Coffee places in Tilburg as linguistic landscapes

While we were sitting in ‘Beans & Bites’, drinking our cups of coffee, and looking at the menu, we just realized that we were sitting in a ‘real’ linguistic landscape. Coffee places are not only about socializing and enjoying a good cup of coffee anymore but they are also a form of cultural expression. There is more to coffee places in Tilburg than what meets the eye: they are diverse and complex, and there are interesting stories to uncover. 

In this article, we will investigate three coffee places in Tilburg that are in some ways similar, but in other ways completely different. We are going to analyze ‘Stoom 013’, ‘Brownies&downieS’, and ‘Mr. Morris’, which are located in different spots around the city (Figure 1), through the analytical framework of LLA(Linguistic Landscape Analysis) by using the three analytic perspectives or arrows (past or origins, presen, and future) to what visible language in public spaces says about a particular area. The overall perspective is that in times of globalization, visible language and other semiotic signs reflect the mobility of people, languages, and cultures.

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The story of Stoom 013

Stoom 013 (Figure 2) is located in De Spoorzone (the Rail Area), close to the train station. That area had been a work place of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS, Dutch Railways) until they sold the site to the municipality of Tilburg in 2010. The municipality decided to turn it into a breeding ground of creative pioneering, of which Hall Of Fame, a cultural workplace, is a good example. Behind this center, Stoom 013 would see the light of day. It started as an adventure of Bob Caarels and Lucas Willem Fikken, two friends who wanted to start their own coffee place. Next to Hall Of Fame stood an old train wagon, which had not been used for years. Since the center had not yet found a destination for it, the vehicle was donated to Caarels and Fikken so they could realize their dream. There was much work to be done, the wagon was in bad shape and needed to be changed into a catering facility. Brand new coffee bar Stoom 013 opened its doors on April 28th, 2017. 

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Name and logo

The name is a combination of the noun ‘Stoom’ and a series of numbers, ‘013’. Stoom is a Dutch word; it means ‘steam’ in English. It is a reference to the steam that used to be produced by trains, as the coffee place is, in fact, an old train compartment. The second part is ‘013’. 013 can be in any language, but because the other part of the name is in Dutch, it is safe to consider ‘013’ also as Dutch. 013 is a symbolic reference as well. Tilburg, just like any city in the Netherlands, has an access for telephone numbers. Tilburg’s number is ‘013’. So you could say that the name Stoom 013 points to and thus is indexical for its history and its location.

The name Stoom 013, is also part of the logo (Figure 3), in which it is placed between two lines. Underneath it, there is a subtitle that says ‘- koffie en koek -’, which is Dutch for coffee and cookie. The name and the reference to the products have been placed in front of a graphic drawing of the front side of a locomotive. The words are written in bold capital letters. The logo is white and is placed on a light blue background, on the right of the side of the wagon. The name and logo, combined with the shape of the coffee bar (train wagon), construct Stoom 013’s arrow to the past, in LLA terms.

On the same side as the logo, you can find the coffee place’s opening times: OPEN VAN 8.30 T 17.30. Next to it is a painting of a coffee cup with wings. We cannot be certain, but we think this is meant as a nod to the wagon’s past, as an old sign from the (international) railways is a winged wheel, which was also the logo of the NS until 1946 . The logo and the other described signs can be seen in Figure 3. 

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Other semiotic signs

Besides the name and the company's logo, there are also other semiotic signs that draw the attention of customers. Above the stairs that lead to the entrance hangs a metal plate in the shape of a set of train tracks. This sign also says Stoom 013, with underneath it another sign that says ‘koffie cultuur' (coffee culture) (Figure 2). A sign above the door says ‘Koffie & Koek’ to make people who pass by aware that this is a place that serves coffee and cookies. Both words begin with a capital ‘K’ and are presented in white. On the door, just above the doorknob a silver-colored plate is placed that says ‘trekken’ (pull). Both can be seen in Figure 4.

