Cafe Gambrinus, Naples

Gambrinus, Naples

Naples is a city that prides itself on coffee—believes itself to be the sole arbiter of what sets a magnificent brew apart from the swill they serve in the rest of the world.

The Caffè Gambrinus is on the ground floor of the large building that houses the Naples Prefecture at Piazza Plebiscito. One entrance is on that large square, itself; the main entrance is on Piazza Trieste e Trento (still known to many as Piazza San Ferdinando, named for the church on that square).

Gambrinus is a few yards away from the Royal Palace, the San Carlo opera house, and the Galleria Umberto. It is at the beginning of two of the most famous streets in Naples: via Toledo (also known as via Roma) and via Chiaia, the main street that joined the downtown area of 1900 to the western part of the city. Gambrinus, thus, was the crossroads where music, art, and politics came together in the late 1800s to sit together and have a coffee and maybe a brandy or two. In other words, a watering-hole for intellectuals.


Gambrinus was born as, simply, il Gran Caffè on its current premises in the 1860s. By the 1890s, with the great rebuilding of Naples, it turned into the Caffè Gambrinus, using the name of the "patron saint of beer," that name deriving from Jan Primus (John I), a 13th–century Burgundy prince. Thus, Gambrinus, like other establishments of its kind was and remains a place where you do more than just drink coffee.