A customer calls police as bar charges more than price displayed for an espresso. The police then fined the bar €1000.
An embittered customer of a Florence coffee bar called the police over price of espresso. The Ditta Artigianale coffee bar in Florence was fined €1,000.
The customer called police after being charged €2 for his decaffeinated coffee at Ditta Artigianale in the centre of Florence. His complaint was the price was charged was not the same as the one displayed behind the bar.
Coffee “prepared with great care”
Francesco Sanapo, owner of Ditta Artigianale, defended his coffee on social media saying it “is prepared with great care by my baristas”. He also argued that the price of the coffee was displayed on a digital menu.
“They fined me because somebody got offended for paying €2 for a decaffeinated coffee [which involves a water extraction process]. Can you believe it?” Sanapo said in a video while holding up a letter from the police.
“Even today, someone can get so annoyed that they mobilise the police, who find us to be in the wrong due to an outdated law. This law must be changed because otherwise 99.9% of bars and restaurants would easily fall foul of it.”
Read: Espresso coffee – UNESCO heritage?
Average price of espresso is €1
In Italy, the average cost of an espresso is €1. However, with supply chain issues and poor harvests, more than 70% of bars increased prices earlier in the year. Consumer groups warned that the price of an espresso could rise to an average €1.50 this year.
The Florence branch of Confartigianato, an association for small businesses, defended the bar. “This is something that deeply embitters me,” its president, Alessandro Vittorio Sorani, said. “A great deal of work goes into producing a quality product. Quality pays off and benefits everyone.”
The responses on the bar’s Facebook page were generally humorous, with customers coming to the bar’s defence. One said, “Pearls before swine. That was to be expected from those who order decaffeinated!” Another retorted, “If this guy goes to London he’ll call the FBI out”.
