Caffe Reggio

I'm Jamie McDonald. Join me as we celebrate small businesses that make New York so unique. These New York Originals. Cafe Society in America has pretty much given itself up to the corporate coffee shop. That's too bad really, because there's nothing Proof of this, Cafe Regio. It's old, it's nice, that makes you feel comfortable as soon as you walk through the door. It's warm, that's the word, it's a warm place. It is the oldest original cafe in Greenwich Village, a place thick with New York City history. Looking almost the same as it did when it opened in the 1920s, Cafe Regio wears its patina well. Its decor itself is worth a visit, some of which is worthy of a place in the Metropolitan Muse You cannot duplicate this atmosphere with a sort of, It's, this place has been around forever and it really has its own look and feel. Cafe Regio's history is a classic New York tale. Cafe Regio was opened in 1927 by a man called Domenico Parisi, who initially had a barbershop here and had always dreamed of opening a cafe. And he opened the first Italian coffee place in the United States. Since then, the cafe has only been owned by two families, the Parises and the Cavalaches, who bought it in 1955. Their son Fabricio is the current owner. Each family has added their own furnishings and decor to the cafe. But these aren't just knickknacks, mind you, but rather exquisite original works of art. Many customers are unaware of the treasures that surround them. There's more than 80 pieces of artwork in the cafe. Some of the original paintings that we have in the cafe go all the way back to the Renaissance. There's a piece that is done by the School of Caravaggio. