Tag: Coffeehouses and Cafés

Over the past few years I’ve enjoyed occasional visits to [REN], an engaging parcel designed and held by Noa (Noa Cloud) in western Nautilus. For much of its existence it has been curated as a tranquil haven of imagination, a place to visit and appreciate, witness art or relax within on your own or with friends.

More recently, and due to physical world commitments, Noa has had to scale back on the overall size of [REN], reducing it (for the present, at least) to some 4,350 sq metres. This is more than enough, however, for [REN] to become the home to Café Bar Manoaya and to continue to offer a quiet retreat.

The café sits within a Japanese summer house set little back from a beach of golden sand, a ribbon of sunflowers hydrangea and wildflowers separating the one from the other. A terrace and flagstone steps form the public connection between the beach and café, with the terrace given over to cats and rabbits rather than the more usual tables and chairs to help maintain a feeling of space to breathe.

There is a gentleness to the parcel which helps encourage that since of peace and freedom to relax. A path circles the café,  passing by way of a cluster of small waterfalls dropping gracefully into a rock pool to where tall curtains of bamboo have been pulled across the cliffs behind the café to soften their granite faces.

There is a raised platform at the back of the café for those who prefer sitting outdoors, green tea and shaved ice fruits treats waiting to entice.

More cushions for sitting outdoors can be found tucked between the rear wings of the café, and while it is possible that some of the feline patrons might either object to a human presence there – or demand payment by fussing them in return for intrusions into their garden space. However, two of them at least appear to have found a focus for attention which might preclude their interest in any human interlocutors (although the subjects of that attention probably wish this were otherwise, and the cats in question would indeed find more interest into and humans happening to sit down here!).

My favourite aspect of the setting, however, is the octagonal summer house on the east side of the the land and set slightly further back from the beach than the café. Within it can be found a kind of sanctum sanctorum for a multipotentialite whose interests encompass lepidopterology, national histories (notably South Africa and France) marine life, gemology and music. And there is something utterly relaxing in sitting there and listening to the cello music (whether or not you opt to try the cello yourself!).

Taken as a whole, Café Bar Manoaya and its surrounds make for a charming visit.

The same is true of a visit to The Java Bean Café, albeit for different reasons. Created and operated by Katie J. Ronas (Katrina Flowers), it is located on the central southern coast of Corsica, close to the waterway running up from Chopsaw to Skains. Despite the general sense of bustle to the area, it is a peaceful haven keeping itself tidily separated from any possible hubbub of boats arriving and departing the moorings just beyond its south wall.

Surrounded on three sides by waters flowing into it via a corner channel alongside those moorings, The Java Bean Café uses a curtain of maple, weeping willow and other trees as well as the noise-deflecting walls to offer a sense of cool detachment and peace from the more general goings-on beyond its boundaries.

A large deck extends out over the shallows of the waters to the front of the café, not as a place for small boats to come alongside (the entrance to the cove in which The Java Bean sits is guarded by a large semi-submerged rock to discourage this anyway) but to offer patrons outdoor seating and the opportunity to play table-top games or simply watch the floating lanterns drifting between the lilies guarding the waterside edges of the deck.

The café occupies a large, predominantly wooden framed and sided structure with large windows, high ceilings and skylights giving it a light, airy feel which encourages a sense of ease and desire to get comfortable with a really good coffee – particularly in the four deep armchairs ranged before the large stone fireplace (which would likely be a popular spot in winter!), whilst the back room presents a space for larger visiting parties to enjoy.

This a setting focused very much on the idea of a café being a social centre; a place to come to and spend time together without feeling the need to explore or to distract. True, there are the games out on the deck – but these don’t have to be be played; those who wish to to can sit at them, chat and watch the frogs hopping and round the lily pads and the dragonflies flitting around, deftly avoiding the attention of any of those frogs who might might be eyeing them as a possible snack.

Rounded-out by a summertime soundscape of singing birds (and croaking frogs!), The Java Bean is nicely presented and cosy.

