Italian coffeehouse culture percolates in Burlington County

Drive three miles, in either direction, between the towns of Medford Lakes and historic Medford Village in Burlington County, South Jersey, and you will find not one but two Italian American-owned cafes.

Jesse and Anthony own and operate Lakes Coffee Roaster and Café in Medford Lakes.

A coffee roastery called Lakes and an espresso and wine bar called In Dietro both celebrate customs that the owners’ Italian families labored to preserve when they immigrated to the United States, including the custom of gathering with others to enjoy easy conversation over cups of coffee.

Jesse and Anthony Pagliuso, owners of Lakes Coffee Roaster and Café, offer Medford Lake’s close-knit community a total coffee experience. The shop’s exterior is constructed from logs, all part of the borough’s original resort concept, dating back to the 1930s. It blends perfectly with neighboring eateries and small businesses sandwiched between the shops on Trading Post Way.

Inside, coffee lovers encounter tumblers and bags of beans from all over the world for sale. They’re likely to be greeted by Jesse himself, who stands behind a wraparound coffee bar. The bar, and the shop’s menu, all incorporate wooden panels. A small seating area is situated next to even more beans, in black, branded containers.

For old-world charm, few places can top In Dietro Caffe.

There’s a rustic charm about being in the shop. Even when customers have formed a line as far back as the front door, the shop’s Italian-style roast and café experience make Lakes a place where regulars, friends and family will return.

It’s no wonder since Jesse told me his approach to running the shop is inspired by Sunday dinners he shared with his family growing up. That is where, over cups of coffee, his family cared for and caught up with one another.

Jesse and Anthony run their coffee shop like they’re hosting Sunday dinners. It’s easy to spot the link between Lakes’ business model and the world’s oldest café, Le Procope, located in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés – an iconic neighborhood in Paris.

It is said that in 1686, a waiter working at the then-café, purchased Le Procope, transforming it into a place where writers and intellectuals, among them Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin, would gather. It’s even said that Franklin wrote elements of the future U.S. Constitution at Le Procope. The café’s namesake, Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, was a young Sicilian immigrant from Palermo, who settled in France in 1670 and worked at the café before purchasing it. It’s an exceptional story, made more exceptional yet, by the coffeehouse’s connectedness to the larger history of coffee and social life that first emerged in the 1500s in the Arabian Peninsula, and eventually reached Europe in the 1650s.

By introducing the café format, which took hold in Austria and Italy in the 1680s, Procope restored respectability to coffeehouses, which had previously doubled as bordellos or private clubs.

In the first half of the 20th century, another café format emerged, thanks to the invention of coffee machines, which could prepare individual cups of coffee on demand. The espresso bar reflected the accelerated pace of life following Italy’s postwar economic transformation from an agrarian to an industrial society. Now, customers could order from a barista and down their drinks at a designated bar area inside a beautifully decorated shop. Right on Main Street in downtown Medford, we have our very own European espresso bar.

Opened two years ago by partners Dennis and Dani Durante, In Dietro Caffè is a destination for espresso lovers. From the street, customers enter the caffe’s rod iron gate, and pass through a charming footpath that’s flanked on either side by freestanding statues and meticulously maintained hanging planters. Customers can take a seat in the garden under a trellis or enter the caffe and take in its stylish brick walls, black-and-white photographs and dry pastas and coffee beans imported from Napoli for sale.

At the counter, jars filled with mouthwateringly delicious homemade biscotti capture customers’ attention, along with the caffe’s menu, which hangs just above the Italian-style kitchen. The menu features made-to-order Italian specialties, including affogatos, which are made with imported gelato. Whatever music is playing in the background doesn’t distract from interacting with fellow patrons, most of whom are Italian families or college-age.

The caffe’s baristas are mostly energetic and capable 20-somethings who embody the same welcoming spirit we might expect if we visited our relatives abroad. They’re gracious and willing to walk your order outside for you, and some of these same baristas are even related to Dennis and Dani.

Last week, my wife and I ordered the Nutella & Caramel toast. It was one of my favorite lunches in recent memory, not only for its simplicity, but for its ability to transport me to my Zia’s home, where, as a young girl, I remember nothing tasting better than her Nutella toast and a glass of warm chocolate milk. At the caffe, as I watched our food being prepared with extra care, and again this week, after chatting with Jesse, while I bought my usual two bags of Lakes coffee, it struck me that whenever I visit these two coffeehouses, I feel a sense of connection that I can’t find just anywhere.

Just off Main or Stokes, depending on which direction you’re coming from, these two family-owned coffeehouses remind customers what good coffee tastes and smells like, and even better hospitality feels like. They’re gathering places where we get the sense the owners feel just as close to their Italian heritage as the customers do. I know I do.