Out-of-City Coffeehouses; their Essence and Challenges against City Ordinances (Case Study: Isfahan in the 1940s)

Coffeehouses or cafes have been the main rendezvouses or gathering places over the history. Some studies have dealt with out-of-city cafes, yet the information on them is little. Using the survived documents, this study tried to identify and introduce the main rendezvouses and recreation places of Isfahan in the 1940s. Documentary method was used to investigate a set of documents. After rewriting and analyze them, the stories about the cafes in the studied time and places are restated. The cafes that have been out of Isfahan’s residential area, have been the gathering and recreation places for the residents of the city. Such issues were common in the places as criminal activities, drug use, and alcohol consumption. People’s object to the criminal activities of the places and their request of the Directorate of the city to stop their activities, made the organization to close them. The owners of the places, however, started witting letters and setting complaints, and succeeded to restart their activities after a year.