowsy-eyed fathers with strollers and toddlers, likely giving the children’s mother a morning to sleep in. I see almost no phone or laptop use and notice the sign that says “no Wi-Fi on weekends,” a great and growing trend. This is a neighborhood haunt for walkers and some cyclists, not a destination for people coming by public transport or car. The local art on the wall is for sale. People don’t just leave, they say “’bye” as they walk out. 

1369 Coffee House, Central Square

Though 1369 is a double rather than a chain, the resemblance between the shops might make one look for equivalence. But their contexts make the difference, and what makes the contexts different are the people. 

Opened in 1994, a year after its parent store in Inman, the Central Square location is similar in décor and service, but while Inman Square resembles a village, Central is an urban hub – and the cafes “speak” their neighborhoods.

In terms of service alone, Central sells more takeout coffees than Inman. There is more foot traffic from people on the run for a cup to go. There are regulars of course, even “campers” – people who come and stay and stay, maybe using 1369 as a refuge from difficult lives. Murals here portray its Inman Square antecedent. This is a smaller place but there is ample outdoor seating for even more people-and traffic-watching as people come and go from the post office and City Hall. The latter offers a specialty clientele; municipal workers and city councillors who bring some of the intensity of local politics into the coffeehouse. Around 10:30 a.m. the coffee-breakers appear and are somewhat more “dressed” than those who come to spend much of their day here and those who come to work in the café rather than escape work. 

Some writers have opined that the arrival of coffeehouses signals the gentrification of a neighborhood, but I’d suggest that the amenities offered in our two 1369s are not luxuries, nor does sipping coffee there represent upward mobility. Rather, the shops offer comfort and reliability for everyone as gathering places, places to pass time between events, places for being “private in public” and even, as I witnessed, for a job interview, a place of future possibilities. And the coffee’s good.

1369 Coffee House, 1369 Cambridge St., Inman Square, and 757 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square, Cambridge. (7 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays)

Corky White, a food anthropologist at Boston University, has lived in Cambridge since 1953 with long sojourns in Japan. She has written articles on coffee for Standart Magazine and books including “Cooking for Crowds” (in its 40th Anniversary edition) “Coffee Life in Japan” and, with her son, Ben Wurgaft, “Ways of Eating.” Corky is grounded in coffee and welcomes suggestions at cwhite@csindie.com.

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Corky White

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