Here we all sit, sipping our expertly crafted beverages, peering into our screens, and occasionally looking around and wondering, who are you?

We are here because we love coffee, because we love this particular coffeehouse, and this time of day, and its atmosphere, and its distance to our homes. We have a lot in common just by being there, and yet, we silo ourselves into our phones and laptops, trading glances and micro-expressions like a frenzied game of visual tag.

Montebello and his post was the ultimate ice breaker. Crashing through our frozen sensibilities to simply ask what we are all thinking. Does your coffee shop have a Montebello? Mine doesn’t. So we made one.

The above is a local web URL, which means that anything you see there comes from someone close by, within a few miles. And anything you post will also be seen by those in the area. It’s just a URL, so it will require your browsers location.

/coffeehouseconnect is a way to connect everyone in coffee shops staring into their phones already. Post what you are working on, what you see, your day dreams, and shower thoughts. But only do so when you are at your local coffee house. Others will do the same, and once the ice is broken, perhaps you can look up from your screen and share a wink, a nod, or a second latte with your new friend.

The local web and /coffeehouseconnect is an experiment that can be run in any coffee serving establishment in the world. See for yourself, and if you are the first person in your area to use /coffeehouseconnect, feel free to get the conversation going. Montebello was the start, but you are the next step.