Inside the wagon is a black chalkboard. In white handwriting, you can read which coffees, teas and other drinks you can order, accompanied by the prices. The menu (Figure 5) is mostly in Dutch, but there are also English words like ‘vegan’ or ‘special’ and global coffee names. At the top of the board, you can read the words ‘Stoom 013’, ‘Specialty’, ‘Coffee’ and ‘Tilburg.’

The arrow pointing to the present, the emplacement of Stoom 013, is the combination of the above described signs. And because it is a combination of language and other signs, the linguistic landscape of said coffee bar is multimodal.
 

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Customers

Based on the fact that both Dutch and English are present in the linguistic landscape of the coffee place, you could say that it addresses local and international people. However, the majority of signs are in Dutch. This means that the customers are supposed to be literate in Dutch. They also need to be somewhat familiar with the city of Tilburg and have knowledge about certain areas, especially the Spoorzone area, because otherwise, they would not be able to find this particular coffee bar. If you have a taste for non-chain little shops and coffee places than Stoom 013 would be the perfect place for you.

It can be considered ‘green’ because it serves artisan coffee and home-made cookies made from fair-trade and biological products. All ingredients come from local sources so that they can be picked up preferably by bike. So another indexical is caring about the environment and about authenticity. The following signs point to that index and that type of customer.

Above one of the windows, there is a neon sign that reads ‘Bocca’ (Figure 6). Stoom 013 uses Bocca beans to make its signature coffees. Bocca Coffee is an Amsterdam-based coffee brand that roasts and trades organic fair-trade coffee beans from Africa, Central America, and South America. Bocca owns the entire production chain of its coffee and works together with its farmers to make sure they get a decent price for their product. The word bocca means ‘mouth’ in Italian, however as we did not get an answer from the company why it is named ‘Bocca’ Coffee, we cannot say what the story behind the name is. 

Near the entrance is a cup of steaming coffee with a drawing of an animal on it (Figure 7). It looks like an Ethiopian donkey, often used by farmers to work the land. As many of the coffee beans from Bocca are harvested in Africa, and especially in Ethiopia as that is where Bocca’s story began, it is convincing that this sign points to the origin of the coffee that is served at Stoom 013. Even more so, if we take another look at the menu in Figure 5, one of the special drinks is ‘Ethiopia-reko’ coffee. 

On the other side of the stairs, there is a board that says ‘ChariTea’(Figure 8). ChariTea is a tea company based in Hamburg, Germany. It produces and sells fair-trade and organic tea and iced tea. The sign also says ‘fresh coffee to go.’ So customers can not only take a seat to have their fair-trade cup of coffee or tea; they can also grab a cup and take it with them on the road. 

These signs point to the vision of the coffee place and make up the future perspective of Stoom 013, meaning the intended customers who come here for their favorite cup of artisan, organic coffee or tea.

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The story of Brownies&downieS

The story of the cafeteria Brownies&downieS started in a very special place, namely the Bernadette School in the town of Oss. Bernadette School is a place for people with special needs, where the owner of the cafeteria, Thijs Swinkels, did an internship. At the same time, he had a side job as an assistant cook at Hutten, a large catering company in Veghel. After his internship, Thijs wanted to do something with both his experience from the school and his love of cooking. He came up with the idea of a cafeteria in which there would be a place for people with intellectual disabilities. Thus, the connection between Bernadette School and the owner Thijs constitutes the past of Brownies&downieS.

After months of preparation, the first ‘Brownies&downieS’ opened in Veghel, 2010. The concept enjoyed enormous success despite all kinds of difficulties. The high-quality dishes in combination with the unique service of the special employees created a new concept for this branch in the Netherlands. The coffee place grew during the years and opened 40 cafeterias throughout the whole of Holland, and thus, Brownies&downieS in Tilburg opened its doors in April 2018. 

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Name and logo

Looking at the past arrows of Brownies&downieS, the name functions as a logo for the cafeteria, as well. Figure 10 shows the front window of Brownies & downieS where the logo of the cafeteria is displayed, and this contains an interesting meaning. The name can be analyzed by dividing it into two parts. The first part is the word ‘brownies’, which refers to the dessert ‘brownie’; the coffee place aims it makes the best brownies. The second part is the word ‘downies’; ‘downie' is a slang word referring to a person with Down syndrome. Half of the employees in Brownies&downieS are people with that syndrome. 