SLurl Details

• [REN] & Café Bar Manoaya (Strutter, rated Moderate)
• The Java Bean Café (Papercut, rated Moderate)

In July, I visited The Boathouse Café, a charming setting designed by Sorcha Tyles under her Dutch Pavilion banner (see: More coffee and photos in Second Life). Well, Sorcha has been busy!

Paging through the Destination Guide I came across an entry for Outpost Bay, sitting within the region hosting The Boathouse, and which at the time of my last visit has been a private space for Sorcha. So, intrigued, I had to pop over and have a look.

Listen to the gentle sound of waves and birds as you take a peaceful stroll down to the beach and relax by the vintage changing huts. When you’re ready, wander into the cosy Concept Store to pick up a fresh coffee, breakfast, and something good to read. Settle in at a table on the deck to enjoy the morning sea breeze, or head over to the lighthouse and take a boat out on the water. Outpost Bay is a warm, rustic place made for slowing down, unwinding, and living in the moment.

– Outpost Bay Destination Guide Entry

One of the things I really appreciate with Sorcha’s designs is how she can take a relatively small space and turn it into something that is inviting and encouraging of visits.

The Boathouse Café, for example sits on 3120 sq metres; Outpost Bay is barely bigger, sitting on a 3136 sq metre parcel. Yet both are visually impressive and photogenic, carrying plenty of detail without either parcel ever feeling overcrowded.

Given the two locations are within the same themed region (and sitting just across a water channel from one another), they share something of a similar look, both in terms of the flora and the buildings present on them.

This is not a critique: by using the same flora and similar architecture, Sorcha creates a sense of continuity flowing between the two islands – and with the rest of the estate. It also suggests that both islands were developed as little places of commerce around the same time, the buildings sharing ta wooden construction style as they were built around the same time and shared the same readily-available materials in the form of the trees growing on them.

With Outpost Bay, the main building was once a warehouse-come-seafood market, the original signage conjuring images of fishing boats coming alongside and their catch going from boat through cleaning to sale.

Now, however, the building serves as a café-come-store (do note that the doors are phantom, rather than opening, so just walk through them). It’s a little tired inside, to be sure – perhaps a statement to its frequent use – but there is more seating outside on a wooden deck for those who prefer.

The one exception to the dominance of wooden buildings in both settings is the tall white tower of Outpost Bay’s lighthouse. This looks out over a rocky corner of the island which might cause boats passing along the channel between it and the next island over.

With the lighthouse and café located on the east side of the island, the rest is relatively open as a wild garden which partially surrounds the cafe’s deck before giving way to a cosy beach alongside a short, rocky length of coastline.

The sands of the beach is patrolled by godwits and watched over by ibis whilst offering humans a place to relax and enjoy the summer Sun.

There is a main path wandering through the setting, and it does so in a manner intended to reveal rather than simply lead, winding out from the cafe’s deck it gently reaches out to the lighthouse and the beach, allowing people to gently explore and discover many of the little touches Sorcha has placed around the setting.

In all – and as I noted with The Boathouse Café – Outpost Bay is an utterly delightful setting with a lot to offer for those seeking to relax and those wishing to take photos. Individually or taken together, these are locations well worth visiting.

Slurl Details

• Outpost Bay (Moonlight Bloom, rated Moderate)

In my previous Exploring Second life piece, I wrote about Storywood Sanctuary, noting that it is one of two settings located in the Mainland continent of Heterocera designed by the Wild Abundance team. The other of these locations is The Swaying Shelf, sitting a little further to the east along Mock Heather Road, and which I also recently visited.

Around twice the size of Storywood Sanctuary, The Swaying Shelf contains themes and motifs in keeping with the former whilst offering its own character and nature.

There is no set Landing Point, but a pair of tree houses (the excellent Yara Treehouse by Cory Edo) sit close to the roadside, one of which acts as the entrance from the road – just climb and descend the steps. As this delivers visitors from the road to the setting’s footpath, I’ve arbitrarily used a SLurl in this piece which will drop you more-or-less onto the same spot on the footpath.

