A lot of times when people in movies are drinking coffee in a paper cup, it’s a unique kind of cup. It’s blue and white with some sort of Greek writing on it. What the heck are those cups? I’ve never seen them in real life, yet every movie seems to have plenty of them. What’s the story?
This is where I make a joke about a Helenic version of Starbucks, but I can’t figure out how to Greekify the name (now, if it was Roman lettering, it’d be “Starbuckicus”)
They are the generic paper coffee cup in NYC. It’s to show the film is set in NYC, even if it is being filmed in Toronto or the back set.
See here
You mean one of these?
I have read they often use those in shows and movies that are supposed to take place in the New York City area. The article I read specifically mentioned the original Law and Order series as one where they used those cups for realism. Apparently a lot of takeout places in NYC use a similar design. I don’t know how true that is.
FWIW I don’t remember ever seeing one of those here in the Boston area where I have lived for almost 20 years, and I am a big coffee drinker.
“Starbvcks”?
Gah! Too slow.
I’m familiar with these. I’ve seen them around. They have a drawing on one side, and on the other side, the words “WE ARE HAPPY TO SERVE YOU” in a faux Greek font.
Thanks for the info. I was able to find a picture from that: Coffee Cup.
How does New York end up with a certain paper cup? Does any other city have a typical paper cup?
A typical Boston coffee cup would be this.
You’re sorta missing the point. They set movies and TV shows in NYC for purposes of realism, because show business people believe that NYC is more real than anywhere else.
You see them around NJ too, especially in diners.
I actually never realized they were an exclusively NYC area thing until I moved away from the area and promptly stopped seeing them.
You can buy ceramic mugs with the design printed on them.
And what do you know, the cup has a website!
When I lived in Texas, I’d see coffee cups that said “Duncan Coffee” a lot, but I think that might have been a brand marketed towards college campuses.
Oh, I get it.
So cab drivers who say “dese, dem, and dose” are more real than those that say “these, them, and those”. And streets with steam coming up from grates are more real than those without it!
One nice thing about getting coffee in New York is that they often put it in a bag for you. The cup, not the coffee.
They don’t really do that other places. I doubt Starbucks does it, but whenever I go into a typical deli and get a bagel and a coffee, they’ll put the coffee in a bag.
When I lived on the West Coast in the 1990’s, the ubiquitous coffee cup out there was one with a black and teal Abstract Expressionist splooge on it.
It seems somebody went to college to become a graphic artist, was exposed to Jackson Pollock, Helen Frankethaler, etc., in his/her 100-level required courses, and went on to design a winning coffee cup incorporating 1987-trendy teal.
Wonder what he ate.
To the Cultural Elite who run Hollywood, anyway.
