FoodLover1 wrote:Thank you to both of you for your speedy replies! And a special thanks to 'Tom' for that short article that I bookmarked. So to 'nsxtasy', a bistro is similar to a cafe?
Not exactly. In general, a cafe is a coffeehouse, and usually refers to the kind of place where many of the customers stop by just for coffee and/or a light snack, not necessarily a whole meal, although that's often available as well. By contrast, a bistro is a casual, moderately-priced restaurant, where most customers go for a meal. French bistros, in particular, tend to have certain casual French favorites, like cassoulet, coq au vin, onion soup, etc. You can check out the website menus for popular French bistros around Chicago, like
La Sardine,
Kiki's, and
Bistro Campagne, and contrast them with
Everest, the longtime high-end French restaurant. These days, though, the term "bistro" is often used for places that are not strictly French, such as contemporary American restaurants like
Deleece and
Campagnola, which share the same coziness (small size), casual (but slightly upscale) atmosphere, and moderate prices of the French versions.
Of course, like most language issues, this merely describes how the terms are most commonly used. You may find variations from one person's usage to another, and common usage can change over time.