easy tiger!
i had replied to st2lemans just because I have tried to highlight the point you have just made

EDIT: speaking of "childish groaning"...

If you ask the average Italian, it's not that he/she likes espresso,
it's that he/she can barely survive without.
Now with my tool, the electric moka,
http://www.englishforum.ch/attachmen...8&d=1335356932
I make about 30 coffees with 250 grams of ground coffee,
which makes an average price of 0.08 to 0.20 francs per
coffee depending on the price of the package.
Compare it to 2.1 francs which is the price of an espresso
in the cafeteria in my company, it gives 10 to 26 coffees
for the price of 1. And the quality is much better.

Bully for you. The OP is in Basel and is recommending somewhere in Basel.

They have two more shops: one in Kleinbasel between bus stops Feldbergstrasse and Hammerstrasse (30), and another in Gundeli near Falkensteinerstrasse (36)

The best for me is still Caffè Eccetera on Mittlere Strasse

Not very much less than here at @1.90CHF Yep, we are definitely NOT in a touristy spot

Can you remeber the name of that Italian restaurant in Zürich ?

Recently back from Sardinia, all cofees were 1 euro (where we were anyway) and quality was excellent

I in many places in Italy always was astonished about how well known Zurigo actually is, people even knowing real details and not just "the-cousin-of-my-cousin" tales My Italian however is too basic for certain counter-question and so, here the question to you : are Italians considering moving to Zurigo aware of the fairly high price level ? and by "high price level" I mean in comparison with Milano, Venezia and Pisa and not Napoli !

Pippone , Schauenbergstr. 8, Zch-Affoltern

in Glattbrugg I might, for Italian cuisine, recommend
Restaurant Bahnhof
Restaurant Glatthof
and in Zch-Wollishofen, I recommend
Grappolo at Widmerstr. 64
Albisgarten at Albisstr. 29
-
and not too long ago, I through a business partner, learnt to know
Villa Ducale, Schaffhauserstr. 127, 8057 Zch
with an excellenct cuisine

We use moke all the time at work and at home, in fact we have 7 in the kitchen at home!

Tom

i think everyone moving here knows the pros (high salaries) and the cons (one of the highest cost of living in the world) of the Swiss life, ...including the italians.
This is why i do not understand the point in the first reply to the OP. As a matter of fact she was not complaining about the price, but suggesting a good coffee at a 'decent' price compared to the swiss standards.
it's curious to see that the price comparison between Italy vs Swiss has been made by non-Italians in this thread..

I'm Italian btw

It's quite common getting an espresso for 1.20 eur at moment,especially on the north of Italy, the espresso price has increased quite a lot in the past few years. I still remember when I was used to pay 0.60 eur for it

2 eur for a cappuccino in Venice??? that was such a good deal considering the fact you were in Venice, one the most expensive city in Italy.

and so, a question to YOU. I in Italy saw that such a lot of "non-Espresso" coffee is consumed by average people. What in your view is the share of Espresso in the total coffee consumption in Italy ?

Changing times. I remember the times when "Gelati Misto" were available at 100 Lire (= CHF -.70) and an Espresso was around 120 Lire. To hire a bicycle for an afternoon was around 700 Lire (CHF 4.90). Sure, my older brother sent ME to purchase the icecream as the tariff for HIM would have been some 20% higher (foreigners tariff).

Hmmm what do you mean, like americano?

To my knoledge, 99% of italians drink espresso
if they drink coffee. You don't even specify "espresso",
you just say "un caffè" and espresso is understood.
Nobody really knows what "caffè crema" is, and supermarkets
have only coffee for mokas or home espresso machines.

I think Italisn got screwed up with the exchance rate between
lira and euro.
1 € = 1936 lire.
But the psycological effect was 1€ = 1000 lire.
That basically means cutting the salary by 2.

OK, if I make "coffee" at home it is rather stronger than what general Swiss restaurants serve as Espresso, but of course usually WITH milk. I admit never to have seen in Italy "non-espresso"-machines but failed to realize the point. In fact I often use coffee for espresso machines and use the stuff for my normal filter machine. I rather mix the stuff with some Arabic Coffee and some Cardamon.

However an old cook, a Maria Bresciani in Pietrasanta/Lucca, showed mum how to achieve a decent coffee by filter machine, and I have taken the method over indirectly. We had come into contact with her, as the cook of our small holiday hotel (pensione) had fallen ill, and the owners found out that there was a long retired restaurant cook nearby who then for a few week took over. Her husband was a successful marble-sculptor. We a year later were invited twice to their house for dinner.

Caffe Americano ? To the luck of many people, a Milano barman, confronted by a young American with a very serious hangover, served the man a standard or rather extra-strong espresso. The man recovered and then systematically informed himself about real Italian coffee, and on this basis established Starbucks. (let's not talk about those "baby-drinks" that comany also offers ! )

Yes, I had been on the Italian side of Ponte Tresa in the last days of the Lira for half a day, and things were considerably cheaper than accross the bridge on the Swiss side. But when I a few years later, came to Ponte Tresa /It. again, I realized that the price level had become "helvetised". No problem for me, but for the locals it must have been rather disastrous. Only mellowed by the fact no longer to get some sweets but real money as return-money And that people no longer needed carrier-bags to get the money around, but could do with a nice small "portemonnaie" . Disadvantage: the nice tradition to put a 1000 Lire banknote under the too short leg of the table and then take it back when leaving for sure died away