I’ve been getting emails from Cornelia St. Cafe owner Robin Hirsch for the past month, letting his mailing list know that the cafe will be closing for good, after 4 decades of being a Greenwich Village institution. I wandered over there today after Barre class, not realizing it’s the last day they will be open.
I had a chat with Robin, and he said the closure is not just about rent increases, but also about general landlord nastiness. Evidently the landlord who owns the building is on the Top 10 list of worst landlords in New York, and actually boasts of being THE WORST!
I’ve had a few wonderful evenings at the cafe over the past few years, and recently was the first patron in for a morning coffee, trying to soak up the last few bits of memory before the cafe closes. Some of you may recall that when I worked at Krystyna’s Place, the vintage clothing store on the same block as the cafe, we wound up the photo shoot at the cafe, and I met Robin that day. He gave us each a glass of wine, as Krystyna is a good friend of his. It was the perfect ending to a dream day.
So I have a soft spot in my heart for this New York institution. For a while, my writing teacher from Gotham Writers, Nelsie Spence, was hosting a monthly comedy reading show here, the Imperfect Perfect Show. Sadly, I never got over to see it.
Today was an especially vibrant and emotional day at the cafe, with regulars and new visitors alike thronging around the bar, filling the tables, and lining up outside for the 3:00 PM Songwriter’s Exchange. Tonight, the final event will be an artists’ salon, starting at 7 PM. I was lucky to get a seat at the bar, and ordered a tasty New Year’s Day brunch of eggs Florentine, coffee, and mimosa. An excellent first meal of the year, though tinged with sadness.
Here are some short clips of the scene outside the cafe today.
On one side of me was a couple from Toronto, in town to celebrate New Year’s Eve. The man is a performer in Come From Away in Toronto, and his partner is a tango dancer. They went to a tango event last night and then finished up the evening at Marie’s Crisis, a sing-along piano bar in the West Village. On the other side of me, I met a long-time New Yorker and cabaret performer, MAC nominee Kathryne Langford. She is under consideration for a Bistro Award for a recent cabaret performance, and has promised to take me out to some of her favorite New York places. How wonderful to meet a new friend on the first day of the year.
The cafe is selling its custom-made tables. Lacking space in my apartment for any more furniture, I took home a Cornelia St. Cafe sparkling bottle instead. (See top photo.)
Robin Hirsch is an amazing person, a former Oxford, Fulbright, and English-Speaking Union Scholar, who has acted, directed, taught, and published on both sides of the Atlantic. He is a long-time supporter of eclectic artists and art forms, ranging from stilts, to tight-rope walking, to writing to spoken word to music, and much more. He has written a book about the cafe, called The Whole World Passes Through: Stories from the Cornelia Street Café, and other works as well. His cafe will be much missed, and I wish him and the staff all the best as they head in a new direction.
Here’s a brief history of the cafe, and some stories about the cafe on the same page. Here’s another great article about the cafe and some of the famous and infamous people and goings-on.