Café Pamplona

Café Pamplona sign, September, 2007
Café Pamplona, August 2005

Café Pamplona, located at 12 Bow St. beside the intersection of Bow and Arrow Streets near Harvard Square, is an unusual and renowned café. When it opened in 1959 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it was the first café in the Square. The owner, Josefina Yanguas, claimed the café had the first espresso-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 Pamplona, Spain. From 1959[1] until her death in 2007,[2] 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.[3] 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 and academics from both nearby Harvard University and the greater Cambridge community. Notable patrons of the café include Al Gore,[4] and Amanda Palmer.[5][6][7][8][9]

The small mural on a wall in the cafe was painted fresco-style directly on site, by local artist Conger Metcalf,[10] 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.[11] Finally in May 2005, she reopened the Café.[12] Yanguas died on August 1, 2007 at the age of 90,[2][13] 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 NPR 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.

Bibliography

References

Coordinates: 42°22′18″N 71°06′56″W / 42.3717°N 71.1155°W