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Welcome to Back of the Napkin, musings from Serviette for the cultured world. Ever hold a seashell up to your ear to hear the ocean? Well, you won’t hear waves in the Shellphone.
At Francis Ford Coppola’s La Lancha resort on Lake Petén Itzá near Tikal in Guatemala, it’s possible to order a margarita, salsa and chips, or a fresh towel by flipping a switch on the Shellphone—a conch shell with a hidden intercom that provides a direct line to the front desk. It’s a trademark (and trademarked) feature at all of his under-the-radar Central American properties, which, he told The New York Times, was “an idea I had for years. I love its eccentricity.”
Serviette concurs. Coppola owns seven properties as part of his Coppola Hideaways collection (Blancaneaux Lodge, Turtle Inn, and Coral Caye in Belize; La Lancha in Guatemala; Jardin Escondido in Argentina; and Palazzo Margherita in Italy). How charming!
What fascinates Serviette, having just returned from a short stay at La Lancha, is how this iconic director—who could have stopped after making The Godfather—went on to become a magnate of winemaking and proprietor of several unique hospitality properties. “I am mainly just pursuing things I like,” he said in a 2007 Forbes Life interview. He wanted an unpretentious hideaway, off the beaten path, where he could write, commune with nature, and perhaps recover a little of the jungle-fed clarity he found in the Philippines while filming Apocalypse Now. At La Lancha, guests are taken up to their rooms by funicular that climbs the large hillside upon which the property is perched, offering a sweeping view of the lake’s clarifying beauty.
In that same Forbes interview, he explained the importance of these distinctive touches. “There are many, many details at our resorts that are just peculiar, and I think that's a source of delight for our guests. How are you going to call the desk and ask for coffee? The Shellphone. The Shellphones have a wooden base that looks like a 1915 Edison Victrola, and on it is a beautiful conch shell. If you touch the switch, the shell lights up and you say, ‘I’d like two pizzas and a cappuccino and a daiquiri.’ We are the leaders, by the way, in shellular technology.”
The Shellphone feels newly relevant in our current desire for a return to analog life. Everywhere, people are attempting to un-yoke themselves from phones: analog bags, film cameras, vinyl, crossword puzzles. Recent coverage has framed analog living as a response to digital fatigue, with younger generations especially embracing low-tech rituals as a way to reclaim attention from the infinite scroll.
At Serviette, we are naturally sympathetic to any object that turns function into ritual. A napkin can become a scented keepsake. A bottle can become a portal. A shell can become a telephone. The point is not nostalgia for its own sake, but the restoration of delight to ordinary gestures. Put down the phone. Pick up the shell. Someone, somewhere, may bring chips.