The path forms a loop around an arbour on its opposite side to the tree houses.  Draped in vines and with grass for a carpet, the arbour sits as a cosy reading room complete with rocking chair and blazing fire in the hearth.

Pointing eastwards, the path, lit by lanterns – the setting had its own day / night cycle – makes its way past another tree house, this one atop a tree apparently growing out of a storybook, before weaving its way to where a gate provides access to the Greenwitch Cafe.

Whilst larger than Storybook Sanctuary, The Swaying Shelf is more open in nature, just the one path winding through it and most of the land is give over to trees and flowers. Which is not to say it is not without its own little details worth looking out for; in this regard, do be careful where you tread when you’re approaching the gate to the café next door.

Sitting in a parcel of just 1024 sq metres, The Greenwitch Café sits just over the region boundary from The Swaying Shelf.

As a part of The Nature Collective, the café has been designed by the extended Cerulean family under the Le’eaf & Co banner. This talented group are responsible for many such builds beautifying corners of Mainland, a good few of which I’ve covered in these pages, as well as operating the Cerulean estate, which I’ve also written about several times.

Savour garden-to-table meals in a queer-owned, cannabis-friendly café nestled in the Lake District, surrounded by forest and blooms. Everything is grown on-site — from herbs to healing plants. A cosy, magical LGBTQIA+ friendly retreat.

– Greenwitch Café About Land description

Apparently utilising a converted shipping container as its structure, the café offers outdoor seating on the wooden deck placed before it and on its roof, there latter reached by a set of outside stairs to one side of the deck. Additional seating for visitors sits just to the right of the entrance gates in the form of a small pergola neatly and cosily set with furnishings and décor.

As the About Land description and signs on and around the café make clear, this is a place to enjoy a drink or two and nibble on something sweet or savoury – or which may well give a person a certain buzz, shall we say.

The Landing Point sits between between the sweep of Mock Heather Road and the gabled gates providing access to the café’s grounds, it being only a few steps from the gates to either the café or the pergola.

Bees and Silkies – Chinese silk chickens – are cared for here, and it’s easy to assume the honey produced by the former finds its way into and onto some of café’s offerings. Eggs from Silkies are known to be especially rich in favour, so its likely some of these also find their way into the cafés kitchen – although Silkies are often kept as much for pets / exhibition birds as they are for their eggs. Towards the back of the land is a neat little area with pagan / occult-ish vibes – and with a neat little twist on the idea of Tarot cards.

Surrounded by tall fir trees and wild grasses, the café also shares its space with the local squirrels – do be careful where you tread on the deck! – whilst a barn owl keeps an eye on all that goes on. I admit to finding the parcel’s Shared Environment leaning a little towards the dim side and so played around with the Sun position to brighten things a little (rather than playing with the HDR slider), but that’s purely a personal thing.

Taken individually or as a joint visit (no pun intended given the nature of the café!), The Swaying Shelf and The Greenwitch Café again demonstrate how small corners of the Mainland can be turned into welcoming little spaces for people to freely enjoy.

Slurl Details

• The Swaying Shelf (Itame, rated Moderate)
• The Greenwitch Café (Notata, rated Moderate)

It was sort-of back on the road in Mainland for me after catching a Tweet from Hico Spicy concerning her Hi-Café, tucked away on the northern arc of Heterocera’s Route 3. This is an utterly charming little corner of SL, lovingly packed into less that 1,500 sq metres to present a restful environment rich in colour and with a sense of fun, ideal for relaxing within and take photos.

With the rainy season at hi-cafe over, the season has shifted from hydrangeas to sunflowers! I hope you can enjoy the full-on summer atmosphere

– From Hico’s Tweet

Set a little back from the main road, the café / bakery offers its own bus stop, with two entrances to its garden space, the smaller passing by way of a newspaper and magazine stand to the one side of the building, and a larger one complete with a greeting to the regions the café is both with and faces, whilst leading to the other side.

