Leah Leman and Joy Mason knew coffeehouses as friendly gathering places long before they met and began running one of their own.

“We both realized separately, before we even were friends, that we both sought out coffeeshops in our travels,” Leman said. “It was such a welcoming community place to find even when you’re traveling but especially when it’s in your own neighborhood.”

For the past seven years, Leman and Mason have operated Limestone Coffee & Tea, 8 W. Wilson St. in Batavia, with that same sense of warmth in mind.

Other business owners around the Kane County Magazine coverage area share that approach. After all, if you’re going to serve drinks designed to perk people up, why not provide a lively atmosphere to match?

Like its counterparts, Arcedium Coffeehouse, 60 Indiana St. in St. Charles, thrives on organic networking — the kind where a patron might stroll in alone, notice a fellow customer’s shirt or hat that sparks recognition, and strike up a conversation. Maybe even a friendship.

Organized gatherings are encouraged, too. In a recent social media post, Jason Alicea, an Elgin-based agent with American Family Insurance, praised Arcedium’s weekly hosting of the St. Charles Business Builders on Friday mornings.

Alicea called the Business Builders “an amazing business referral group where support and familia truly shine.”

He added: “If you’ve been curious about how our chapter can help you grow your business, build connections, and be part of a supportive familia, this is your chance.”

Arcedium, which recently was named “Finest” Coffee Shop in the Kane County’s Finest Contest, offers a private space for meetings, clubs, parties and special events. Reservations require a minimum of eight guests.

While Limestone also provides opportunities for private gatherings, some of its longest-standing traditions form naturally, even before customers start jockeying for table space.

Leman described a group of male runners who meet at daybreak — or earlier — before gathering at Limestone around opening time, 6 a.m. or shortly after.

Several writers’ groups also have called the shop home since Leman and Mason took over in 2018, including one that honors a late member with a memorial plaque on the wall.

For the owners, such gestures simply make sense. Leman said part of her job is “watching community just happen around us every day.”

Coffeehouses and tea shops continue to offer a place where conversation and camaraderie can brew — face to face and without distraction.

“In a world where everything has gone online – we order our groceries online and we order our clothes and we communicate via social media – it’s just the incredible importance of having a physical space to gather with friends or with co-workers,” Leman said. “Or people just come by themselves.

“We have a lady who comes in every day with her own ceramic mug. She gets her coffee, she sits down, and she reads a book at Limestone. She could do that in her house, but she chooses to come to a public place with other people to sit and do that.”

Others follow. They drink. They eat. They talk. They make community happen.