Cornelia Street Cafe

Long an emblem of West Village bohemian culture, Cornelia Street Cafe has now gone 21st century bourgeois. A small space downstairs still offers poetry readings and musical performances, but the crowd is diverse, with a menu to match.

Downstairs in the cabaret there are some 700 performances a year in every conceivable genre (and quite a few inconceivable ones). Suzanne Vega sang her first songs here, Eve Ensler developed her Vagina Monologues, Senator Eugene McCarthy read his poetry, Dr. Oliver Sacks continues to read his prose; Nobel laureate Roald Hoffmann curates a regular science series, and members of Monty Python and the Royal Shakespeare Company occasionally pop in. And there is an astonishing variety of music not limited to jazz (although Downbeat Magazine did name us ONE OF THE 100 GREAT JAZZ CLUBS OF THE WORLD).

In 1987, on its tenth anniversary, New York City proclaimed Cornelia Street Cafe "A CULINARY AS WELL AS A CULTURAL LANDMARK." Founded by three artists, it provides food for the soul as well as the body. Upstairs there are three dining rooms, a beautiful hundred-year-old oak bar, a sidewalk cafe on one of New York's most picturesque streets, and a wood-burning fireplace for the winter. The cafe has received numerous awards for its food: Time Out's TOP 100 RESTAURANTS; the Village Voice's BEST OF NEW YORK FOOD; and a special award from the Village Arts Society for INSPIRED CUISINE. Most recently it received the Waterford Crystal Award of Distinction for BEST BY-THE-GLASS WINE PROGRAM--there are more than thirty wines available by the glass. Downstairs (honored with Zagat Nightlife's Award of Distinction) there are more than 700 performances a year.