The logo, like most signs, is multimodal. This means that there are different elements to the signs such as words, colors, and shapes that operate to improve the audience’s reception of the text (Blommaert, 2016). Therefore, we need to zoom in on ‘downieS’ in order to see why it has a capital ‘S’. The indexical meaning could be that ‘S’ refers to ‘syndrome’ or that it might mean that the cafeteria wanted to underline the word as a plural due to the fact that there is more than one person with Down syndrome working at ‘Brownies&downieS’. 

Furthermore, the cafeteria could be inspired by ‘Amsterdam ArenA’, which also has a specific style of writing in its logo, playing with the symmetry of capital letters at the beginning and end. ‘Amsterdam ArenA’ is the main sports stadium in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. Before the 25th of April 2017 the logo was ‘Amsterdam Arena’, but after that the date, the stadium changed its name to „Johan Cruijff Arena" in memory of Ajax legend Johan Cruyff (Wikipedia, 2019), and therefore its logo changed as well. From ‘Amsterdam Arena’ to ‘Amsterdam ArenA’ with capital ‘A’ in the end, with the aim idea to underline the fact that the legendary football player John Cruyff was not from some random football club, but from Ajax, one of the most popular football clubs in the Netherlands. 

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Customers

The name of Brownies&downieS constructs the identity of the customers. The coffee place has an American flavor, because they do not just serve brownies but also make them a central element in the name and the logo. The people who made the logo and the owner, as well, aim to address people who want to have a cup of coffee while eating a delicious American-style brownie, served by a Downie. Also, as the name is in English ‘Brownies&downieS’ tries to be more international than local. This could be due to the fact that there are one hundred and two nationalities in Tilburg (Holland International Study Center, 2018) and the cafeteria is placed in one of the central shopping districts (Pieter Vreedeplein). It may be more profitable to present themselves on a global scale. Therefore, from a future perspective, the sign in Figure 10, by what is saying and to whom, constructs the identity of potential customers.

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Visible signs

In order to analyze Brownies&downieS from the present arrow of LLA, we need to see how the signs are emplaced in the area and what their purpose is, because as Blommaert (2013) states, “signs are placed in a specific space, a nonrandom place, and their emplacement defines their effects.” The square in which Brownies&downieS is situated, the Pieter Vreedeplein, is a shopping center with clothing stores, shops for technology, and other cafeterias (e.g. La Place and Lokaal Zeven). Thus, the coffee place needs to place its signs in a visible way. 

In order to catch the attention of customers, Brownies&downieS decided to display its logo sign on the front window, as we already saw (Figure 10), and there is another logo sign outside of the cafeteria, on the sidewalk (Figure 11). However, this particular sign is not the usual coffee sign that most such places have. The visual sign of Brownies&downieS consists of flowerpots, which surround the cafeteria, and the logo is placed on them. It would be rather interesting to know why they decided to present themselves this way, but maybe the reason is that they wanted to show people that they are not a typical coffee place. Furthermore, Brownies&downieS is a modern style cafeteria and as such, an aesthetic means of attraction is considered more important than a big, massive sign in front. 

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Mr. Morris 

The final coffee place we decided to investigate is Mr. Morris. We found it by accident while trying to find a place to drink our Sunday morning coffee. We were surprised by the super-diversity of the public. There were students with laptops, families with kids, people looking like hipsters, old couples and men in suits.

Mr. Morris is located in Tilburg's city center. We could not, unfortunately, find information about its opening, but we did find out that it was not founded in Tilburg. At first, it was located near the train station in Eindhoven. According to the last comment on Tripadvisor in July of 2018 it was still located in Eindhoven. Since we did not receive answers from the management of Mr. Morris, we can only assume that the choice of a central location is profitable. Since it is very near to the shopping street and exactly in the city center of Tilburg, it is easily accessible for citizens who are walking nearby. Most of us would most probably rather go to the city center for a good cup of coffee than to the edges of the city. 

