What Caffè Gambrinus (1860) is known for

Naples' Gran Caffè Gambrinus opened in 1860 on Piazza del Plebiscito, was rebuilt by architect Antonio Curri and reopened in 1890. Sissi, Oscar Wilde, Hemingway and Sartre all sat for its coffee, gelato and pastries before its 1938 fascist-era closure and 1970s revival.

The Gran Caffè Gambrinus opened in 1860 on Naples' Piazza del Plebiscito, on the ground floor of an 1816 building that had housed a guesthouse, and was granted the title of Supplier to the Royal House under the Savoy dynasty. By 1885 it was nearly closed; five years later Mariano Vacca took it over and had architect Antonio Curri rebuild the interior, with more than forty artisans and artists contributing marble, stucco and frescoes before it reopened as the Gran Caffè Gambrinus on 3 November 1890 — the name honoring the legendary Flemish king said to have invented beer. It became a fixture of Naples' social and literary life, drawing Empress Sissi of Austria, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway and Jean-Paul Sartre, who wrote of watching a granita "melt" before him there. Fascist authorities shut the café in 1938; Michele Sergio began restoring it in the early 1970s, and his sons Arturo and Antonio continue to run it today, serving coffee, gelato, pastries and beer.