GROPPI

Where time stops — and the scent of coffee remembers everything, There is "Groppi"

Founded in 1891 by Swiss chocolatier Giacomo Groppi, this café wasn’t just a sweet shop; it was a symbol.

Groppi became the beating heart of cosmopolitan Cairo — a place where royalty, artists, and revolutionaries shared tables and stories. Queen Farida, Oum Kalthoum, and even King Farouk were regulars.

I sat across from its faded facade, listening to the hum of the city — imagining the clink of porcelain cups and the perfume of Cairo’s golden age.

The sketch is my way of preserving that — the mix of grandeur and nostalgia that still clings to the awnings and tiled floors.

Groppi isn’t just a place. It’s a memory we can savor.

More on the process of coloring and finishing this piece..

And Speaking of Groppi, I wanted to recall this special 2020 sketch, one of the very early ones I did in Egypt, in what I naiively called "Friendly neighborhood Sketchbook" , Pretty Catchy, huh ?