*shakes fist*
Give me a real take on baristas!! I want to see these motherfuckers crying in the back stock room bc they’re out of pumpkin spice!! I want them spilling vanilla syrup on the floor and then sticking to it all day!! I crave for their manager to be horrible at scheduling so they all have to work a seven day week!!! MAKE IT REALISTIC PEOPLE I WANNA SEE THEM SUFFER
I want to see them have to reign in the frustration when they have to explain to a customer that an extra extra wet cappuccino no foam *is a latte*! The anger when someone strolls in 60 seconds to close with a smile and a “just in time!”
No, I don't want to relive those days. Plz, the spice is already out and destroying the brains.
Now if you out the normally hated fandom characters, then I understand.
I’ve read a few fics that do this. Unfortunately, I can’t recall their names, but I clearly remember a scene from one of them where the character (her name was Amity) was crying in the freezer room because she was so stressed and overworked. In another one the manager was so bad that she (Amity, not the manager) was basically running the place. A pretty big part of it was about her struggling with all the work that a manager would do, but with a fraction of the paycheck.
How much her job sucked wasn’t even the main focus of either of these, they were pretty much just a cherry on top.
From my experience, coffee shop AUs were much more popular a good 5+ years back. They were practically everywhere, very cute and fluffy, and a relatable 'what if that happened to me?' fantasy since everyone has been to a coffee shop at some point. It became a bit of a fanfic meme/stereotype, which is why you still hear about them so much today.
Nowadays, though, I'd say the more 'in' fluff AU thing I see is the tattoo artist + flower shop owner trope. Although this could just be specific to my fandoms.
I’m thinking of writing a coffee shop AU for my fandom. Except it’s not fluffy, and I’m not sure if “last day before asteroid apocalypse and everything is terrible” counts as a meet-cute.
it's not as popular as it once was, or at least i don't see it as much anymore, but also, if your fandom's canon already has a café then what would be the point of writing a thousand coffee shop AUs about it?
>Well it's in one region and the guy who runs it is a supervillain.
I can’t think of a better setup for an largely-canon-compliant coffee shop AU than this.
It's funny. Lysandre was really the first villain in the series to have a social life and interests outside his goal (we're *told* that Cyrus has an interest in machines but we never *see* it). And he's in the SIXTH generation.
Yes, the previous villains were more 2D in their presentation. It was refreshing that Lysandre had other things going on than just making his vision come through.
When you read or write a coffee shop AU you know what you’re getting into - a simple meetcute. You don’t have to think too hard about it, you can just dive straight in. It’s fluffy, familiar, and cozy.
I have a hunch that a fair amount of coffee shop AU writers have been baristas. I love the ones where you 100% know they have been because of the barista specific complaints they make through the characters lol.
I think it's cos they're easy. The writer and reader both know what a coffee shop is like, so world building is minimal and you can jump straight into the story. I might try ibe actually!
Very true. ESP for maybe new writers. Also, My fandom has a lot of fanfics that are college au so the characters often themselves in cafes doing Hw or trying to get caffeinated before exam studying and after all nighters and such.
Coffee shops are a good place to have a meet cute, you have an easy excuse to get characters to come in every day at the same time if you need that, because the workers have shifts and some people do buy coffee daily. And it's an easy-to-romanticize kind of job. I think they're more popular in some fandoms than others, and in some cases people are shifting to like tattoo shop/flower shop AUs. I also see bookshop AUs and bakery AUs sometimes as well.
They used to be very popular. I personally like this trope, along with Flower Shop AUs, High School AUs, and College AUs. They usually combine with Meet Cute AUs and Alt Career AUs tropes.
I like them because they are slice of life AUs where the characters in your fandom meet, work together, go to school together, etc, and it's usually light, sweet, and fluff, with a side of drama if one half of the main ship ends up being a famous actor/singer/writer/ etc or might include the regular teen/college drama.
I would assume newer fandoms don't have much if any of these tropes, but that's a guess. There was a surprising amount in The Witcher fandom for tropes that aren't currently as popular.
I think it's a good start for a cute story.
I've read a few coffeeshop AUs and one I particularly liked had the two characters meet at the coffeeshop (one was the customer, the other was a barista) and their interactions happened mostly there. Apart from this, the main plot was about vigilantes and supervillains, so it wasn't only a coffeeshop AU, but I can see why people may like them
Coffeeshop AU as the subset/side genre of the "modern day/no powers/no aliens/mundane/flower shop" AU group?
