Where Baton Rouge blends

The coffee shop offers living proof that, deep down in its red-stick soul, Baton Rouge craves community. There's no judgment about who else is in the room—it's just caffeine, frappes and conversation.

Why it matters: In a parish riddled with divides and increasing isolation, what's brewing in Baton Rouge's coffee shops is something like our own black-and-white cookie moment.

History lesson: It wasn't always this way. There was a time Coffee Call, of café au lait and beignet fingers fame, ruled exclusively supreme.

• CC's Coffee House tried to bring the daily coffeehouse habit to Baton Rouge in the mid-90s, chasing the same wave Starbucks was riding nationally. The city wasn't ready yet. CC's retreated, then came back stronger.

What changed: Coffee shops have become the new corner pharmacy—they are everywhere. A host of factors altered the way we live, work and play.

• Remote work remains a post-pandemic option for many.
• The after-work happy hour faded.
• The malls and youth hangouts that once gave teenagers and twentysomethings somewhere cheap to kill an afternoon have mostly closed or faded.
• And more of us don't know our neighbors the way we used to.

The coffee shop has stepped forward to absorb what's been lost—a place to be around people without needing a reason.

Speaking of 'Friends': Coffee shops aren't the only third place trying to hold Baton Rouge together.

• EBR libraries have leaned hard into community programming, becoming gathering spots well beyond the quiet reading room stereotype.
• Though the golf course steals the spotlight, the City-Brooks Park debate that truly matters is about a community gathering space and what Baton Rouge thinks it should look like.

The network: CC's, born and raised in Baton Rouge, lacks the cachet of the vast network of local neighborhood haunts, but it's that old friend who's always there when you need it, ready to serve that super grande Earl Grey.

• City Roots in Mid City, ironically backed by Matt Saurage, head of CC's.
• French Truck, Magpie Cafe and Highland Coffees, each with cachet in their own corners of town. Let's be honest—every part of town has its own community-defining hangout.
• The Vintage Baton Rouge on Laurel Street in downtown.
• Rêve, an upscale living room, in Willow Grove.
• Light House Coffee, with its social mission, and the cluster of haunts near LSU's campus.

The bottom line: If people from Baton Rouge and other cities within the parish viewed themselves as living in one massive coffee shop, there'd be far fewer problems.