Professor Butter Beard and the NYC “Anthora” Paper Cup
“What on earth could be more luxurious than a sofa, a book, and a cup of coffee?...Was ever anything so civil?” ― Anthony Trollope, “The Warden”
I brew my daily coffee while Nellie snores. My eyes pop open every morning at 4:30am – a curse since birth (so I am told). Or, as I prefer to tell the story, existing proof of baker reincarnation. “Peet’s” is my “bean of choice,” a dark Guatemalan blend, six tablespoons ground fresh every morning, brewed slow and bold. Two teaspoons of sugar per pot during the week, and then on the weekends, those sexy beans are ground with a 1” piece of cinnamon bark and the resulting brew is finished with sugar and a dash of hazelnut extract. Deeeeelicous.
Nels seems to understand that this is “my time.” She arrives in the kitchen just as I finish my first “mug-a-joe,” wiggle-wagging, reminding me with a silly Nelster grin that she is now priority number one. I fill a to-go mug, turn on the oven to pre-heat for the morning bake, and the two of us head out to wake the deer and invite them into a sunrise game of tag.
Stepping back a few lifetimes, while working as a Pastry Chef in NYC, the morning routine danced to a different rhythm. Still waking at 4:30, I would grab my kitchen whites, hopefully remember to lock the Brooklyn apartment door, and dash into the city on the local F Train. I would pop up like a morning gopher in SoHo and sleepwalk into the 24-hour diner. Every morning, Tuesday through Saturday, they would have my square of crumb cake and to-go coffee at the register, ready for my grab-and-dash to unlock and lift the iron door at the restaurant on Prince Street.
I would sip out of that “NYC Anthora” paper cup for the next 2-3 hours of scrumptiously silent baking, making sure to have a couple of still-warm butter and sugar goodies (and a fresh pot of joe) at the ready when the Chefs Andrew and Neil and their minions would arrive around 9am.
I miss those paper cups. There was a vibrant warmth and a sense of place in every sip. You knew exactly where you were – dancing in a New York City state of mind.
Known as the “Anthora,” the blue-and-white drinking vessel first became an icon of New York City in 1963 when Leslie Buck, a Czech-American immigrant, designed the first-ever to-go coffee cup to appeal to Greek-owned NYC coffee shops and diners. With its customer-friendly “We Are Happy to Serve You” inscription and Greek-style letters, the Anthora quickly became an important part of the city’s identity.
Leslie Buck’s parents were killed by the Nazis during World War II, and he himself miraculously survived both Auschwitz and Buchenwald. After coming to New York, he Americanized his name from Laszlo Büch, according to the New York Times, and started an import-export business with his brother. In the late ’50s, they started a paper manufacturing company called Premier Cup in Mount Vernon.
Then, in the mid-1960s, Leslie started working for a new company called Sherri Cup as their sales manager and later their director of marketing. This is where he first designed the Anthora, but he never received royalties from it (though he made out pretty well on sales commissions). Again according to the New York Times, the word “Anthora” was actually Buck’s mispronunciation of “amphora,” which is the two-handled Ancient Greek serving pitcher seen on the cup. The blue and white colors pay homage to the Greek flag, with the font modelled on ancient Athenian lettering.
The height of sales was in 1994 when Sherri sold over 500 million cups. After the Solo Cup Company bought Sherri in 2005, about 200 million cups per year were sold. A year later, with sales at a standstill, Solo Cup decided to halt its large-scale distribution. The company kept the design alive by selling its licenses to souvenir shops and restaurants. The paper cup made an official comeback to the city in 2015, after been seen in multiple movies and television shows set in New York where actors held the famous Anthora in hit shows like “The Sopranos,” “NYPD Blue,” “Mad Men,” and “Law & Order.”
I purchased a reproduction ceramic version from MOMA a couple years back. It’s a delightful novelty, but I miss the original paper version. The one that would daily drip onto my kitchen whites, like a baker’s sunrise stain of passage. And nothing complements that morning sip like a bite of still-warm NYC-style crumb cake. My recipe has evolved over the years, switching to a springform pan, and boldly adding orange zest, fresh blueberries and Chinese Five-Spice. Now best on a lazy Sunday morning, when, just like J.D. Salinger wrote, “I'll read my books and I'll drink coffee and I'll listen to music and I'll bolt the door.”
Professor Butter Beard’s Blueberry Coffee Cake
One 9” cake (baked in a springform pan)
Topping:
¾ cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp Chinese Five-Spice powder
½ tsp kosher salt
5 ½ Tbsp unsalted butter, melted (you will use a total of two sticks of butter)
1 tsp vanilla paste
Cake:
1 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup dark brown sugar
Zest of one orange
10 ½ Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup canola (or vegetable) oíl
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla paste
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp kosher salt
1 cup Greek yoghurt (or sour cream)
1 ½ cups fresh blueberries
Filling – ¼ cup brown sugar and 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Confectioner’s sugar to finish
1) Spray a 9” springform pan with baking spray and line with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2) For the Topping: Melt the 5 ½ Tbsp butter. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, spices and salt. Mix in the melted butter and vanilla with your fingers until crumbly. Refrigerate until ready to use.
3) In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, and salt. In a small bowl, mix together the filling (brown sugar and cinnamon) with a fork.
4) In a standing mixer, mix both the sugars and the orange zest until combined and aromatic. Add the oil and butter and cream together. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla paste. With the mixer on low, alternately add the dry mix and the yoghurt, beginning and ending with the dry. Remove from the mixer and fold in the blueberries.
5) Spread half the batter into the prepared springform pan. Sprinkle the filling, leaving a ½” border on the sides. Spread the remaining batter over the filling. Sprinkle all the topping over the cake.
6) Bake for 70 to 75 minutes until an instant-read thermometer reads 205 degrees. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack. When cool, dust the top with confectioner’s sugar and release from the pan.
