GROPPI OF CAIRO

                

Picture of Groppi (2002) Photo Y. Sharobim

GROPPI, once the most celebrated tearoom this side of the Mediterranean was the creation of Giacomo Groppi (1863-1947) a native of Lugano, Switzerland. In time Maison Groppi became chief purveyor of chocolate to monarchs and pashas throughout the MidEast. Whenever pashas, beys and resident-foreigners traveled to Europe they took with them cartons filled with Groppi chocolates. During WW-II King Farouk air freighted via Khartoum, Entebbe, Dakar, Lisbon, Dublin a lacquered box emblazoned with the royal arms of Egypt and Great Britain. Inside, to the delight of the then-princesses Elizabeth and Margaret of England, were 100 kilos of Groppi chocolates.

Groppi Stickers

After a short apprenticeship with an uncle in Lugano and a brief employment in Provence, south of France, Giacomo Groppi arrived in Egypt in the 1880s to take up employment at Maison Gianola, a popular Swiss pastry and teashop on Bawaki Street, Cairo. In 1890, Giacomo Groppi, now aged 27, bought out Gianola's interests in its Alexandria's Rue de France branch and proceeded to open his own pastry and dairy shop.

By 1900 Groppi was running a successful enterprise annually exporting 100,000 cartons of eggs to the United Kingdom.

At Maison Groppi's second Alexandrine branch, on Cherif Street, Giacomo introduced crème chantilly for the first time in Egypt. This was a new technological feat which he acquired while touring the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Groppi was also the first chocolatier in Egypt to employ a female staff. In 1906, he sold his company to a Frenchman, Auguste Baudrot, and retired. For the next 60 years, Baudrot was regarded first amongst equals whenever compared to Alexandria's other famous tea rooms: Pastroudis, Trianon and Athineos. All three were run by Greeks.

Having lost his entire savings during the economic depression of 1907 Giacomo Groppi was obliged to return to what he knew best: making chocolates, pastries and dairy products. But out of deference to Baudrot, Groppi moved his activities to Cairo's al-Maghrabi Street (later, Adly Pasha Street). With only "La Marquise de Sévigné" and "Maison Mathieu" (renamed Sault) pausing as competition, Maison Groppi was ensured success in the nation's capital.

Old picture of Groppi

The formal opening took place on 23 December 1909. By the time WW-I broke out, Groppi's Tea Garden had become a favorite with the British Army of Occupation. A deli was added enhancing Groppi's image as the purveyor of quality food products.

In 1922 Maison Groppi inaugurated its own cold storage company--Industrie du Froid--employing over 120 workers and producing a daily output of 2,400 blocs of ice.

Coffee

In 1928, Giacomo Groppi's son, Achille, launched his famous ice cream, a technology he imported from the United States. The names of his delicious specialties were as exceptional as they tasted: Sfogliatella, Morocco, Mau Mau, Peche Melba, Maruska, Comtesse Marie, Surprise Neapolitaine. Cairenes were grateful to Achille for yet another creation: the Groppi tearoom situated on Midan Soliman Pasha (now, Talaat Harb).

Decades later, Groppi of Cairo would open a terrace café in Heliopolis overlooking Avenue des Pyramides and the legendary Heliopolis Palace Hotel (now, Uruba Presidential Palace).

To accommodate the less privileged Maison Groppi launched a chain of pastry and coffee shops "A l'Americaine".

Groppi Heliopolis

Thankfully Groppi's two main branches miraculously escaped complete destruction during the anti-British Black Saturday riots of January 1952 which ended with the burning of Cairo. In March 1954 Egypt's emerging strongman Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser ordered the placing of a bomb in Groppi's patisserie. While the detonation caused widespread panic, thankfully no one was hurt. The objective of Nasser's macabre exercise was to promote a feeling of public insecurity. The power struggle among the Free Officers had reached a new climax and the vicious smear campaign against Egypt's first president General Mohammed Naguib had somehow made its way inside Groppi.

Groppi Gardens Adly Pacha St.

Forty years later, the legend of Groppi exists in name only. The rot and decay of the socialist 1960s had taken their heavy toll. By the time Egypt returned to the ways of an open economy, Groppi's descendants had already abandoned the trade and left Egypt.

The rest is history. 
Article contributed by: Aziz Matta