Welcome to Coffee House Newsroom

At this hour, seven Washington Post reporters are fanning out to coffee spots throughout the D.C. area. By this evening, they will post stories here on Story Lab that they have identified, reported and written starting out in the coffee house to which they were assigned. Their only specific mission is to find a story that tells us something important about this part of the world at this point in history. They have carte blanche to define that task as broadly or narrowly as they wish.

Navigate this story: Check out our #storylab Twitter feed or our photos.

You can keep up with them throughout the day here on the blog, where they will be tweeting and sending occasional photos. Then, from Wednesday night through Thursday at 5 p.m., you'll be able to read their stories here and vote in our reader poll to select which of the seven stories most effectively captures this time and place. The winner of that contest will be published in Friday's print and online editions of The Washington Post, along with excerpts of the other pieces.

In a later phase of this experiment, we'll be asking you about the important themes and issues that we completely missed in these stories, and we'll be making story assignments based on your recommendations and comments. Throughout today and the rest of this venture, your comments and reactions are welcome on the comment boards below or on Twitter.

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Photos