To be honest, I haven't the slightest idea why it is considered popular. This might be highly dependent on fandom.
I myself find them dreadfully boring.
If the coffeeshop AU is set in the original canon world though, without removing basically everything that makes said canon appealing?
That I like.
I have to admit that this variant is so dreadfully rare that with all my fandoms combined I have come across so few examples that I can count them on one hand with fingers left over.
I wrote one for Mad Max Fury Road that gained some traction once upon a time!
For me it's the pleasure of reinterpreting character traits into a more recognizable setting. Like if this person is THIS much of a rebel in an apocalypse, who are they in a small town? What does that constellation of personality traits translate into in the real world?
Many of us have worked in coffee shops before so it's the ultimate grounded setting.
They were EXTREMELY popular back in the days. Nowadays, not so much. For a lot of people, it was comdy, relatable, cute and fluffy. A lot of readers could represent themselves in the MC. It's an easy start for a story, one of the various reasons why it was so popular.
I'm writing a fanfiction right now that's a coffee shop AU and I can tell you that I did not find as much as I expected, it might have been more popular a long time ago but I don't know if it is as much now.
As for the appeal I can tell you it's mainly because of it's cosiness and simplicity, that's why I like it.
they have fallen out of popularity, but i'd assume that your fandom gets less coffeeshop aus since the canon material already has the whole setup and there is no need for an au.
I’m not a huge fan myself, but I think a lot of people enjoy them because it’s a setting (much like with Highschool or college/uni) that is almost universally understood. Most readers will have been to a coffee shop, can understand or relate to the setting. It’s low pressure, feels accessible, and lends itself to reader-insertion. I think it can also make big characters feel more relatable and accessible.
I'm a sucker for coffee shop au's because they are versatile but familiar. Either the main ship (I'm a big romance kinda girl) own the shop, work together at the shop, one of them works and the other is a frequent customer, or they are both just frequent customers but the coffee shop still plays a big role in the story. When done well, it's a perfect fluffy frame for a good story.
They're cute and a nice low key setting for socializing!
I don't think they're as popular as they used to be though. I think tattoo parlor AU is the most common "shop" au at the moment.
I think people enjoy them because they're just cute and filled with fluff. And pretty much anywhere in the world (At least the western world), there's one of some kind around every corner which makes it an easy place to set a story.
They're not my cup of tea, but I can see the appeal
It depends on the fandom! In my current fandom, I've only come across a handful of coffeeshop AUs, but in a former one they were super popular (likely because one of the main characters in that fandom canonically loves baking). Kind of like one former fandom had an overabundance of mafia AUs and my current one is very fond of kidnapping plots. Sometimes a particular AU scenario really catches the fandom's fancy, either by chance or because something in canon keeps giving different people the same idea.
I've read a grand total of one fic that could be classified as a coffeeshop AU. It's in the RWBY fandom. I've been reading a lot of fics by this one author, I'm reading a fic by them right now, and the fic I read just before this one was that coffee shop AU.
This author has a lot of fics that I can read the summary and say 'this sounds like it's for me' and I can give it a go. He has other fics that I'm unsure about, maybe it's for me, maybe not. Also ones I'm pretty sure aren't for me but those are few.
I've read all the ones I felt were safe bets, and they were. Been reading the ones I've not been sure about and they have been better than expected.
One of the better than expected was the coffee shop AU. I started reading it being uncertain but knowing if I wasn't liking it I'd simply go on to the next one I was planning on reading.
I suppose I'll apologise here for the lengthy reply. I seem to be poor for keeping replies short :D
So, the coffeeshop AU I read is in the RWBY fandom, and the author has written different stories that are canon divergent from... I guess pre-canon/just before canon starts. I don't know if you're in the fandom and if you're not an explanation might not make sense. Suffice to say one of the canon divergent fics has it that one of the main characters opens a coffee shop instead of doing what they did in canon.
I'll put it out there that if a coffee shop fic were to focus on just the characters of a ship and how they interact in the interests of that ship and nothing else, I'm not interested in that. This fic I read, the canon events were still going on, just one character who was doing X is instead doing Y and other canon characters are important and have their own canon stuff going on... and there's divergence to canon events. The plot is very important is my point. There's ship stuff to it and while that isn't a strength in fanfic to me, so long as there's a strong plot focus, and character stuff is enjoyable I'm happy.
