Terms of Use

These are the terms for using this site. They are meant to be readable, not to be a wall of capital letters. Effective 25 July 2026.

What this site is

CoffeeHouses.org is a directory of third places — coffee houses and the cafés, libraries, pubs, bakeries and other spots around them — with reviews written between 2014 and 2018. It is published for interest and information. It is not a booking service, it is not a business listing you can buy your way into, and nothing here is professional advice.

The reviews are opinions, and they are old

Every review records one person's experience on one visit, at the time it was written. Cafés change hands, change hours, move and close. Prices, menus, Wi-Fi, opening times and the contact details quoted in a review were accurate to the writer on the day and may be wrong today.

Check with the place itself before you travel. Treat what you read here as a starting point, not a current fact.

Using this site

You are welcome to browse, link to any page, and quote a short passage with credit and a link back. Please do not:

• republish whole reviews, or copy the directory in bulk, without asking first;
• pass the writing off as your own, or strip the author credit from it;
• hammer the site with automated requests fast enough to degrade it for other people;
• use anything here to harass a business or a person, or to imply that a place endorses you or this site.

There are no accounts to create and nothing to sign up for, so there is nothing you can lose access to — but if any of the above happens at scale, blocking the traffic is the remedy.

Who owns what

The site itself — its selection and arrangement of places, its design and its code — is © 2014–2026 Brian Greenberg.

Each review belongs to the person credited on it. Rebeca Barroso wrote a large share of the reviews here, and those are hers; the site publishes them with her name on them and does not claim them. That means nobody — including this site — can give you permission to reuse another writer's review. If you want to republish something, ask first through the contact form at briangreenberg.net and say which entry you mean, and the request will go to whoever actually holds the rights.

Photographs belong to whoever took them, credited the same way.

Map data is © OpenStreetMap contributors and is used under the Open Database Licence. That is their work, not ours, and their terms govern it.

Other people's sites and details

Some entries link to a café's own website or quote the contact details it published at the time. Those businesses are not connected to this site, a link is not an endorsement, and what happens on someone else's website is governed by their terms and their privacy policy, not ours.

If you are a business listed here and something is wrong — or you would rather not be listed at all — get in touch and it will be corrected or removed.

No warranty

This site is provided as it is. There is no promise that it will be available, that a page will load, that a place still exists, or that any detail on it is accurate or current. Use it at your own risk, and use your own judgement about where you go.

Limits of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, Brian Greenberg is not liable for any loss, injury, or expense arising out of your use of this site or of anything you relied on here — including a wasted trip to a café that has closed. This does not limit any liability that cannot be limited by law.

Privacy

What this site collects, and what it does not, is set out on the privacy page. In short: almost nothing, and your location never leaves your device.

Changes, law, and getting in touch

These terms may change; if they do, the new version is posted here with a new effective date, and continuing to use the site means the current version applies. They are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules.

Questions go through the contact form at briangreenberg.net.