'A bar should be a habit’'
- 6 days ago
- 9 min read
The story of two brothers and a bar that’s part of the city
Caffè Europa, a familiar haunt in the heart of Sulmona
On Corso Ovidio, close to Sulmona’s main square, lies a café where time has not stood still, yet has not forced itself upon the place either. Caffè Europa is neither a carefully designed retro bar nor an establishment that tries to present itself as ‘authentic’ with historical photographs and nostalgic inscriptions. The café simply is authentic. Over the years, it has been adapted where necessary, but has largely remained what it has been for decades: a familiar meeting place for the people of Sulmona.
Behind the bar stand the brothers Francesco Paolo – Franco – and Marco Ruggieri. Franco is eighty, Marco seventy-five. They have been working here since their youth. In 1964, the café came into their family’s possession, but the building and the business itself are older. The building was completed by Caroselli in the years following the Second World War, after work had been interrupted during the war.
When the Ruggieri family took over the café, the brothers were still young. Marco was about twelve. Their sister also helped out in the business at first, until she got married and later took up an administrative post at the local health service. Franco and Marco stayed on.
Initially, this wasn’t necessarily set in stone for the rest of their lives. As long as the family were renting the premises, they could, in theory, still walk away from it. But when the brothers bought the café in the 1980s, that changed.
‘That’s when we really took on a commitment,’ says Franco.
From that moment on, it was clear that Caffè Europa would continue to shape their lives.
De ouders van Franco en Marco, Pippo en Chiara Jaren 60 Jaren 80
Hardly changed
Anyone entering the café won’t see an interior that’s been designed to look old. Much of it is genuinely old. The layout has remained largely the same, and parts of the floor, the wall coverings and the furniture also date back to earlier periods.
That’s precisely what appeals to me. In many Italian cities, cafés like this are slowly disappearing or being converted into modern bars with a décor that might just as easily be found in Milan, Amsterdam or New York. Caffè Europa, on the other hand, is unmistakably linked to Sulmona.
The fact that the café has retained its original character does not mean that Franco and Marco have stopped making improvements. On the contrary: despite their age, they continue to invest in the business. Behind the main bar are several rooms, including a few billiards rooms. One of these rooms is currently being restored. In the past, people not only played billiards there but also played cards a great deal.
For a long time, the billiards rooms were a world unto themselves. The games were played seriously, and in the past a famous billiards player even performed there. Such players used to travel from café to café to give demonstrations. An establishment with a suitable billiards table would make its space available; visitors would pay an entrance fee and come to watch the champion’s skills.
People still play the game today, although customs have changed. Traditional billiards requires a great deal of technique and concentration; simpler forms of the game have become popular with a wider audience.
The smoking ban also had an impact. A billiards player could pop outside for a moment between turns, Franco explains. It was different for card players: they often sat around the same table for hours on end. When smoking indoors was no longer permitted, many stopped coming.
In addition, the regulars were getting older and some passed away. As a result, the halls gradually lost some of their former purpose. Yet the brothers are not letting them fall into disrepair. The restoration actually shows that, despite the uncertainty about the future, they still believe in the café.
Een van de biljartzalen Formica-tafeltje, waar met 5 personen aan gekaart kon worden en een andere biljartzaal Asbak in de hoek van de biljarttafel Alleen de prijs per uur veranderde met de tijd Spelregels van weleer...
George Clooney at a table by the bar
Caffè Europa also secured a modest place in film history. Scenes were shot in the café for The American, the 2010 film by Dutch director Anton Corbijn, starring George Clooney and Dutch actress Thekla Reuten.
During filming, George Clooney was not sitting at a pool table, but at an ordinary table inside, close to the bar. It was only afterwards that the film crew realised the wrong page of the newspaper had been visible in the shot. To avoid having to reshoot the entire scene in Sulmona, the table was taken to Cinecittà in Rome. There, part of the shot featuring the correct newspaper page could be reshot.
It’s exactly the sort of anecdote that suits Caffè Europa. An international film crew with a global superstar turned up, a simple little table then travelled to Cinecittà – and afterwards, life in the café carried on as normal.
A family business
Franco and Marco don’t have strictly defined roles. Both work behind the bar, serve customers and do whatever needs doing at any given moment.
‘We’re interchangeable,’ says Franco. ‘By now, everyone knows what they have to do.’
By their own admission, they hardly ever argue. They know the business – and each other – too well for that. When I ask which of the two is the strictest, the answers – with a touch of humour – point mainly towards Franco. Marco seems to regard himself as the more patient of the two.
The café has always shaped the lives of the whole family. Both brothers have several children and, by now, quite a few grandchildren too. Their sister also has children and grandchildren. So there’s no shortage of descendants, but whether anyone from the next generation actually wants to carry on the café remains to be seen.
The children have their own jobs and their own lives, sometimes outside Sulmona. Moreover, anyone taking over a café like this isn’t just taking over a business, but also a way of life.
The working days are long. Normally, the café is closed on Thursdays, but during busy periods – such as the summer and the days around Christmas and Easter – even that day off may be cancelled. During major events in the town, every available pair of hands is needed.
According to Franco, a bar like Caffè Europa can hardly be run without the support of a family. There always needs to be someone who can step in: a brother, wife, partner or other family member.
That makes succession planning complicated. Selling the business would be relatively straightforward, says Franco. Letting it out is riskier. Then you don’t know whether someone will give up the café after a year or completely change its character. Only if a truly reliable and long-term solution presents itself would that be a possibility.
