Gran Caffe Gambrinus… Where Coffee is Celebrated Like Food and Football

It’s no secret that Naples takes its food almost as seriously as its football, but its love affair with another Italian staple is just as strong.

The city has been coffee’s spiritual home since way back in 1768, so the story goes, when Maria Carolina of Habsburg-Lorraine, the wife of King Ferdinand IV, brought the idea to the Neapolitan court.

Almost three centuries on, coffee remains quintessential to life in Naples and nowhere is it more celebrated than Gran Caffe Gambrinus.

Located on Via Chiaia, just a stone’s throw from the central Piazza del Plebiscito, Gambrinus opened its doors in 1860.

Naples’ most storied literary café was a haunt for the intellectuals, politicians, and power brokers until it was shut in 1938 as it was said to be a meeting point for prominent anti-Fascist figures.

While it reopened after the War, it was not until local businessman Michele Sergio bought it in the 1970s that Gambrinus was slowly restored to its original glory and today it remains one of Italy’s finest examples of the great European coffee house tradition.

From Enrico De Nicola to Sergio Mattarella, the cafe has served former Italian presidents and the late Pope Francis stopped by for breakfast back in 2015.

These days, Napoli striker Lorenzo Lucca has been known to pop in (although that will be a touch more difficult following his January loan move to Nottingham Forest) while the most famous Partenopei player of them all is well represented at Gambrinus. A book about Diego Maradona, dedicated to ‘my friends at Gambrinus’ by the author, is displayed in a glass case along with assorted memorabilia of the late Argentine.

Among other items, there is a cup that Pope Francis used and newspaper cuttings from when the cafe was featured in the New York Times.

Did Maradona ever stop by for a coffee himself? Did he sneak in for a quick drink long after the cafe was shut? As ever with Maradona and Naples, the line between reality and myth is blurred.

And speaking of lines, Gambrinus may be one of Naples’ most famous cafes, but don’t be put off.

If you get there for opening at 8am, you will in all likelihood have the place almost to yourself, a luxury you can not expect from 9am onward when huge queues snake out of the cafe and onto Piazza del Plebiscito.

So get there early and immerse yourself in one of Naples’ most special rituals.