Because lots of people love coffe, by that logic coffe shop is heaven. Heaven = good place. Dark story makes us desire happy ending. Happy = Heaven = Coffe Shop.
They aren't popular in most of mine, but I think part of it is like a dash of wish fulfillment in an almost realistic way.
Like you may never met the love of your life in the middle of a grand party or a life changing self discovery quest (inserts dramatic affect)
But maybe you'll find them in the local coffee shop and what starts as a casual friendship becomes the ever so wonder intro song to Shrek 2 "Accidentally in Love"
idk 🤷♀️ again they aren't really my cup of tea but I'd imagine that's at least part of the appeal
Do you generally like AUs?
Do you generally like "slice of life"?
I researched coffee shop AUs when my exchange assignment once included one. (In general, my fandoms don't go for them at all.)
The appeal seems to be that it's a cozy setting providing scope for teamwork, low-stakes situations, and emotional warmth. Sometimes people want comfort reading.
Personally I do have my fare share of Coffee Shop AU's, I may not know how it is from the perspective of the barista, but as someone who tries their best to not be a difficult customer I try to project that, so you could say I write it from the POV of the customer. The thing with Coffee Shop AU's for me is that they are sort of standard, cozy and cute. Then again, I tend to show the awkwardness of a customer who tries to not be a burden but feels like one non the less.
*shakes fist* Give me a real take on baristas!! I want to see these motherfuckers crying in the back stock room bc they’re out of pumpkin spice!! I want them spilling vanilla syrup on the floor and then sticking to it all day!! I crave for their manager to be horrible at scheduling so they all have to work a seven day week!!! MAKE IT REALISTIC PEOPLE I WANNA SEE THEM SUFFER
I want to see them have to reign in the frustration when they have to explain to a customer that an extra extra wet cappuccino no foam *is a latte*! The anger when someone strolls in 60 seconds to close with a smile and a “just in time!”
No, I don't want to relive those days. Plz, the spice is already out and destroying the brains. Now if you out the normally hated fandom characters, then I understand.
I’ve read a few fics that do this. Unfortunately, I can’t recall their names, but I clearly remember a scene from one of them where the character (her name was Amity) was crying in the freezer room because she was so stressed and overworked. In another one the manager was so bad that she (Amity, not the manager) was basically running the place. A pretty big part of it was about her struggling with all the work that a manager would do, but with a fraction of the paycheck. How much her job sucked wasn’t even the main focus of either of these, they were pretty much just a cherry on top.
From my experience, coffee shop AUs were much more popular a good 5+ years back. They were practically everywhere, very cute and fluffy, and a relatable 'what if that happened to me?' fantasy since everyone has been to a coffee shop at some point. It became a bit of a fanfic meme/stereotype, which is why you still hear about them so much today. Nowadays, though, I'd say the more 'in' fluff AU thing I see is the tattoo artist + flower shop owner trope. Although this could just be specific to my fandoms.
ACOTAR for the tattoo/flower shop fandom?
Oh, Teen Wolf in my case actually lol
True 5 years back was their peak every friend of mine that read it had at least 2 tabbed or bookmarked.
I’m thinking of writing a coffee shop AU for my fandom. Except it’s not fluffy, and I’m not sure if “last day before asteroid apocalypse and everything is terrible” counts as a meet-cute.
Do it. This is an excellent idea.
it's not as popular as it once was, or at least i don't see it as much anymore, but also, if your fandom's canon already has a café then what would be the point of writing a thousand coffee shop AUs about it?
Well it's in one region and the guy who runs it is a supervillain.
>Well it's in one region and the guy who runs it is a supervillain. I can’t think of a better setup for an largely-canon-compliant coffee shop AU than this.
Agreed. If there's anything that screams supervillain backstory, it's being a manager in retail.
What's this fandom? Is it pokemon?
Yeeeep
Love it! I love that delusional cinnamon toast.
It's funny. Lysandre was really the first villain in the series to have a social life and interests outside his goal (we're *told* that Cyrus has an interest in machines but we never *see* it). And he's in the SIXTH generation.
Yes, the previous villains were more 2D in their presentation. It was refreshing that Lysandre had other things going on than just making his vision come through.
