Describe a typical morning in the Cook Coffeehouse. Include details about the food, the customer, and the service.

Cook
Coffeehouse, owned by Mattie's family, is in downtown Philadelphia, on the corner of Seventh and
High Street, two blocks from President Washington's Philadelphia home, a central location in the
city.

Mattie describes the coffeehouse as taking up most of the first floor
of her family's home. It is a large room with four windows and a small kitchen in the
back.

It is a respectable business for a widow to run, since it doesn't serve
alcohol. It does serve food and coffee, and people play cards there and sometimes gamble, to
which Mrs. Cook turns a blind eye. Customers seem to be almost entirely men and include
politicians, gentlemen, and businessmen: in other words, a good class of people.

The coffeehouse offers "tidbits" or snacks to customers, such as cinnamon
rolls or gingerbread. Mattie, however, would like to expand the business to include an upstairs
meeting room. She would like them to serve meals, such as mutton chops and roasts. Mattie also
wishes to buy a second coffee urn, to speed up the service.

Since the mother
is not a good cook, the family relies on the skills of Eliza, a free black woman, to do the
baking for the coffeehouse.

The coffeehouse helps convey the flavor of late
eighteenth century life in the middle of a bustling city in the new United States.