Being effectively double-front in design, the building – which is of Hico’s own design and available in her Marketplace store – naturally lends itself to something of a mirrored setting, with brick-edged paths bordering it to either side which are in turn bordering by long, rectangular ponds.

The footpaths contrast nicely with the paving of the courtyard within which the café sits, whilst the trees lined up between each path and pond provide welcome shade.

The setting is surrounded by brick walls, giving it a nice sense of calm and separation from its surrounding without feeling overly enclosed. Even the tall viaduct-like bridge marking the back of the setting fits well with the scene, both blending with the trees and providing an arched space before which an aged tree grows, bench seating and a busker’s music stand under its spreading branches.

Given the paved nature of the courtyard, the majority of the trees have been trained up through tree grates which are also home to many of the sunflowers that give bright bursts of colour to the place, and which can be found in brick-built planters and the brick-retained front garden space.

Further depth is given to the setting through the use of signs and advertising boards, splashes of graffiti on the surrounding walls and the richness of the décor in and around the café. I couldn’t help but smile at a lot of the signage, such as the chalkboard noting that Our coffee is an experience that chalk is unable to convey.

Cats appear to be the overlords here as well; they keep an eye on things from various vantage points, and one appears to be prepared to help out in cleaning up dropped ice cream cones – although admittedly, the cherry which presumably once topped the ice cream is the centre of his attention.

A cosy, memorable place to visit – limited rezzing for photographic is available via joining the local group, but please do clean-up when done!

Slurl Details

• Hi-Café (Sprawler, rated Moderate)

I’ve always enjoyed Sorcha Tyles’ region and parcel builds over the years, so back in June I was happy to drop into her latest (at the time of writing) endeavour: The Boathouse Café as I resumed my occasional visits to various cafes and coffee houses in Second Life.

Occupying a waterfront parcel (hence the name) just over 3,000 square metres in size, The Boathouse is presented by Sorcha under her Dutch Pavilion banner and offers a setting which, unsurprisingly and very cosily has much in common with other designs under that banner and which I’ve covered in these pages (notably Wild Silence, which I visited in late 2025 and June 2025’s iteration of Dutch Pavilion itself) – although leaning perhaps a little more into a Nordic theme in keeping with elements of the estate within which it resides.

A rustic Nordic hangout by the sea. Grab fresh fish & chips on the shipyard side, or escape into the wild, wind-swept garden with a cosy coffee. Unwind to the sounds of gulls and waves.

– The Boathouse About Land description

The café itself takes the form of a converted smokehouse with some limited moorings available – the surrounding rocks tend to dissuade attempts to come alongside at least at low tide, as does what’s left of one boat which apparently tried! Most of the high-set wharf is therefore given to outdoor setting to the front of the café, with fish & chips being offered outside as a treat.

Inside, the café has something of that Boho, informal look where whatever might have been available / obtained from local markets has been used for furnishings. This results in chairs and tables with a decidedly vintage 1970s or 1980s style to them mixing with more modern bar-style high chairs, together with a rustic-style food and beverage kitchen / counter space. Eclectic it might be, but it is also very relaxed and cosy.

To the rear of the building is a garden space which very much offers memories of Wild Silence, etc., in its informality and wildling growths of grass and plants.

The deck here has, admittedly, seen better days and could result in some stern words from a passing health and safety executive, but this doesn’t detract from the pies and other scoffables available nor does it prevent the cafe’s cats and dogs appreciating it as a place to catch some Sun.

A gravel path runs around the garden from the wharf and back, presenting the opportunity to walk off any extra weight that might have been felt to have been gained whilst eating, together with some swings for adults or kids to enjoy. There are numerous places to sit throughout the garden, including one on the water and another over it in the form of another deck.

A jet ski also sits on the water by the garden, but fortunately, it is not open to general use so it won’t end up causing interruptions for those trying to relax as it is buzzed around the island.

Those with a romantic inclination or who simply enjoy dancing can avail themselves of a dance system tucked into a corner – although the best place to dance is possible in the garden rather than around where the system has been placed J .  If fishing is more your style, that is also available!