The café and the town
The story of Caffè Europa is also the story of Sulmona over the past sixty years. Franco recalls the severe economic crisis at the end of the 1960s. Many young people, in particular, left. Some joined family members who were already living in Australia, Venezuela or the United States.
Later, the situation changed. New businesses arrived, the construction of motorways made the town more accessible, and other opportunities to find work emerged. Some of the emigrants returned, and people from outside the area also settled in Sulmona.
Franco did not just observe these developments from behind the bar. He was also active in public life. For a time, he served as an assessore comunale, a councillor for Sulmona, and for many years acted as a representative of the local hospitality industry.
He still remembers the period when cafés had to adhere to strict opening hours. Even when there were no customers left in the evening, some establishments had to remain open until midnight. Together with a few colleagues, he raised this issue with the prefect. After all, for cafés outside the busiest part of the town centre, it made little sense to stay open for hours on end when no one was coming in.
Moreover, public establishments served a broader purpose back then. They not only served coffee and aperitifs, but were also required to make a telephone and toilets available to the public. In a sense, a café was also a public facility.
Prime ministers, actors and a former professor
Thanks to its location on Corso Ovidio, close to the central square and the theatre, Franco and Marco have welcomed countless famous visitors over the years.
Franco mentions several Italian politicians who have served as prime ministers, including Giovanni Spadolini, Bettino Craxi and Giuseppe Conte. He knew Spadolini not only as a politician: he was also one of Franco’s university lecturers.
In addition, many well-known actors have visited the café. As a result, the brothers have got to know quite a few celebrities up close over the years.
Yet it is not these prominent visitors who define the character of Caffè Europa. It is the people who return there every day or every week.
The same coffee since 1991
When I ask what makes a bar like theirs special, Franco replies without hesitation:
‘The coffee is our calling card.’
The coffee they serve comes from Torrefazione Caffè Krifi in Ferrara. Marco shows me a certificate the company received in 2021 to mark the coffee roastery’s sixtieth anniversary. It thanks Caffè Europa for having been a customer for more than thirty years by that point.
The decision to use this brand was made by their father around 1991. His instruction was clear: they were not to change it. The brothers have stuck to that.
The certificate isn’t prominently displayed on the façade as a marketing tool. Marco brings it out because we’re talking about the history of the café and the coffee. That, too, is in keeping with the business: continuity isn’t promoted as a concept, but is simply part of everyday life.
Good coffee alone is, of course, not enough. According to the brothers, a café owner must be able to get on with all sorts of people. You have to be able to adapt, listen and, above all, be patient. Behind the bar, you meet the whole of society.
Some customers have been coming for over fifty years. A few are now so old that they can no longer get to the café on their own. Yet, around Easter or Christmas, they still ask family members to bring them along so they can have an aperitif and raise a glass together.
Marco’s fondest memory, then, is not a particular event or a famous visitor. He thinks above all of the time he spent working here alongside his father and mother.
It is only at the end of our conversation that he adds a personal detail: he also met his wife at Caffè Europa.
Tango under the portico
The brothers are not trying to preserve their business solely as a reminder of the past. Activities are also organised in and around the café, including Argentine tango evenings.
These cannot take place for the time being this year. The floor of the covered passageway in front of the café – the portico – is damaged. This poses a particular hazard for dancers, who let their feet glide across the floor. Franco hopes that the local council will have the floor repaired during the colder months.
The portico has a remarkable legal history. When the complex was built, it was agreed that this space could not be completely enclosed. This is because the entrance to the theatre is located at the end of it. The passageway had to remain accessible to the public. In exchange, the local council has certain obligations regarding its maintenance.
It is one of those details that show just how closely the café is interwoven with the urban space. Caffè Europa is not a closed-off business behind a front door, but forms part of the route through the city: from the Corso to the theatre, from the square back home.
Does a café like this still have a future?
When asked whether a traditional bar like Caffè Europa still has a future, Franco’s response is strikingly sombre.
‘To be honest: no.’
Not because people no longer drink coffee or no longer enjoy going to a bar, but because almost no one is prepared to devote their entire life to such an establishment. The work is hard, the days are long and suitable staff are hard to find.
In the past, there were professional waiters who practised the same trade for twenty years or more. These days, according to Franco, it’s often young people working temporarily in the hospitality industry, for example to earn money for a holiday. They’re less likely to see it as a career for life.
It’s a trend you see in many Italian towns. The traditional bar remains popular, but the working model on which it was based – a family that is present almost constantly – is slowly disappearing.
Yet Caffè Europa doesn’t exude resignation. The brothers are restoring the billiards room, ensuring the quality of their coffee and are still behind the bar every day.
How long will they carry on?
‘That depends on our health,’ says Franco.
A bar should be a habit
At the end of our conversation, I ask what they hope someone will write about Caffè Europa in fifty years’ time.
Franco pauses to think for a moment.
‘What we’ve meant to the town. What we’ve left behind in Sulmona.’
He hopes the café will be remembered as a welcoming place: a spot where anyone can pop in and where whole families can feel at home.
I tell him that this is exactly why I love going to this sort of café. In Anversa degli Abruzzi, too, I have a regular bar where I meet the same people almost every day. You don’t always have to make elaborate plans to meet up there. You walk in, order something and see who’s there.
Franco ultimately sums up the meaning of a bar very simply. It’s a place where you meet people, whether you’re having a long drink or just popping in for a moment: a bar should be a habit.
Perhaps that’s the best description of Caffè Europa. Not grand, not trendy and not meant to be visited just once. It’s a place that derives its significance from the fact that people return there – every day, every year and sometimes for a lifetime.
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