A café is a type of restaurant which usually serves coffee and snacks. The term "café" comes from French, and means "coffee".You can read newspapers and magazines there, or chat with other customers about current topics. It is known as a place where information can be exchanged.A café is sometimes called a coffeehouse or a coffee shop or tea shop in English, a café in Frenchand a cafe in Italian. (Cafe/café is the spelling in English, French, Spanish etc. But "caffe" is how the Italian word for coffee is spelled in that language.) It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria, which is a type of restaurant where customers can choose from many dishes on a serving line. In some countries, cafes more closely resemble restaurants, offering a range of hot meals, and possibly being licensed to serve alcohol. Most British cafes, however, do not sell alcohol.