Cornelia Street Cafe

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Cornelia Street Café
Cornelia Street Cafe sign, circa 2009
Cornelia Street Cafe, circa 2009
Cornelia Street Cafe, circa 2009
Interactive map of Cornelia Street Café
Restaurant information
EstablishedJuly 1977; 48 years ago (1977-07)
ClosedJanuary 1, 2019; 7 years ago (2019-01-01)
OwnerRobin Hirsch
Previous owner(s)Charles McKenna, Raphaela Pivetta, Robin Hirsch
Dress codeCasual
Location29 Cornelia St., Manhattan, New York City, New York State, United States of America
Coordinates40°43′53″N 74°00′09″W / 40.731348°N 74.002391°W / 40.731348; -74.002391Category:Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
Websitecorneliastreetcafe.com

The Cornelia Street Cafe was a restaurant and bar at 29 Cornelia Street in New York City's Greenwich Village, opened in July 1977. The Cornelia Street Café had a 41-year inning in the West Village. It was named "a cultural as well as a culinary landmark" by the City of New York. It produced some 700 shows a year in every conceivable genre (and quite a few inconceivable ones) from science to stilt-walking, from Afro-American poetry to Latin jazz, from Shakespeare at Midnight to the entire Iliad as an experiment in Breakfast Theatre; from members of Monty Python reading children's stories to local kids to members of the Royal Shakespeare Company reciting the poetry of long dead poets on their birthdays; from Carolyne Mas and The Songwriters Exchange to Eve Ensler and The Vagina Monologues. The cafe closed at the end of 2018 because of rising rents from the gentrification of the West Village, ending on its holiday closed day of New Year's Day 2019.[1][2] The cafe had been voted one of the best places to listen to jazz music in the world.[2]

Business

In the 21st century, the Cornelia Street Cafe was a restaurant and nightclub, showcasing musicians, poets, writers, and artists. In 1998, the cafe was one of the restaurants recognized by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation with a Village Award presented to "Cornelia Street Restaurants".[3]

Songwriters Exchange

In December 1977, the then-fledgling cafe hosted the first meeting of the Songwriters Exchange, a weekly gathering in which the Village's songwriters could present their new songs – and only new songs – to their peers. Two years later the cafe sponsored Cornelia Street: The Songwriters Exchange, an LP of eight Village singer-songwriters; released by Stash Records, the LP was named "Album Of The Month" by Stereo Review in December 1979, and was later re-released as a CD. It has the first known recordings of several prominent Village artists, including Cliff Eberhardt, David Massengill, Rod MacDonald, Martha Hogan, Michael Fracasso, Brian Rose, Eliot Simon and Lucy Kaplansky (as Simon & Kaplansky), and was Tom Intondi's second recorded work.[4]

References

  1. Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya (December 12, 2018). "West Village Art Haven Cornelia Street Cafe Will Close After 41 Years". Eater NY.
  2. 1 2 Kristen Saloomey (January 1, 2019). "New York's Cornelia Street Cafe is latest victim of rising rents". Al Jazeera.
  3. "Past Village Award Winners". GVSHP.org. Archived from the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved June 1, 2015.
  4. "The Songwriters Exchange – Cornelia Street". discogs.com. Retrieved April 21, 2021.

40°43′53″N 74°00′09″W / 40.731348°N 74.002391°W / 40.731348; -74.002391Category:Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlasCategory:Coordinates on Wikidata

Category:Defunct nightclubs in Manhattan Category:Greenwich Village Category:Defunct restaurants in Manhattan Category:1977 establishments in New York City Category:2019 disestablishments in New York (state) Category:Restaurants established in 1977 Category:Restaurants disestablished in 2019
Category:1977 establishments in New York City Category:2019 disestablishments in New York (state) Category:All Wikipedia articles written in American English Category:Articles with short description Category:Commons category link is locally defined Category:Commons category link is on Wikidata Category:Coordinates on Wikidata Category:Defunct nightclubs in Manhattan Category:Defunct restaurants in Manhattan Category:Greenwich Village Category:Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas Category:Pages using the Kartographer extension Category:Restaurants disestablished in 2019 Category:Restaurants established in 1977 Category:Short description is different from Wikidata Category:Use American English from January 2025 Category:Use mdy dates from February 2025