Coffee, Madison Avenue, and the Mad Men of the 1960s.

Centered on Madison Avenue in New York City, the advertising industry in the 1960s became a symbol of American ambition, creativity, and excess.  Agencies competed for major corporate clients – cigarettes, cars, liquor, makeup – using persuasive campaigns that shaped public consciousness. The show Mad Men captured this vividly through Don Draper and his colleagues: white-collar creatives who sold dreams to the American public.

Men wore tailored suits, skinny ties, pocket squares, and polished shoes. Women, often secretaries or assistants, were expected to be impeccably dressed, attractive, and deferential. Offices were adorned with mid-century modern furniture, and desks were not complete without a bottle of Scotch in the drawer and a cigarette smoldering in the ashtray.

Picture a crisp Manhattan morning in the early 1960s. Madison Avenue hums with activity as a stream of advertising men – suits pressed, egos polished – make their way into gleaming office towers. In one hand, each carries a briefcase; in the other, the unmistakable blue-and-white paper coffee cup, steaming with just-brewed confidence.

That cup became a quiet emblem of the era. It wasn’t just coffee. It was fuel for ideas, late-night pitch meetings, and half-baked campaigns hurried into brilliance. For these men, it was a morning ritual, as essential as a tie clip or a Lucky Strike.  The Anthora cup, with its bold blue design and “We Are Happy to Serve You” motto, became an icon of 1960s New York – a humble paper vessel that captured the era’s pace, ambition, and street-corner ethos.

Dedicated to preserving the legacy of the iconic Anthora coffee cup – a true symbol of New York City’s street culture, corner delis, and daily rituals – NY Coffee Cup celebrates its enduring design, cultural significance, and place in coffee history, both in NYC and beyond.