Inspired by the Italian tradition of Caffè SOSpeso, where a customer pays in advance for a coffee to be enjoyed by someone in need, Food Sospeso brings this beautiful gesture to modern New York.

The tradition of caffè sospeso was born in Naples, in its noisy working-class neighborhoods, at the beginning of the 20th century. In the city’s small bars, people who were lucky had just been paid, won the lottery, closed a good deal would order not one but two cups of espresso: one they drank themselves, and the second they left “suspended” (sospeso) for someone who would come in later and couldn’t afford to pay.

The idea of a “paid-forward” drink turned out to be contagious. It spread to other regions of Italy and to dozens of countries from Europe to North and South America.