Gran Caffè Gambrinus. Naples, 1860. The city is in turmoil and teeming with intellectuals and artists. The entrepreneur Vincenzo Apuzzo founds the historical literary venue. Top hats and carriages cloak the gorgeous via Chiaia, seat of the Gran Caffè Gambrinus. A story steeped in magic, charm and suggestions. A tale that speaks of the beautiful city of Napoli, of sciantose, of the Belle Époque and of illustrious personalities. A story that tells of concert coffees, great films and the practice of suspended coffee.
Gran Caffè Gambrinus, pure magic
The Gran Caffè Gambrinus, since its foundation, was a huge success. After the management by the founder Apuzzo, it took over Mario Vacca. The latter entrusted the interior decoration to the architect Antonio Curri. The great Neapolitan impressionist artists such as Migliaro, Scoppetta, Volpe, Postiglione, Pratella, Cocco, Fabron, Casciaro, Esposito, Irolli, Caprile and Chiarolanza were called. Many were intellectuals and artists who starting from Belle Epoque they frequented the place.
It is told of Gabriele D'annunzio, of his poems written at the tables of the Gan Caffè Gambrinus. Of the frequentations by the illustrious Benedetto Croce, of the immense Toto and De Filippo brothers. Of the writers Ernest Hemingway, Oscar Wilde and Jean Paul Sartre. A meeting place, a source of inspiration, but also a must. Here, in this combination of wonders, the various presidents of the Republic have also passed: from Cossiga to Mattarella.
Cafè Chantant and the practice of suspended coffee
The Gran Caffè Gambrinus was one of the first Italian places to host the Cafè Chantant or Caffè Concerto. Music and coffee. Sweet notes to cheer the diners and patrons and ... the figure of the sciantosa; the main character of the café concert, the singer who performed pieces and arias taken from operas or operettas. (The term sciantosa is a distortion of the French word chanteuse i.e. singer).
Here, moreover, the suspended coffee. Starting from the second half of the nineteenth century, the practice was started which consists in paying for a coffee and allocating it to those who cannot buy it. The tradition is perpetuated and renewed even today. A little curiosity: at the entrance of the Gran Caffè Gambrinus there is a coffee maker where you can leave the receipts for suspended coffees. The echo of this wonderful initiative has reached America, where it is emulated and where similar initiatives were born.
More info and curiosities
The Gran Caffè Gambrinus has been the scene of some films and television series such as Neapolitan carousel in 1954 by Ettore Giannini with the extraordinary participation of Sophia Loren; the series The bastards of Pizzofalcone by Carlo Carlei, with Alessandro Gassman. The restaurant also appears in the comic Dampyr, precisely in number 160 (Sergio Bonelli Editore). He was able to boast the title "Provider of the Royal House". A consolidated tradition has it that on January XNUMXst, the President of the Italian Republic goes to the Gran Caffè Gambrinus to have breakfast of the year. The local historian is located in Via Chiaia 1/2 (P.zza Trieste and Trento). Not to be missed.
