The appearance of coffee in Europe in the 17th century provided the people with another reason to associate in public places. Even though it wasn’t the only beverage imbibed in public places, coffee attracted a lot of people that didn’t usually frequent such establishments, including aristocracy. So, it is not surprising that the cafés quickly became very popular throughout Europe as well as in Poland. Although they were already a favourite meeting place for artists and writers, the break of 19th and 20th century, thanks to the Young Poland artists, marked the beginning of the café as a literary institution. Former literary saloons, although they survived until the Great War, slowly lost their popularity and their role was taken over by literary cafés. Therefore, literary cafés were becoming the main meeting places for people from various social fields who gathered there to discuss various topics, from politics, literature, art, theatre to local gossip. Turlinski café popularly called Pod Paonem is considered the first literary café. The most famous cafés during the period of Young Poland, along with Turlinski café which became the role model for all other literary cafés, were Jama Michalika, famous for the first artistic cabaret Zielony Balonik, as well as Udziałowa and Miki. In the period between the two world wars we should highlight literary cafés Pod picadorem and Ziemiańska which owe their glory mostly to the literary evenings of the Skamander group. Each of the mentioned cafés had its own main star, in the period of Young Poland those were individual personalities (Przybyszevski), while in the period between wars that role was taken over by poetry groups, (Skamander). Literary café stars surrounded themselves with other poets and artists with whom they developed a kind of literary exchange. Due to their activity and popularity, they helped shape the polish literary thought of the 20th century.