Set your story in a café, garden, or restaurant.

Posted in Short Story on Jan 24, 2025

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✍️ 72 stories

“Swiped” by Mel HW

Submitted to Contest #287

He’s here. And he’s just as hot as his pictures, Charlotte texted from outside of the café. She moved two steps to her right. Jenn responded with a string of emojis: bearded man face, burning heart, guy and girl kissing faces. Charlotte smiled and checked her hair in the reflection of the Ramen place next door, getting faint notes of the meaty umami, all that her still partially stuffed nose would allow. Her phone buzzed. Charlotte swiped to see it was Jenn with another string of emojis: sweaty face, fire, tongue, peace hand symbol, yum face...

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“Coffee and banter” by Colin Phillips

Submitted to Contest #287

Edward scanned the crowds, wondering if he had missed Noémie. He was sure he had made two mistakes today. The first was agreeing to meet at Covent Garden station on a Saturday morning. The summer sunshine had drawn out both Londoners and tourists alike, causing crowds in the street. The second, he was not so sure. He had agreed to meet with Noémie, unsure if it was a date or more the need for a companion and guide. They had met at one of his sister's dinners. He had been brought in at the last minute to make up the numbers. Anna was now bri...

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“Madame Aiko’s Tea Garden” by MV Grimm

Submitted to Contest #287

The teahouse hid itself well. Only a few ever stumbled upon it by chance, and those who sought it had to know where to begin. Even then, it seemed as if the place preferred to remain concealed. Set behind high stone walls at the forgotten edge of Kyoto, it withdrew from the modern world, waiting in silence, unseen.A small wooden sign hung above the gate, whispering its name. “House of Tea & Time.” Most who passed by barely noticed, blind to the invitation it offered. But the few who crossed through its gate rarely left unchanged.Inside, ...

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“Love Bites & Sweet Tea” by Bonnie Ristau

Submitted to Contest #287

High above, passing over Jacksonville, flutters a bizarre sight for those who bothered to look up into the starry sky. A cloud of bats fly overhead in formation. One hauls a satchel, a few more carry a picnic basket, and the others bring a variety of garments and accessories in various states of decay and deprecation. The colony touches down on a rooftop garden on Amelia Island; just one of the many luxurious vacation homes currently out of season. The bats get to work. They struggle to maneuver around each other, filling in pant legs, mane...

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“I owe a cat.” by Kamran Connelly

Submitted to Contest #287

I owe a Cat. By Kamran Connelly For the twenty-seventh consecutive workday, I watch from my office window, as a man I know to be the owner of a small accountancy firm in the same office building, climbs as clumsy as one would expect a middle aged, slightly overweight man dressed more suitably for the golf course over an eight-foot wall. I have affectionately named him Harold, as he bears an uncanny resemblance to the famous director, Harold Ramis. The wall belongs to a long-closed business, Hewitts Precision Tool Makers. Once a s...

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“Tokyo Rows Cafe” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #287

Tokyo Rows Café William Abbey killed Milford Small after a poolroom fight in nineteen sixty-eight. It was a brief altercation in the pool room; each taking a turn practicing headlocks and left-hand jabs. Milford was poked in the eye with a pool cue belonging to a patron of Dixie’s Pool Hall, who was observing their weekly tussle. Milf...

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“WONDERFUL ” by Joanne Oliver

Submitted to Contest #287

An Amber weather warning had transformed this thriving festive city into a rushed silence that only a sudden dense fog could enforce. Streets that should have had the usual bustle end of year bargain hunters were now eerily empty apart from echoing groans of the revellers hungover and looking for directions .Black cabs parked idly along the curbs and the muted glow of traffic lights flickered against the greyness Flynn sat on his favorite bench, his sketchbook open on his lap. Across the street, a small cafe was barely...

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“777 Cafe” by Kaitlin Waters

Submitted to Contest #287

The bell dings as another guardian walks through the door. Major looks up from the register. “Welcome in,” he calls. A wizard joins the back of the line, now grown to three guardians. The wizard is tall, dressed in a charcoal grey tailored suit. His hair looks as though it was trimmed yesterday. His polished appearance is the norm, he notices, as his eyes sweep around the 777 Cafe. The professional patrons are at odds with the worn in decor. Faded, brown tile covers the floor. The wooden coffee bar smooth with the thousands, probably m...

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“Climbing the Everest” by Katarína Krigovská

Submitted to Contest #287

There was a tea, that grew from the trees.There was a steak, that came from plants. There was a balance, in what you could eat.Then the Everest fell...and the world changed.But that was not the end... Sebastian closed the book and looked at his schoolmate. "What a bunch of weird sentences! Steak from the plant? Everyone knows the best steaks are from cows!" Aryan sighed:"You should cry it out louder, for those people at the back, now come on, Sebby, you should know better. We are in an Indian restaurant, of course, they will serve you plant-...

