At the end of the 19th century, coffee attracted Kyiv residents with its exoticism — after all it's not their usual lovage, chamomile and mint, which they picked, dried and made tea of. And then someone brought coffee beans from afar, which need to be fried, ground in a coffee grinder, brewed and only then drunk. Also, coffee attracted citizens with a high price, because this is what turned it into a somewhat elite drink.

Interestingly, at one time, along with coffee shops and tea shops in the city, there were also dairy shops where Kyiv residents came to drink a glass of fresh milk. Such one existed opposite the Opera Theatre.

For Kyiv residents of the 19th century, coffee became not only a drink, but also an occasion for a meeting. Sitting down with a cup near the exchange, solving some questions, or inviting architect Gorodetsky for coffee to discuss the project of his new house — this drink set up a serious mood.

The period of coffee popularity and the heyday of coffee shops was very short, literally thirty years before the revolution. After the revolution, coffee consumption almost stopped, because the drink was attributed to bourgeois delights for a long time.

Now coffee is neither fancy, nor exotic and its price is affordable. Now it's like a nice way to wake up faster and get a boost of energy. Sometimes this drink becomes an occasion for a friendly or business meeting, sometimes it helps to restore strength after a hard shopping trip in the Prospekt shopping mall. And sometimes coffee is just a bittersweet palette of taste, which you want to enjoy both in the shopping mall, at work, and at home.

Source: https://projects.weekend.today/guides_in_prospekt