Café Society

Café society was the collective description for the so-called "Beautiful People" and "Bright Young Things" who gathered in fashionable cafes and restaurants in New York, Paris, London, Vienna, or Istanbul, beginning in the late 19th century.

Although members of café society were not necessarily members of The Establishment or other ruling class groups, they were people who attended each other's private dinners and balls, took holidays in exotic locations or at elegant resorts, and whose children tended to marry the children of other café society members.

In the United States, café society came to the fore with the end of Prohibition in December 1933 and the rise of photo journalism, to describe the set of people who tended to do their entertaining semi-publicly, in restaurants and night clubs and who would include among them movie stars and sports celebrities. Some of the American night clubs and New York City restaurants frequented by the denizens of café society included El Morocco, the Stork Club, and the 21 Club.

In the late 1950s the term "Jet Set" began to take the place of "café society", but "café society" may still be used informally in some countries to describe people who habitually visit coffeehouses and give their parties in restaurants rather than at home