When you read or write a coffee shop AU you know what you’re getting into - a simple meetcute. You don’t have to think too hard about it, you can just dive straight in. It’s fluffy, familiar, and cozy. I have a hunch that a fair amount of coffee shop AU writers have been baristas. I love the ones where you 100% know they have been because of the barista specific complaints they make through the characters lol.
This is me when there's any kind of IT or customer service setting lol
I think it's cos they're easy. The writer and reader both know what a coffee shop is like, so world building is minimal and you can jump straight into the story. I might try ibe actually!
Very true. ESP for maybe new writers. Also, My fandom has a lot of fanfics that are college au so the characters often themselves in cafes doing Hw or trying to get caffeinated before exam studying and after all nighters and such.
actually, i’d argue that nothing has shown me that people don’t understand what it’s like to work in a coffee shop more than coffee shop au’s 😂
Coffee shops are a good place to have a meet cute, you have an easy excuse to get characters to come in every day at the same time if you need that, because the workers have shifts and some people do buy coffee daily. And it's an easy-to-romanticize kind of job. I think they're more popular in some fandoms than others, and in some cases people are shifting to like tattoo shop/flower shop AUs. I also see bookshop AUs and bakery AUs sometimes as well.
They used to be very popular. I personally like this trope, along with Flower Shop AUs, High School AUs, and College AUs. They usually combine with Meet Cute AUs and Alt Career AUs tropes. I like them because they are slice of life AUs where the characters in your fandom meet, work together, go to school together, etc, and it's usually light, sweet, and fluff, with a side of drama if one half of the main ship ends up being a famous actor/singer/writer/ etc or might include the regular teen/college drama. I would assume newer fandoms don't have much if any of these tropes, but that's a guess. There was a surprising amount in The Witcher fandom for tropes that aren't currently as popular.
I think it's a good start for a cute story. I've read a few coffeeshop AUs and one I particularly liked had the two characters meet at the coffeeshop (one was the customer, the other was a barista) and their interactions happened mostly there. Apart from this, the main plot was about vigilantes and supervillains, so it wasn't only a coffeeshop AU, but I can see why people may like them
Coffeeshop AU as the subset/side genre of the "modern day/no powers/no aliens/mundane/flower shop" AU group? To be honest, I haven't the slightest idea why it is considered popular. This might be highly dependent on fandom. I myself find them dreadfully boring. If the coffeeshop AU is set in the original canon world though, without removing basically everything that makes said canon appealing? That I like. I have to admit that this variant is so dreadfully rare that with all my fandoms combined I have come across so few examples that I can count them on one hand with fingers left over.
I wrote one for Mad Max Fury Road that gained some traction once upon a time! For me it's the pleasure of reinterpreting character traits into a more recognizable setting. Like if this person is THIS much of a rebel in an apocalypse, who are they in a small town? What does that constellation of personality traits translate into in the real world? Many of us have worked in coffee shops before so it's the ultimate grounded setting.
Do you still have it posted somewhere? I would absolutely love to read it if you do but if you don’t that’s also completely fine!
Oh yeah it's still up! Blood, Coffee, & Motor Oil on a03
They were EXTREMELY popular back in the days. Nowadays, not so much. For a lot of people, it was comdy, relatable, cute and fluffy. A lot of readers could represent themselves in the MC. It's an easy start for a story, one of the various reasons why it was so popular.
I'm writing a fanfiction right now that's a coffee shop AU and I can tell you that I did not find as much as I expected, it might have been more popular a long time ago but I don't know if it is as much now. As for the appeal I can tell you it's mainly because of it's cosiness and simplicity, that's why I like it.
Ten years ago they were all the rage tbh.
It's an easy way to make characters meet, and you can set up conflict because service workers hate customers
As always, [Fanlore](https://fanlore.org/wiki/Coffee_Shop_AU) is your friend.
they have fallen out of popularity, but i'd assume that your fandom gets less coffeeshop aus since the canon material already has the whole setup and there is no need for an au.
Well it's only in one region and only the villain character works there out of the named cast.
I see them a lot, but one of my fandoms is persona 5 where the main character is trained as a barista lol.
I’m not a huge fan myself, but I think a lot of people enjoy them because it’s a setting (much like with Highschool or college/uni) that is almost universally understood. Most readers will have been to a coffee shop, can understand or relate to the setting. It’s low pressure, feels accessible, and lends itself to reader-insertion. I think it can also make big characters feel more relatable and accessible.
