6 cafés in 2 citys. Places change: check opening hours before you go.
A seafront café run by the Shatila family for generations; the oldest documented photo dates to 1935. Writers and poets such as Nizar Qabbani came here, and men still play backgammon under the trees.
Order: Lebanese coffee · Argileh
💡 Go at sunset for the sea view.
The Younes family started roasting coffee in Beirut in 1935; their downtown shop was destroyed in the civil war, but the Hamra café survived and became a haunt of students, writers and artists. It recently moved into a restored 1950s building nearby.
Order: House-roasted Lebanese coffee · Espresso
💡 Buy freshly ground beans to take home; they roast on site.
One of Tripoli's oldest cafés, in a former Ottoman Bank building with coloured glass windows. It reopened in 2017 after ten years shut, and older men still gather for argileh, cards and backgammon.
Order: Turkish coffee · Ajami argileh
💡 Open daily from 6am; once men-only, it now welcomes everyone.
A fair-trade micro-roastery in a century-old Lebanese house, founded by roaster Dalia Jaffal. Coffee is roasted in Beirut and served with home-style food.
Order: Single-origin pour-over · Lebanese breakfast
Opened in 2017 in a stone-walled house with a leafy terrace on Gemmayze's main street, and has since grown to three branches.
Order: Flat white · Breakfast
A café in the heart of Saifi Village serving coffee brewed from freshly roasted beans with hearty food.
Order: Espresso · Brunch
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.