Cafe Borgia, 1989, out towards the busy corner of Bleeker and MacDougal St.
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November 17, 2024
by Keith Miller, text and art
The southern part of New York's Greenwich Village was predominately Italian in the early 1900's. It was, naturally home to many small businesses, including traditional Italian coffee houses - places with names like Caffee Dante and Caffee Reggio. In my days wandering around Manhattan in the late 70's and 80's I was lucky enough to get to know a few of those cafes which were still surviving.
Happily, I had the chance to do some sketches in the Café Borgia, a well known bohemian haunt of the literary and art world in the 50's and 60's. Jack Kerouac, Edward Albee and Andy Warhol, among many others showed up here. Originally opened in 1959 by the children of Italian immigrants, it had a 42-year run. By 2001 the rent had soared above 4,000 dollars a month, and the owner called it quits when the lease came up for renewal.
Another old "beatnik café," (so called by that bastion of mid-century capitalism, Forbes magazine) was Le Café Figaro. Also located at Bleeker and MacDougal, it opened in 1957 and carried on, in one form or another under different owners, for 51 years. It recently reopened in the same location with new owners and a very slick interior. There aren't that many people around who would remember the first incarnation of Figaro from the 50's and 60's. But since Ginsberg and Lenny Bruce used to hang out there I guess some faint nostalgia is due.
Cafe Figaro
Admittedly I was just a tourist like many of the other customers. Tourists have been flocking to the Village since the boom years of the folk music scene in the early 60's. That was all gone by the time I arrived. For me these places were great for people watching and although the food was never any good, the coffee was fine. Naturally I had no inkling that anything fundamental would ever change in this part of Manhattan. Developers and landlords knew better.
Of course it's sad that most of the old Italian coffee houses are now gone. But all is not lost. The much beloved Caffee Reggio, mostly unchanged since 1927 is still going strong at 119 MacDougal St. I notice it's very well reviewed. Appropriately for the "city that never sleeps," it's open from 9am to 3am.
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Keith Miller was born in Canada, but has spent most of his life abroad. At first travelling and working in Europe and S.E. Asia in the 1970's and 80's, he later settled in Mexico.
From the Gulf of Siam to the urban wilds of Manhattan his work explores a broad range of subjects reflecting a life of travel and observation. He recently crewed on a square-rigged sailing ship which crossed the Indian Ocean; recording the experience in another of his travel sketchbooks .
He has exhibited in in his native Canada as well as in the U.S., Mexico and the U.K. His paintings can be found in the collections of the United States Dept. of State and in a number of museums as well as private and corporate collections.
He's lived for the last 35 years in San Miguel de Allende where he now shares his home with a sometimes-faithful Schnauzer/Poodle mix.
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