Dear Italians, I want to share a little story with you. I hope this will help you understand where we are coming from a little better.
Once upon a time, before Starbucks came to every block in the United States...
there was a small town along the shores of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin called Racine. In the olden days, if it was your grandma's birthday you went to the fanciest place in town, the Corner House, for Prime Rib. Now, you Knew this was a Fancy Supper Club because even grandma got a "Cocktail" before dinner there. And by "Cocktail" I mean anything with Brandy in it, because that is the main ingredient in cocktails in Wisconsin. Gramma Jeane, never banal, had a "Dry Burbon Manhattan on-the-rocks-with-a-twist," however. This can be used as a tongue twister by those too young to actually drink them. In fact, from a young age, we practiced rattling it off fast, many times in a row while drinking our "Kiddie Cocktails" as we pulled the marascino cherries off the plastic sword resting on the rim of our glass with our teeth. Good times, people, when servers were called "waitresses" and "waiters". Earth tones reigned and the lighting can best be described as "amber".
The other context clue that indicated you were in someplace special was the timing of the Coffee. At the Corner House, you ordered it AFTER you finished your Soup, Prime Rib, potato any way you like (except for fried, which is not sophisticated) which meant baked with sour cream, and salad with cottage cheese or, alternatively, spinach salad with hot bacon dressing.
Yes, coffee came after supper and the server would come back 4 or 5 times for a "warmer" while you sat around talking because no one was chasing you out to serve the next group of eaters (another fancy restaurant "thing").
THEN SOMETHING MAGIC HAPPENED!
I think it was around 1988.
THE CAPPUCCINO MACHINE ARRIVED.
This revolutionized Fancy Dinners FOREVER!
This large and noisy machine did make EXPRESSO (which is what we still call it), of course, but who would drink that crap? Too small for $1.75, no free refills and by the time you put enough sugar in it to make it drinkable it was a sludgy mess. And there seemed to be some sort of unwritten rule that said you were not allowed to put milk in it, so it was to be avoided.
CAPPUCCINO (when you said this word the heavens used to open up and the angels would start singing from on high) was another story.
It was still $1.75 and there were no refills, either. But it was DELICIOUS! Who KNEW that froth could taste so good? Is that a hint of COCOA in there?? Paying once for it just made it all the more CHIC and fancy. Again, a once a year affair.
Flash forward. We can get cappuccinos anytime we want now... but when we come to Italy, something special happens. We bounce back to high school and OUR FIRST CUP OF CAPPUCCINO. It is magic. We want to drink them all day because we can. And we do.
And who can blame us. Full with dinner or not, the Cappuccino tastes really good. It is like dessert for us. Yum.
I have lived here for many years now, but I do not judge my fellow Americans when they order a cappuccino after dinner. I even recognize the micro-expression the waiter elicits at the order. It is a mix between an eye roll and a wink of physical pain. But then he or she remembers that you are Americano or Tedesco, and they find it in their heart to forgive you.
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