There was a time when coffee knew its place. It came in a ceramic cup, usually with a saucer beneath it. You sat down to drink it, perhaps at a diner counter, before getting on with your day.
Postwar America changed that routine. More people commuted to work, cities moved faster, and customers wanted coffee they could take with them. Disposable paper cups had existed for decades, first promoted as a sanitary way to serve drinking water. By the 1950s and ’60s, they were becoming a practical way to serve hot coffee, too.
Diners, luncheonettes, coffee shops, and street counters could now send customers on their way with caffeine in hand. Coffee escaped the counter. Its paper cup traveled onto sidewalks, into taxis, and through subway stations. A drink that once asked you to pause became part of the journey.
“More than packaging, the Anthora became shorthand for a particular New York ritual.”
Nowhere did coffee to go acquire more personality than in New York. The city’s Greek diners and coffee shops were familiar stops for a quick cup, and one paper cup came to represent them. In 1963, the Sherri Cup Company introduced the Anthora, designed by Leslie Buck with blue-and-white Greek imagery and the welcoming words, “We Are Happy to Serve You.”
The design was made for a particular market, but it soon belonged to the whole city. An Anthora could be spotted in the hands of commuters, cabdrivers, office workers, and anyone who needed a little warmth on the move. Its message felt right at home in a place where a friendly exchange could happen in seconds across a busy counter.
The cup also captured something beyond convenience. It recalled the sound of a coffee shop in the morning, the rush to catch a train, and the simple pleasure of carrying a hot drink through cool city air. It made an everyday purchase feel distinctly New York.
Other paper cups carry coffee. The Anthora carries New York.
At NY Coffee Cup, we celebrate the Anthora’s enduring design and its place in the city’s daily life. From corner delis to sidewalks far beyond New York, it remains a small, recognizable piece of coffee history.
