Fanelli's Cafe and Prince Street: The Bohemian Saloon
Why is it significant?
Pause here at the corner of Prince and Mercer Streets before the welcoming red wooden facade and etched-glass windows of Fanelli's Cafe. Operating as a food and drink establishment at this very corner since 1847, Fanelli's is the second-oldest continuously operating tavern in New York City.
Key Facts
| Place | Fanelli's Cafe and Prince Street: The Bohemian Saloon |
|---|---|
| Address | 94 Prince St, New York, NY 10012, USA |
| Geo Coordinates | 40.72460, -73.99880 |
| Part of Walk | New York: SoHo Cast-Iron Architecture and Artist Loft Galleries |
| Generated | Generated |
Pause here at the corner of Prince and Mercer Streets before the welcoming red wooden facade and etched-glass windows of Fanelli's Cafe. Operating as a food and drink establishment at this very corner since 1847, Fanelli's is the second-oldest continuously operating tavern in New York City. Long before upscale designer boutiques and luxury shopping invaded Prince Street, this corner tavern was the unpretentious heart and soul of neighborhood working-class life.
Originally opened as a grocery and saloon by Herman Gerken during the Mexican-American War, the tavern was purchased in 1922 by Italian immigrant Michael Fanelli. During Prohibition, it operated as a discreet speakeasy, serving hearty sandwiches and covert drafts of beer to local warehouse teamsters, garment cutters, and dockworkers. When radical artists began colonizing SoHo lofts in the 1960s, Fanelli's became their indispensable social headquarters and meeting hall. Longtime neighborhood bartenders served generations of truck drivers and world-famous conceptual artists side by side at the brass-railed mahogany bar, preserving an egalitarian neighborhood camaraderie that defied the rampant commercial gentrification of downtown.
Step inside or peer through the window to admire the authentic interior: an antique dark wood back bar with leaded glass mirrors, vintage tin ceilings, checkered tile floors, and framed boxing photographs honoring neighborhood champions. Legends like Richard Serra, Donald Judd, and Chuck Close spent long evenings at these wooden booths, passionately debating art theory, arguing over zoning battles, and sketching ideas on paper napkins.
In a neighborhood that has experienced dizzying waves of gentrification, Fanelli's remains an unshakeable anchor of authentic community continuity and warmth. Longtime regulars still gather at the corner tables to share neighborhood gossip and raise a glass to SoHo's enduring bohemian soul.
Walk half a block west along Prince Street to Wooster Street, where the romantic cobblestones and monumental cast-iron lofts transport us back to the nineteenth century.