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Feb.13,2005 -Feb.20,2005 |
More than just coffee
Going out for an espresso isn't as simple as it used to be
By Alan Patarga
Originally Published: 2005-01-30
Come, let's have an espresso. Every Italian has said it, most likely quite often. It's a good way to start a conversation, break the ice, repay a tiny favour...or even just to take a break during work, with an excuse for caffeine. It's a small gesture that people make without thinking twice, because, "after all, it's just an espresso." Cheap and good. But... is this little daily indulgence really cheap? We checked it out on both sides of the Atlantic: in Canada and in Italy.
This is coffee, Italian-style: the classic tazzulella 'e cafè, which even penny-pinching Cavalier Pezzella - played by Totò in a famous movie - could not do without. But if you haven't returned to Italy for the past three or four years, brace yourself: a cup of espresso under €0.65 is a rare find indeed. And getting it at that price is lucky, maybe because an old acquaintance behind the bar counter decided to welcome back a customer of old. On average, in fact, a cup of expresso (equivalent to eight grams of ground coffee) costs €0.78 (about $1.25); but it can go as high as €0.90 or even €1.00 (served at the counter, of course; if served at a table, the price can truly skyrocket). Two euros, more or less, to have one with a nice colleague or a friend met right in front of a bar.
This is the situation in ordinary bars. Then we have élite locales, where an espresso taken standing can cost up to €2, sitting down twice that. Those, however, are extreme cases, and if one is so bold as to order a cup of the dear old black liquor while enjoying a table at Venice's Caffè Florian, smack in the middle of Piazza San Marco, or at Caffè Greco on Rome's Via Condotti, one should not come back to Toronto complaining about prices in Italy being unreasonable. That might well be, but our hypothetical fellow went looking for trouble.
On the other hand, an after-dinner cup of espresso can be a luxury even here: $5, if sipped while still seated at a restaurant. In Canada, however, there has been no recent increase, except to compensate for inflation, as with any other consumer good. Moreover, when served at the counter, its price is much lower.
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