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Name and logo

Looking from a past perspective, the name of the cafeteria ‘Mr. Morris’ is written in English, but there is no evidence that it is meant for English speaking people; it might be used because English is the world's most powerful major language or it just might look “hipsterious”. But wait… Who is Mr. Morris?

-The logo of the coffee place is constructed of two parts – the name and a picture (Figure 13). We see the logo of ‘Mr. Morris’ as identity work. “Identity work as discursive orientations towards sets of features that are seen (or can be seen) as emblematic of particular identities” (Blommaert and Varis, 2013, 2015). In other words, the logo enables us to construct the identity of Mr. Morris' persona. Analyzing the picture, we conclude that this persona is a hipster man, because of the glasses, the haircut, and the beard, which are emblematic indexes of hipster culture. However, he is not a traditional hipster, but a modern one, as he is obviously wearing a suit. This identity refers to the people who visit the cafeteria, its customers. 

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Customers

Focusing on the future LLA arrow, the identity of Mr. Morris' persona addresses the customer. The cafeteria is a typical hipster barista space with modern vintage design and offering drinks and meals made out of local products, served on eco-friendly plates. However, as was mentioned above, the place attracts a very diverse public, including hipsters who perhaps want to enjoy an old-style barista coffee and a meal, presented in a trendy way, which is perfect to be photographed and posted as a picture or a story on Instagram (additional pictures). 

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Visible languages

As we already observed, the name of the cafeteria is written in English; however, if we look more closely at the front window (Figure 13), we see that there is another item of visible language above the logo. The text says in Dutch “ontbijt-lunch-borrel”, which translates as breakfast-lunch-drinks. It is interesting why the cafeteria has decided to place the text in Dutch, and not only in English. Presumably they wish to present themselves on a local level.

Also, it is interesting that the Dutch menu of ‘Mr. Morris’ (Figure 15) is not completely in Dutch. The description of the meals and drinks are in Dutch, as are the opening hours and any other additional information, but the name of the meals are in English and, moreover, very unusual. There can be various reasons for this. First, the English language can be used as a method to attract international people. Second, it could be based on the idea that names in English will sound more “hipsterious” than in Dutch. Let’s take a look at the unusual names: “Avocado Egg”, “What the…Chicken”, and “The Greatest”. Meals with authentic or unusual names reportedly attract more costumers than meals with basic or traditional names (Tešanović, Banjac, Kalenjuk & Radivojević, 2016). Therefore, the names of meals might impact the guest’s choice. 

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In conclusion

In conclusion, these three coffee places eare effects of globalization. They are complex, diverse, dynamic, and at the same time examples of linguistic landscapes and multimodality. From our observations, we can definitely state that ‘Stoom 013’, ‘Brownies&downieS’, and ‘Mr. Morris’ have some similarities, but at the same time are very different from each other. Therefore, they are superdiverse and attract a broad audience. These cafeterias are not only to be seen as places to get coffee, but also as forms of cultural expression.

 

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References:

Blommaert, J. (2013) Chronicles of complexity. Ethnography, superdiversity, and linguistic landscapes. Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies nr. 29.

Blommaert, J. & Maly, I. (2016), Ethnographic linguistic landscape analysis and social change: A case study. In: Karel Arnaut et al (Eds.), Language and superdiversity. New York//London, Routledge, 197-217.

Maly, I. and Varis, P. (2015), The 21st century hipster: on micro-population in times of superdiversity. Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies, p.4

Tešanović D., Banjac M., Kalenjuk B. & Radivojević G. (2016). The impact of the names of dishes on the guest’s choice of restaurant food. Resources as a basic for achieving quality and destination competitiveness, 169-173. Retrieved from: DOI: 10.15308/Sitcon-2016-169-173

Wikipedia, 2019, “Johan Cruyff Arena” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Cruyff_Arena

https://www.browniesanddownies.nl/geschiedenis

https://www.hollandisc.com/blog/categories/university/5-reasons-to-stud…

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g188582-d10757886-Reviews…

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