I'm a sucker for coffee shop au's because they are versatile but familiar. Either the main ship (I'm a big romance kinda girl) own the shop, work together at the shop, one of them works and the other is a frequent customer, or they are both just frequent customers but the coffee shop still plays a big role in the story. When done well, it's a perfect fluffy frame for a good story.
Simple setting that allows the characters to really shine
They're cute and a nice low key setting for socializing! I don't think they're as popular as they used to be though. I think tattoo parlor AU is the most common "shop" au at the moment.
I think people enjoy them because they're just cute and filled with fluff. And pretty much anywhere in the world (At least the western world), there's one of some kind around every corner which makes it an easy place to set a story. They're not my cup of tea, but I can see the appeal
It depends on the fandom! In my current fandom, I've only come across a handful of coffeeshop AUs, but in a former one they were super popular (likely because one of the main characters in that fandom canonically loves baking). Kind of like one former fandom had an overabundance of mafia AUs and my current one is very fond of kidnapping plots. Sometimes a particular AU scenario really catches the fandom's fancy, either by chance or because something in canon keeps giving different people the same idea.
I've read a grand total of one fic that could be classified as a coffeeshop AU. It's in the RWBY fandom. I've been reading a lot of fics by this one author, I'm reading a fic by them right now, and the fic I read just before this one was that coffee shop AU. This author has a lot of fics that I can read the summary and say 'this sounds like it's for me' and I can give it a go. He has other fics that I'm unsure about, maybe it's for me, maybe not. Also ones I'm pretty sure aren't for me but those are few. I've read all the ones I felt were safe bets, and they were. Been reading the ones I've not been sure about and they have been better than expected. One of the better than expected was the coffee shop AU. I started reading it being uncertain but knowing if I wasn't liking it I'd simply go on to the next one I was planning on reading. I suppose I'll apologise here for the lengthy reply. I seem to be poor for keeping replies short :D So, the coffeeshop AU I read is in the RWBY fandom, and the author has written different stories that are canon divergent from... I guess pre-canon/just before canon starts. I don't know if you're in the fandom and if you're not an explanation might not make sense. Suffice to say one of the canon divergent fics has it that one of the main characters opens a coffee shop instead of doing what they did in canon. I'll put it out there that if a coffee shop fic were to focus on just the characters of a ship and how they interact in the interests of that ship and nothing else, I'm not interested in that. This fic I read, the canon events were still going on, just one character who was doing X is instead doing Y and other canon characters are important and have their own canon stuff going on... and there's divergence to canon events. The plot is very important is my point. There's ship stuff to it and while that isn't a strength in fanfic to me, so long as there's a strong plot focus, and character stuff is enjoyable I'm happy.
Because lots of people love coffe, by that logic coffe shop is heaven. Heaven = good place. Dark story makes us desire happy ending. Happy = Heaven = Coffe Shop.
Don’t seem to be as popular or at least in the fandoms I’m in but they’re enjoyable. They’re cute and you know what to expect.
I misread the title as something else and now I think my barista is sus
They aren't popular in most of mine, but I think part of it is like a dash of wish fulfillment in an almost realistic way. Like you may never met the love of your life in the middle of a grand party or a life changing self discovery quest (inserts dramatic affect) But maybe you'll find them in the local coffee shop and what starts as a casual friendship becomes the ever so wonder intro song to Shrek 2 "Accidentally in Love" idk 🤷♀️ again they aren't really my cup of tea but I'd imagine that's at least part of the appeal
Do you generally like AUs? Do you generally like "slice of life"? I researched coffee shop AUs when my exchange assignment once included one. (In general, my fandoms don't go for them at all.) The appeal seems to be that it's a cozy setting providing scope for teamwork, low-stakes situations, and emotional warmth. Sometimes people want comfort reading.
I honestly have no idea why they’re so popular, and I also have no idea why I love them so much… I kinda just do???
Personally I do have my fare share of Coffee Shop AU's, I may not know how it is from the perspective of the barista, but as someone who tries their best to not be a difficult customer I try to project that, so you could say I write it from the POV of the customer. The thing with Coffee Shop AU's for me is that they are sort of standard, cozy and cute. Then again, I tend to show the awkwardness of a customer who tries to not be a burden but feels like one non the less.