In all, a delightful and easy-going visit; however, one point of note: do not remain in one place for too long, as you might be teleported home if you don’t reply to a pop-up dialogue requesting you confirm you are still at your keyboard.

Slurl Details

• The Boathouse Café (Moonlight Bloom, rated Moderate)

So, Halloween has now passed, and we’re in the end-of-year headlong rush into winter, snow, sledding and suchlike, pausing briefly along the way at US Thanksgiving before we resume the annual end-of-year surge of wintertime activities. Because this time of year can feel like a whirlwind of Things To Do And To See, it is sometimes good to find the time to take a little breather and decompress – and that’s exactly what the Nom Nom Café Library allows us to do.

Occupying an 8192 square metres parcel towards the western end of Corsica, this is a place which literally stands head-and-shoulders above its surroundings, sitting as it does atop a flat-topped mesa rising some 90 metres above the nearby sea floor. The creation of Spooky Treat, Nom Nom Café Library is a cosy, autumnal (at the time of my visit – not sure if it get redressed with the passing seasons) setting some may recognise from the official Linden Lab June 2023 video demonstrating the upcoming SL Mobile viewer (as shown during the SL20B celebrations).

Between lush green trees, grass, and an abundance of flowers the Nom Nom Cafe Library awaits you. Relax inside with some delicious cake, a book, cats, or cuddle up at one of the various spots surrounding the Cafe. Bring your friends and loved ones over for a night at the campfire or simply enjoy some alone time. A refuge for not only the LGBTQIA+ community but also all allies, created with love. ♥

– Spooky Treat describing Nom Nom Café Library

Given its perch, the best way to reach the café is via SLurl / LM to the landing point, which will drop you onto the path leading up to the café itself. This takes the form of the Nicolina Pavilion by Cory Edo, which Spooky and modded a little to provide a comfortable main café space to the front, the walls to either side carrying a multitude of books which allow the café to more than adequately live up to the “library” part of its name.

A little service area towards the rear of the pavilion separates front from back, the latter providing something of a fireside snug overlooking the grounds behind the café. This view is also shared by a balcony area directly over the snug and reached via a little staircase to one side of the service counter. Within both the snug and on the balcony above, more books await avid readers as they sip their coffee or nibble on some of the treats also available.

Flanking the café to west and east, both close enough to be within easy reach but far enough to offer their own circles of restfulness, sit two outdoors spaces. One, reached via the cobble surrounding the café’s fountain, presents a little storytelling / reading circle  around a warm fire pit, marshmallows ready for roasting. A chalkboard to one side offers the opportunity for a little self-expression; just click on one of the pieces of coloured chalk and start drawing (and click between the colours to change them or click the eraser to wipe the board), and the place is friendly enough to have encouraged a couple of local crabs to forward the waterfront down below the café’s mesa and scale the rocky heights to enjoy a little fireside dance!

To the west, and reached by passing through a little arch arcing between two short walls, is a place of promised mystery: a circle of standing stones, some with hollows cut through them so small torch-like fires might be lit. A table in the middle offers a chance for repast – or it would, barring the fact turkeys and squirrels appear to be availing themselves of the meal; better then, perhaps to retire to the hammock on one side of the circle and partake of the cookies on offer there!

A further path leads outwards from this circle to reach another little round pavilion. It’s roof fitted with glass to ward off any rain that happens by, it encompasses wicker chairs and a sofa, all with plump cushions, being one of a number of additional places awaiting discovery among the trees and grasses covering the mesa’s head. So of these are easy to find, others might actually be easy to miss – so do take time to look around (and up!) carefully during a visit. For those who enjoy a friendly table-top game, the open space between the camp fire circle and the café (complete with its little celebration of Moles) might be just the ticket.

Finished with an accompanying soundscape and rich in the company of pets and critters, the Nom Nom Café Library makes for an engaging and relaxing visit!

SLurl Details

• Nom Nom Café Library (Jolnir, rated General)