Café Pamplona
Encyclopedia
Harvard Square
Harvard Square is a large triangular area in the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street, and John F. Kennedy Street. It is the historic center of Cambridge...
, is an unusual and renowned café
Café
A café , also spelled cafe, in most countries refers to an establishment which focuses on serving coffee, like an American coffeehouse. In the United States, it may refer to an informal restaurant, offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches...
. When it opened in 1959 in Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, it was the first café in the Square. The owner, Josefina Yanguas, claimed the café had the first espresso
Espresso
Espresso is a concentrated beverage brewed by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground coffee. Espresso is widely known throughout the world....
-maker in the city. Down a short flight of exterior stairs, past a patio with tables, customers enter the café's subterranean interior. The once austere decor includes bright yellow lights which make the thickly-plastered walls glow under low ceilings, and a black and white checked floor. Having survived the changes that have taken place since the mid-1980s, it has become a staple of the "Old Square."
History
Josefina Yanguas, who arrived in America in 1947, roughly modelled the café after those of her native PamplonaPamplona
Pamplona is the historial capital city of Navarre, in Spain, and of the former kingdom of Navarre.The city is famous worldwide for the San Fermín festival, from July 6 to 14, in which the running of the bulls is one of the main attractions...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. From 1959 until her death in 2007, Yanguas was the only owner of the café.
Shortly after the café's inception Yanguas and her loyal Cuban chef Juana Rodríguez began preparing and serving food. As business grew Yanguas began to hire only men, in accord with Spanish habits. This practice lasted until 1999. In the Fall of that year this policy was revealed by the Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson, the daily student newspaper of Harvard University, was founded in 1873. It is the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates...
. This hiring practice, known tacitly for years, was in keeping with the common Spanish tradition of hiring entirely one sex or the other. At the time of the article, a disgruntled Cambridge citizen threw a brick through a window of the café. Due to necessity and forward-looking manager James Timberlake, Jenny Follen was hired in late 1999, the first female employee in 40 years. Since that time the café has observed standard hiring practices.
The café is well-known for attracting both bohemians
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
and academics from both nearby Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and the greater Cambridge community. Notable patrons of the café include Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
, and Amanda Palmer
Amanda Palmer
Amanda MacKinnon Gaiman Palmer , sometimes known as Amanda Fucking Palmer, is an American performer who first rose to prominence as the lead singer, pianist, and lyricist/composer of the duo The Dresden Dolls...
.
The small mural on a wall in the cafe was painted fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
-style directly on site, by local artist Conger Metcalf
Conger Metcalf
Conger Metcalf, was an American painter.He was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and died in Boston, Massachusetts. Metcalf began his art studies in 1932 at the Iowa Stone City Art Colony, headed by American Regionalist painter Grant Wood. Metcalf continued his studies at Coe College in Cedar Rapids...
, a friend of the owner. Completed some time in the late Sixties, its yellowed background is due to years of exposure to cigarette smoke. During this period the walls in the café needed to be repainted every four years as they would significantly yellow from smoke. While the central figure looks strikingly like Yanguas, she claimed it was not her portrait.
In December 2004, after 46 years, Yanguas decided to close the Pamplona. Intent on selling the café, the process dragged on with no significant prospects. Finally in May 2005, she reopened the Café. Yanguas died on August 1, 2007 at the age of 90, though the café has continued operations.
Pamplona references
Throughout the years the café and Josefina's house have been mentioned by a variety of media outlets. It has won best café in the Boston area in Improper Bostonian, and other local publications. In 2000 an architectural exposé was written about Josefina's apartment in the Boston Globe Magazine. The café has been mentioned on NPRNPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
and in variety of artists' reflections. Because of its atmosphere and history, Pamplona served as the inspiration for a variety of artists and thinkers. Reminiscent anecdotes of reading, working and talking in the café are recounted by a number of Harvard and Cambridge luminaries.
- The location for one of the scenes in the film version of Prozac Nation.
- Accounts of the café regularly appear in memoirs, including Pepper White's The Idea Factory: Learning to Think at MIT.
- In April 2004 painter and sculptor (and former head waiter 1999-2005), Jeffrey P. Smith, built an art installationInstallation artInstallation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
for the Boston Museum School 5th Year program. Called "Space for Solitude", it was largely based on architectural details of the café. The door which had been on the café since its opening (1959–2004) was the same door used in Smith's installation. In his catalogue essay he dedicated the work in part to owner Josefina Yanguas. - In January and February 2006, the café's courtyard was the site of a temporary public artPublic artThe term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all...
installation by DeWitt Godfrey titled "Pamplona," and sponsored by the Cambridge Arts Council. - Café Pamplona is mentioned in The Dresden DollsThe Dresden DollsThe Dresden Dolls are an American musical duo from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in 2000, the group consists of Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione...
' song "Truce", composed by Amanda PalmerAmanda PalmerAmanda MacKinnon Gaiman Palmer , sometimes known as Amanda Fucking Palmer, is an American performer who first rose to prominence as the lead singer, pianist, and lyricist/composer of the duo The Dresden Dolls...
:"You can have Africa, Asia, Australia, as long as you keep your hands off Café Pamplona."
- Café Pamplona is also mentioned in the 2003 Jhumpa LahiriJhumpa LahiriJhumpa Lahiri is a Bengali American author. Lahiri's debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies , won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and her first novel, The Namesake , was adapted into the popular film of the same name. She was born Nilanjana Sudeshna, which she says are both...
novel The NamesakeThe NamesakeThe Namesake is the second book by author Jhumpa Lahiri. It was originally a novella published in The New Yorker and was later expanded to a full length novel. It explores many of the same emotional and cultural themes as her Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection Interpreter of Maladies... - Café Pamplona appears in the background of the rooftop photo of Claudia GonsonClaudia GonsonClaudia Miriam Gonson, is an American musician best known for her work with The Magnetic Fields. She occasionally provides the band lead vocals as well as performing the piano or drums...
in the booklet in the The Magnetic FieldsThe Magnetic FieldsThe Magnetic Fields is the principal creative outlet of singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt...
' CD box set of 69 Love Songs69 Love Songs69 Love Songs is a three-volume concept album by The Magnetic Fields released in 1999. As its title indicates, the album is composed of 69 love songs, all written by Magnetic Fields frontman Stephin Merritt.-Conception and live performance:...