Whether at home or out and about, after-dinner coffee is the perfect way to extend an evening
I am of the belief that a delicious dinner has not had its proper end without an after-dinner coffee. In fact, I dare say a delicious dinner has not reached its full potential without an after-dinner coffee.
There’s something about the way coffee extends the opportunity to luxuriate in a fantastic meal and good company.
A dessert may be a sweet ending, and a selection of cheese a very French ending, but neither concludes an evening meal like a café noir. And for much of U.S. history, cultural expectations would agree.
Café noir, or demitasse, was once an after-dinner ritual in the U.S. After entertaining at home, café noir provided the opportunity for the host and guests to retire to the sitting room and continue conversation. Cookbooks throughout the 1800s and into the early 1900s included recipes for brew methods for the after-dinner coffee, which was to be twice as strong as the morning coffee. Before the advent of electric coffee makers or disposable coffee pods, most homemakers were roasting, grinding, and brewing their own coffee, often using eggs, eggshells, or fish skin to aid the process.
Egg whites or fish skin acted as an attractant, collecting proteins, oils, and other particles (modern-day refined grinding and paper filters do much of this work). Egg shells could collect debris as well, since their interior is coated with the same proteins found in egg whites, and they also helped reduce acid levels due to their alkalinity. Egg yolks were to be whisked into coffee to enhance the body or mouthfeel in the absence of milk or cream. A café noir, however, is traditionally sans milk or cream as it was thought to disrupt digestion; a cube of sugar would be acceptable.
Though the cultural expectation of an after-dinner demitasse has largely gone by the wayside, it is an absolute delight to find a restaurant that has coffee available at dinner.
It makes an already delectable meal even more outstanding, and an otherwise enjoyable meal becomes a bit disappointing without it.
A few of my favorites where you can enjoy a multi-course meal and end with coffee are Iris, Hog & Hominy, and Catherine & Mary’s. At a recent Hungry Tiger Food Club meetup at Queen of Sheba, I was elated to see Yemeni coffee on the menu.
While many coffee shops here aren’t open past mid-afternoon, Aldar Café is open late enough into the evening that you could stop by after dinner and end with qishr, a hot beverage made of the dried husks of coffee beans, ginger, and cinnamon.
If you’re entertaining at home and want to serve café noir, pick up locally roasted coffee from Boycott Coffee, Dr. Bean’s, Comeback Coffee, or Cxffeeblack, the 2024 Global Notable Roaster. I’m partial to Cxffeeblack’s Ubudasa after dinner; its fruity notes are the perfect end to a dinner party. If you’d like something less caffeinated, Cxffeeblack’s Guji Lo-Fi is an Ethiopian decaf whose full flavors will likely spark more conversation.
When dinner begins to end, perhaps it is not just the last sip of deliciousness that I seek, but the way a delectable meal and the company it’s shared with must be savored. Coffee then takes on its original intention—a communal beverage, an invitation to continue connecting with one another, a reminder that there is no place to be other than in the present moment.
SunAh Laybourn is a food lover, plant person, and avid reader. She’s the host of WYXR Memphis’s radio show Let’s Grab Coffee, University of Memphis sociology professor, and organizer of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Memphis. She’s the author of Out of Place: The Lives of Korean Adoptee Immigrants. @sunahmarieonly
Michael Butler, Jr., loves everything Memphis. His goal is to show the beauty in Memphis that others overlook. He’s a photographer, videographer, Memphis tee collector, foodie, lover of tacos, and mayor of South Memphis. @_one901