THE GLOSS is celebrating café conversations, with sisters, mums, chums and others! Whether planned gossip or impromptu catch-up, involving a secret shared, a problem divulged, or great news to impart, we meet up to connect and chat over coffee in our favourite cafés. And sometimes we go solo and listen to other people’s conversations. Eavesdropping? No! We prefer to say, we couldn’t help but overhear ….

What makes café conversations fascinating and fun? We’d love to hear from you. Write a short paragraph (not more than 200 words) telling us about a conversation you had or overheard, and send it to us at digital@thegloss.ie. Your piece could be selected for publication and you could win a gorgeous Butlers gift card to fund more café conversations in lovely Butlers locations all over Ireland …

Daisy Hickey uses café time to talk sternly to herself

Cafés are great places to talk – to yourself, that is. Me-time is precious, and self-talk is important. Honestly, head to a café for your next discussion with yourself – they offer enough white noise and activity to compliment inspiration and enough peace to generate some focus.

At school I once complained of writer’s block to an English teacher. She understood – she was a great teacher – and suggested that for creative writing essays, I park myself in a nearby café to write. The background clatter of china and whistle of steaming milk jogs stimulates something in the brain, she said. Loving this suggestion of abandoning my sad bedroom desk, I hopped to it, and settled with a cappuccino and an A4 pad at the café. I wrote one of the best essays I’d ever written – i.e., passably readable with a detectable narrative – and found myself able to gather inspiration and construct the full story start to finish in one sitting. Triumph!

I am no longer a schoolgirl, and I don’t find myself submitting essays for grading any more – at least, not in that sense. However, I don’t mind admitting that I struggle to work with unbroken focus. Unbroken focus like I had in the café. I find I often need to have a quick chat with myself first.

The process is as follows: I start off with a discussion with myself about what’s required. Then, I offer myself a list of tasks. The next step (least favourite) is getting myself to agree to each deliverable. This is a task in itself, and one that can’t be carried out in pure silence. (I have found myself very difficult to negotiate with.)

At a café, I am free to murmur my self-talk over a warm oat mocha without interruption. Just like my creative writing essay of yesteryear, my private self-chat flows out, drowned out by the hum of chattering coffee sippers, sweet yelps and bleats of kids with babychinos, and old men rustling their newspapers. No one can hear me talking to myself.

Reader Karla O’Donovan overheard an extraordinary conversation in a Butlers Café …

Bleary-eyed and exhausted, recently I wandered into Butlers Café looking forward to my daily double-strength cappuccino. As I sat cherishing every sip, my baby still asleep in the buggy next to me, I relaxed in blissful silence. An elegant lady walked in and approached the man at the table next to me.

“Rob?”

“Ah, Rita. Thank you for coming, it is great to see you again after all these years.”

“Yes,” she agreed, taking a sip from her coffee cup.

They were both clearly enjoying each other’s company when the conversation turned interesting.

“You said you were in a coma for almost three years?” she asked.

“I was in an accident and woke up in April 2020, just as the pandemic took hold – I seriously I thought I was on another planet.”

“My gosh, that is shocking. To think I thought you had ghosted me all those years ago.”

“Would you like to join me for a walk in St Stephen’s Green?” he asked.

“Oh, that sounds glorious,” she said, as they finished their coffees and wandered off into the warm summer morning.

Rest your tired shopping bags and seek comfort in Butlers Chocolate Café. Rest, relax and recharge for the journey home.

Discover the Art of Café Conversation at Butlers Chocolate Cafés …