Caffe Reggio

116 West 3rd Street | also 123 MacDougal Street, 119 MacDougal Street, 121 MacDougal Street | Greenwich Village | built 1901

Open on the map5 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1901

    Leopold Kaufmann builds a seven-story tenement with a twin a block away

    Owner Leopold Kaufmann had the building put up in late 1900 or early 1901 to a Schneider and Herter design. It was a seven-story tenement with no elevator, built to house poor immigrants as cheaply as possible, during the 1900-1901 rush of tenement construction around the Tenement House Act of 1901. A twin of the same design stands a block away at 100 West 3rd Street.

    Source: Village Preservation

  2. 1927

    Domenico Parisi opens Caffe Reggio with an espresso machine made in 1902

    Domenico Parisi opened Caffe Reggio at 119 MacDougal Street in 1927. He sent his life savings of $1,000 to Italy to buy an espresso machine made there in 1902. The cafe's furnishings include a 16th-century painting from the school of Caravaggio and an antique bench that once belonged to the Medici family.

    Source: Village Preservation

  3. 1959

    John F. Kennedy speaks to a crowd outside Caffe Reggio

    Senator John F. Kennedy, widely seen as a likely presidential candidate, addresses a crowd gathered outside the MacDougal Street coffeehouse. Caffe Reggio has been pouring cappuccino from its landmark 1902 espresso machine since Domenico Parisi opened it in 1927, and by the late 1950s it draws Village bohemians, tourists, and passersby alike. The impromptu appearance becomes a fixture of the cafe's neighborhood lore.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 2010

    Caffe Reggio receives a Village Award

    The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation gave the cafe a Village Award, calling it a beloved and essential part of the neighborhood. Caffe Reggio has appeared in films including The Godfather Part II, Serpico and Inside Llewyn Davis.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 2013

    The South Village Historic District, which includes Caffe Reggio, is landmarked

    Caffe Reggio sits inside the South Village Historic District, landmarked in 2013. Village Preservation points to the cafe as a surviving original Italian cafe of the neighborhood. It also says Beat generation newcomers of the late 1940s and 1950s found a home there, with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg among the regulars.

    Source: Village Preservation

Further reading

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