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“Cappuccino Musings” by Cheryl S

Submitted to Contest #287

I wasn’t looking to escape, not even in the brief moment it took to slurp down my cappuccino at Giovanni’s Café on Lafayette Street. Not escape exactly. A respite from the whirlwind of disasters that had plagued me for the past year was what I had in mind. Besides, how much escape could be found sitting in a stiff rod iron chair next to a plate glass window, on full display for every tourist rushing by? Maybe that was the point. Maybe I was looking for the anonymity only found in a crowd of strangers. The b...

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“LET'S GET ROASTED ” by Candy Burrowbridge

Submitted to Contest #287

I reside at Let's Get Roasted cafè in the historic coastal city of Astoria, Oregon. Approximately a year ago I was relocated from my home in a dark, dusty storage unit, where my co-inhabitors were unique forgotten pieces, from a different time and space just like me. Most of us, had either given up hope or could no longer remember a time prior to the present. Surprisingly, the metal door was raised after hearing sounds of a struggle between the lock and the key. I couldn't remember the last time I had seen natural light. Roughly, many of us...

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“Planting” by Elizabeth Rich

Submitted to Contest #287

Phil and Bob had been best friends in high school. Phil married Bob's sister. Both men grew up to have three children. Phil moved to Texas and worked for an oil company after he did his stint in the Army. Bob went to college, then went into the Army for two years. That's just what people did back then--they served their country. It was after Korea, but before Vietnam. Neither Phil nor Bob saw any action besides the fights they got into with the other GIs who would make the mistake of getting into petty scraps with them. Bob continued to live...

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“The Truth in Tea Leaves” by Alex Marmalade

Submitted to Contest #287

Frank Delacroix sat at his usual corner table in Madame Rosa's Tea House, his fingers tracing the rim of a cooling cup of Earl Grey. The café existed in defiance of time itself – a stubborn holdout against the Starbucks revolution, wedged between a vegan deli and a boutique that probably sold crystals to tech bros. Real wooden floors creaked beneath decades of footsteps, each board a diary of stories told over proper china cups. The morning crowd's mundane symphony washed over him: the antique espresso machine's asthmatic wheeze, the gentle ...

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“Lingering Connections” by Marin McLaughlin

Submitted to Contest #287

There is something about the scene in a coffee shop. Is it the potent smell of burnt espresso that lingers on your clothes long after you are gone, or the ever present collision of emotions flowing through the air? There’s a sense of calm amidst the coffee shop chaos that somehow provides an escape route to everyone that enters. A place anyone can go to escape, reflect, or dream. Observing the flow of people, I can’t help but wonder if this is how everyone felt at twenty—blissfully overwhelmed by their big aspirations, that at one poin...

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“A LEAF OF FAITH” by Debbie Curtin

Submitted to Contest #287

My ear buds were in place as I listened to another chapter in my favorite author’s newest mystery thriller book. I was in awe as the story took a giant leap with the main character literally jumping out a window onto a bread wagon. He was being chased through a building by a gang of drug peddlers. At the last minute he opted to jump as there was no other choice. He was caught in the middle of an underhanded ploy with the cartel to use kitchen chefs as their guinea pigs. The well-known restaurant owners hired them with good intentions but sec...

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Set your story in a café, garden, or restaurant.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 72 stories

“Swiped” by Mel HW

“Coffee and banter” by Colin Phillips

“Madame Aiko’s Tea Garden” by MV Grimm

“Love Bites & Sweet Tea” by Bonnie Ristau

“I owe a cat.” by Kamran Connelly

“Tokyo Rows Cafe” by Joe Swanson

“WONDERFUL ” by Joanne Oliver

“777 Cafe” by Kaitlin Waters

“Climbing the Everest” by Katarína Krigovská

“Cappuccino Musings” by Cheryl S

“LET'S GET ROASTED ” by Candy Burrowbridge

“Planting” by Elizabeth Rich

“The Truth in Tea Leaves” by Alex Marmalade

“Lingering Connections” by Marin McLaughlin

“A LEAF OF FAITH” by Debbie Curtin

🌟 Similar prompts

Start or end your story with a character making a cup of tea for themself or someone else.

Center your story around someone who’s boiling over with anger, frustration, or jealousy.

Write a story with a character pouring out their emotions.

Start or end your story with someone being soothed by a hug or words of comfort.

Contest #287

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

408

Contest entries

173

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: