Part 2: How old is old when we’re talking coffee shops? (18th Century)

By Perry Luckett, CoffeeMan1

A short while ago, we launched a review of historic coffee houses by covering the ones established during the 17th century in Turkey, England, Vienna and France. Today, I’ll pick up with a chronological review of historic coffee houses from the 18th Century that are still operating and cover four geographical locations: Venice, Rome, and Padua (Italy), and Cairo (Egypt).

Venetian coffee house has cozy history of serving since 1720

Caffe Florian, Venice. Caffè Florian is the most famous Italian coffee house still operating on the Piazza San Marco in the shadow of the Campanile, the famous bell tower of Venice, Italy. [Beanbox] Floriano Francesconi founded it in December 1720 under the arcades of the Procurative Nuovo using the name “Alla Venezia Trionfante” (A Triumphant Venice), but it was later renamed in honor of its founder.

Café Florian is a main contender for the world’s longest continuing coffee house—with its 287 years of coffee service to its Venetian, Italian and international patrons—and takes its place among the city’s chief symbols. [Baskerville] The website recounts the establishment’s substantial role in Italian history, from its witness to the splendor and fall of the Serenissima Republic of Venice, to the secret conspiracies against French and then Austrian rule, and then to its use as a treatment center for the wounded during the 1848 uprising. [Krasny]

Famous patrons included Lord Byron, Marcel Proust, Charles Dickens, and the Venice-born womanizer Giovanni Giacomo Casanova. It was the only coffee house of the time to admit society women—long before progressive social movements normalized the practice, which may help explain why Casanova used it as a space for his romantic conquests. For centuries, it has had its own orchestra for live music. [Baskerville]

David Sancho 大衛 / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)

Today, Caffè Florian is a world-renowned brand with a contemporary art collection, an updated menu, and a line of commercial goods. In the gift shop, you’ll find Venetian rose tea alongside scented candles. Beginning in 1863, Caffè Florian housed the Expositions Internazionale d'Arte Contemporanea, which displayed work by the period’s distinguished artists. Its contemporary art exhibition, the Venice Biennale, has been running since 1893. [Krasny] While boasting a selection of coffees, fine wines, and culinary delicacies, Caffè Florian has also become a fixture of Venetian society by hosting events, exhibitions, and forums on music, art, and culture. [Parker]

Roman cafe has coffee covered for 260 years

Antico Caffè Greco, Rome. This is the oldest, and some say most elegant, cafe in Rome. A Greek immigrant, Nicola della Maddalena, opened it in 1760 not far from the Spanish Steps on 84 Via dei Condotti in the Piazza di Spagna.

Spanish Steps. Arnaud 25 / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-sa/3.0)

Caffe Greco’s rooms display signatures of the many former and famous patrons who frequented the place. They included English poets John Keats, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron, plus composers Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt, and Felix Mendelssohn. Others who have sipped coffee here include Mark Twain, Orson Welles, the composer Rossini, and Hans Christian Andersen, who lived on the upper levels. Memorabilia covers Buffalo Bill’s visit in 1890, when he swung by for coffee with a group of cowboys. Even the great German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe enjoyed his coffee here when travelling through Italy in 1786.

Caffè Greco Exterior. Allie Caulfield from Germany / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/2.0)

Today Caffè Greco still serves the writers, politicians, artists and notable people in Rome who’ve made it their home. Greek-Italian painter Giorgio De Chirico, who strongly influenced the surrealist painting movement of the early 20th Century, suggested this is the coffee house where you “sit and await the end.” [Baskerville] Three hundred works of art hang on the bar’s burgundy walls. [Parker] The cafe also draws a steady crowd of Roman residents and tourists, although its coffee doesn’t come cheap. Drinking an espresso while standing at the bar is a reasonable €1.70, but having it served at a table by one of the bow-tied staff costs €7. [Giuffrida]

Caffè Greco Interior. DIMSFIKAS / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

Sadly, drastic rent hikes starting in 2017 have jeopardized the café’s existence. Israelite Hospital – a privately run hospital that operates within Italy’s public health system – has owned the property for about 80 years. They want to raise the rent from 18,000 Euros to 120,000 Euros (nearly $132,000) per month. Carlo Pellegrini, the owner, says: “We would be ready to pay more rent to keep the cafe open but not six times the amount we’re paying now. I feel very angry, but we will fight this.” Fabio Perugia, a spokesman for the Israelite Hospital, insisted the bar wouldn’t close. “Caffè Greco has been there for 250 years and it will continue to be there,” he said. “The law says that nothing can be changed. The only difference will be a new manager.”

Indeed, Caffé Greco, its furnishings and artworks have been protected property since 1953, when the Italian government stipulated that no matter who manages the premises, the bar must remain intact. Italia Nostra, a heritage group, has joined the battle for the bar’s survival, organizing a series of cultural events in the days leading up to the potential closure. [Giuffrida] The business was granted multiple extensions which have postponed impending eviction since October 2019, but the dispute remains unresolved. [Parker]

Historic coffee house in Padua covers many purposes and spaces

Pedrocchi Café, Padua. In 1760 Pietro Zigno established this famous neo-classical Italian coffee house, which is one of the biggest coffee houses in the world. His nephew, Franceso Pedrocchi, took over the shop in 1772 and operated it until 1799. The coffee house is historically known for having been the center of the 1848 riots in Padua as well as for having been the meeting point of great artists such as the French novelist Stendhal, the English poet Lord Byron. It also was the favorite shop of Italian actor, playwright, and leftist agitator Dario Fo, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997. [Baskerville] The café now occupies a splendid 19th century building in the center of Padua, Italy.

Pedrocchi Café exterior. fabiola from genova, italia / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

After Franceso Pedrocchi died, his son Antonio expanded the cafe to cover the entire block. In 1826 Antonio asked the city to approve building a complete coffee plant, including areas for roasting coffee and ice-making. He also asked Giuseppe Jappelli, engineer and architect, to redesign the property. Jappelli had to integrate different buildings and facades into a single unit, creating an eclectic exterior with various facades. [Wiki 1]

From the early years, the Pedrocchi Café became known as "coffee without doors" because until 1916 it was open day and night. Antonio was among the first in Padua to install gas lights, which made 24-hour commerce easier. Despite all the improvements, Antonio kept his prices reasonable, so one could eat regardless of how much money one had. He also had an unusual way of treating customers: anyone could sit at tables without ordering and stay to read books and newspapers. In fact, "The Pedrocchi Cafe" became the first of six newspapers named after his coffee house. Antonio gave women customers small gifts and flowers, and he lent customers an umbrella if they were caught by sudden rain.

The building was an independent structure with an open porch and no windows, making a "transition" into or from the city. The ground floor contains a succession of rooms named according to the color of the upholstery and tapestries (White Room, Red Room, Yellow Room, Green Room). The Red Room, divided into three spaces, is the largest room and the core of Pedrocchi Café. It contains the original elliptical serving counter, with a clock above having a symbolic purpose: it reminded Padua and visitors this was a café that never closed. The other notable room is the Green Room, which has always welcomed the city’s poorest people or students from the nearby university to meet. Students know they can gather near the Green Room’s large fireplace for warmth during the winter, to talk, or to study without a waiter disturbing them. Thus, the Italian expression “essere al verde” ("to be green") means to be penniless or broke. [Wiki 1]

Pedrocchi Café Red Room. Chris Light / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

The Red Room, divided into three spaces, is the largest room and the core of Pedrocchi Café. It contains the original elliptical serving counter, with a clock above having a symbolic purpose: it reminded Padua and visitors this was a café that never closed. The other notable room is the Green Room, which has always welcomed the city’s poorest people or students from the nearby university to meet. Students know they can gather near the Green Room’s large fireplace for warmth during the winter, to talk, or to study without a waiter disturbing them. Thus, the Italian expression “essere al verde” ("to be green") means to be penniless or broke. [Wiki 1]

The upper floor includes a number of spaces decorated with historical styles of the past. Each room connects through a series, from an octagonal Greek Hall, through the Renaissance Hall, to the Egyptian Hall, and then to the Hall Napoleon, dedicated to Gioacchino Rossini. The Hall Napoleon is also called Hall Rossini, a theater where stucco, curtains, chandeliers are from earlier in the nineteenth century. Previously each room had a specific purpose. The Greek halls were used for games. The Rossini Hall served as a ballroom, whereas the Egyptian Hall held many secret meetings. Decorations followed the style of each room’s name.

Seventh-generation owner serves coffee from cozy space in Egypt

El Fishawi Café, Cairo. Inside the 14th-century Khan el Khalili bazaar, the El Fishawi Café first opened its doors in 1797—one year before Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt. The first owner of the cafe is now known only as el-Fishawy: his first name is lost in time. He began by serving Turkish coffee to his friends after sunset: as the gatherings grew, he bought the buildings nearby to establish a venue, adding other drinks as well as shisha—tobacco mixed with fruit or molasses sugar. (Wood, coal, or charcoal is burned in the shisha pipe to heat the tobacco and create smoke.) Akram el-Fishawy, 60, is the seventh generation of his family to manage the coffee house, as he has done day and night for the past four decades. [MEE]

El Fishawi Cafe mint tea. Charlie Phillips / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

Besides serving hearty Turkish coffee, the café lures visitors with pots of steamy mint tea, fresh lemonade, apple-flavored shisha, and an ambiance that, like its home city, is smoky, noisy, and always chaotic. It is open 24/7 and is livelier after sunset, especially during the summer and Ramadan. It’s the perfect stage for a heated debate or some old-fashioned people watching. [Krasny] The house specialty is shai barad or boiled tea, heated in a basin of sand. “Tea boiling in the sand tastes different, maybe because the temperature of the sand is different from that of the oven,” says Samir Abu Douma, who manages the process. [MEE]

During the early 20th century the cafe was noted for its intellectuals and writers, especially during Ramadan, among them the 1988 Nobel-Laureate Naguib Mahfouz. His Cairo Trilogy explored themes of social progress and scientific discovery, which he believed would be the inevitable result of humans’ evolutionary spirit.

“Mahfouz liked to drink green tea while writing inside a hall that we later named after him,” says owner Akram Fishawy. “I assume he wrote most of his famous trilogy inside the cafe.”

Fishawy adds: “I myself witnessed the al-Qafya [rhyme] games between two groups during the 1950s, who would answer each other, depending on their verbal wit. It lasted all night long. Naguib Mahfouz was always undefeated.”

El Fishawi Café used to be four times larger than it is now. But in 1986 the Cairo authorities expanded the neighborhood around Hussein Square and swallowed up most of its space. Current owner Akram el-Fishawy says his grandfather Fahmy was devastated by that decision and tried by all means to change their minds, even by offering financial compensation, but his attempts weren’t successful.

Despite being so much smaller, however, Café El-Fishawy retains its ambiance. The air is pungent with the scent of old wood, incense from the market, and the aroma of fruit flavored shisha. Handmade arabesque furniture meshes with dark mashrabiya (latticed) paneling and yellow ochre walls. Old copper chandeliers hang from the ceiling. Grandfather Fahmy el-Fishawy also had mirrors installed throughout the café to be able to monitor in and around the area. Today, they create a sense of space. [MEE] 

Koffee Kompanions doesn’t rival these historic coffee houses in business longevity. But we do match their enthusiasm in keeping coffee or tea cozy hot for our customers since 1998. Come see us at www.koffeekompanions.com for the best in a French press cozy, tea cozy, cup wrap, cup cap, or ice cream pint koozie that makes your beverage drinking a pleasure.

Resources:

Peter Baskerville, The world's most historic coffee houses, https://bit.ly/2xsn19P Feb 14, 2013 [Baskerville]

Beanbox.com, “The 5 Oldest Coffee Houses in the World,” https://bit.ly/35TqyKV (date unknown) [Beanbox]

Angela Giuffrida, “The most important people have been here: Rome's oldest cafe fears closure.“ https://bit.ly/2yTgEwF, October 18, 2019. [Giuffrida]

Jill Krasny, “12 Stunning Cafés Every History Buff Needs to Visit,” TravelandLeisure.com, March 22, 2017. [Krasny]

Middle Eastern Eye correspondent in Cairo, “The Cairo cafe serving tea since Napoleon invaded Egypt,” https://bit.ly/2YYRrMa , June 24, 2019. [MEE]

Samuel Parker, “The Five Oldest Coffee Shops in the World,”  https://bit.ly/2KcdhDc, Feb 11, 2020. [Parker]

Pedrocchi Café: History and tradition of one of the symbols of the city, https://bit.ly/2xXmmND, as cited in Wikipedia, https://bit.ly/3ctueFN, April 13, 2020. [Wiki 1]

“Tontine Coffee House,” Wikipedia, https://bit.ly/2zsOVmx, last updated May 2, 2020. [Wiki 2]

William H. Ukers, “Coffeehouses of Old Philadelphia,” in All About Coffee, Goodpress, 1922. [Ukers]