
In Naples, Gift of Coffee to Strangers Never Seen - juanplusjuan
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/25/world/europe/naples-suspended-coffee.html
======
Dansvidania
As a Neapolitan, born and proudly raised, I would like to explain that there
is no charitable spirit behind this tradition. There is instead a strong
celebratory meaning to it, that seems to be understated in the article.

Originally the recipient of such act was not meant to be someone in need, but
simply the customer right after the one 'suspending' the coffee.

It is very hard to really understand the meaning of it without understanding
how socially ubiquitous coffee is in Naples. It is always good to start a
pleasant evening out with a shared coffee where friends usually fight over who
has the honor of paying the bill for everyone. Also, in the city lingo, "let's
go have a coffee" can be a clear invite to an easygoing date.

Paying a coffee to a stranger, just a random person passing by, is a way to
say "I'm happy and I wish you the same".

~~~
carlob
Most of the stuff you say easily extends to a large part of Italy. I know
coffee in Rome is often not as good as in Naples, but we also go on coffee
dates and fight to be the one to pay for everyone.

I would like to convey the pleasure of paying for 5 friends when I come back
from abroad: 4.20 € and a a coffee that actually tastes like it should. Really
makes you feel like some small generous deity!

~~~
Dansvidania
I think coffee is an habit in most of south-western Europe, and people do
drink a lot of it in northern Italy too (how they can manage to drink the
stuff is beyond me, though)

U.S. people have Starbucks and as long as they do not try anything else they
also manage to enjoy it.

In Naples it is a proper, religious, ritual :D

~~~
carlob
Don't be too snarky about Starbucks: coffee before Starbucks was much worse
than it is now. From the wikipedia article linked in the sibling comment
you'll see that Starbucks pretty much sparked the good coffee revolution in
the US.

~~~
Dansvidania
I do understand the role of Starbucks in bringing coffee on the hip-train. I
only tried the stuff they sell to our European cousins and now I no longer
wonder why there is maybe just one or no Starbucks in Italy.

I hope I will be able to try their brew in the US, hopefully it will be
better.

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covercash
There's a place here in Philly that sells $1 slices of pizza and for an
additional $1 you can buy a Post-It note to stick on the wall that someone in
need can then redeem for a slice.

[http://articles.philly.com/2014-06-03/news/50275817_1_pizza-...](http://articles.philly.com/2014-06-03/news/50275817_1_pizza-
shop-homeless-fresh-pizza)

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raintrees
Thanks, now I have a name for something I was introduced to in my small town
when the person in front of me paid for my coffee without my knowledge - Until
I went to pay the bill. So I, in turn, bought for the next car (drive through
local espresso shop).

I have done it a half dozen times in the last few months, and hope it is
helping to spread holiday cheer right now, something many of my fellow towns
people could do with more of. Too many scare tactics in national media, good
to remind people to take care of each other locally with anonymous acts of
generosity.

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logicallee
_(Not an important point, but it 's kind of an unfortunate title. As someone
who knew about the practice and its supposed origin in Naples, I thought the
article was saying the practice does not (did not) ever actually exist in
Naples. (In Naples, Gift of Coffee to Strangers Never Seen), i.e. despite the
myth that it's common there.

It would be unambiguous if changed to "In Naples, Gift of Coffee to Unseen
Strangers.")_

~~~
dubfan
The NY Times is known for their characteristic headline style:
[http://observer.com/2014/02/for-the-new-york-times-
headlines...](http://observer.com/2014/02/for-the-new-york-times-headlines-
ultimate-style-reached/)

------
BradRuderman
Reminds me of the pay it forward coffee stunt. Here is the economics behind
it: [http://m.fastcompany.com/3034747/fast-feed/breaking-a-pay-
it...](http://m.fastcompany.com/3034747/fast-feed/breaking-a-pay-it-forward-
chain-isnt-being-a-cheap-bastard-its-good-economics)

------
spazmaster
That's a great tradition, that could be applied to not just coffee and pizza.
Hope it takes off at other food joints as well.

On a side note, you wonder how many poor people go to coffee bar Gambrinus,
featured in the article. It's well known, but a caffè costs more than 2 euro's
there, whereas coffee bars in living neighbourhoods charge 70 euro cents.
Gambrinus is a place where tourists and well-to-do's frequent.

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sfrank2147
That's a great tradition! From an economics perspective, I would gain way more
than $2 worth of utility from discovering that someone had randomly paid for
my coffee, it would really make my morning.

I wonder if the benefit would decrease if the practice became more common
though. Would I start expecting my coffee to be free, and become disappointed
when I had to pay for it?

~~~
noobermin
That assumes that it would have to happen more often than %50 of the time,
which I think is impossible.

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robocat
I have seen suspended coffee cause problems for a local coffee shop, because
it brought in a number of rather obnoxious users that would scare the paying
customers and/or frighten the staff. Obnoxious could be drug abusers, rank
smelly, threatening or violent (they had to call the police to deal with two
different ladies), or just antisocial (one guy stole the cook's mobile). Maybe
because it was in a poorer suburb?

Not sure how to resolve that, because the insane and antisocial really deserve
a coffee and a break in life. If it were my business, I would need to come up
with a work-around so that the business wouldn't be affected so badly.

Apart from that, I love the idea (and have paid for suspended coffees).

------
oAlbe
Just a correction:

> mostly to older people, migrants and the Roma I think they misinterpreted
> this part. "The Roma" does not make much sense. I think the person they
> talked to said "the rom" (that in English may sound like _gipsy_ ). They are
> a very spread ethnicity in Naples (and around Naples) and the majority of
> them are poor people who panhandle around to make some money.

~~~
inhumanfly
As an italian I was about to point out the same thing. Thanks for your
correction. The roms (see
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people))
are spread through all Europe and are not a Neapolitan only phenomenon. Shame
for NYT for not doing their homeworks.

------
jacquesm
related:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6579218](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6579218)

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toyg
Naples' "suspended coffee" keeps coming up in the news every few months,
especially since Italy as a whole is in the grip of a long-running economic
crisis that will likely continue for a very long time.

The hard truth is that this sort of individual charity doesn't make anything
better in the long run. It's little more than grandstanding, as most charity
is.

