So my dear friend Quinn (who has just very recently left Paris for the Land Down Under to follow her ♥ -but she will be back someday, let’s say in like 2-3 years…) has been going to a café in the 9th for well over a year. And she has been going, religiously. I think she’s still the Mayor on Foursquare even though she is no longer in Paris! She kept telling me to go there, and me never “finding the time” to hike over there put it off and off. And then Quinn left… 🙁 Her café of choice? : Kooka Boora.

And then, I posted a little blog about two other cafés in Paris that I visited with Mary of Fox in Paris. And a lovely lady named Kathryn made a comment about another café that I should visit which she called KB. I, have the memory of a blue fish, did not put two and two together. And decided to trek over there on my next day off to check it out.

The Front of the café doesn’t have any really large and visible name splashed over the awnings, so upon arrival I still had no clue. I stood in line, took some pictures and made my choice off their lovely chalkboard menu…

I sat down with my charming little wooden number tag (N°18) and waited for my chai latté to be brought to me. There was a friendly looking chap sitting next to me whom I approached with a question about the café’s wifi. We ended up chatting for hours. Very interesting (and talented) dude. But when he told me the name of the wifi connection, I finally realized where I was. The Kooka Boora café. Quinn’s spot. There is a constant flow of people who occupy the cute cube chairs or the shared tables and bar with a bay window view of the place outside. THis is prime real-estate, so people flock to it. And there is a super ecclectic crowd willing to share and meet with strangers and like-minds. In addition to very-interesting-and-talented-dude, I also ran into my friend Pascal of Carré Royal! Ah Paris is such a small world!

It did make me a bit sad, to finally be here after she had already left town. But I am thrilled about finding this place. It has everything that a coffee spot should! Soy milk, first and foremost! Free unlimited great wifi. Comfy places to sit and an easy ambiance that makes it perfectly alright to chat with the stranger next to you, and hence widen your network, entertain someone else’s ideas about the world and share you own.

There is an amount of friendliness in this café that I have not seen since I left California. (I lived there a couple times when I was 18 and 21). It was a friendliness that I needed, and it landed on me with perfect timing. Good people. Good coffee. Good ambiance. SOLD!

Kooka Boora café

53 avenue Trudaine 75009

http://www.facebook.com/CafeShopSouthPigalle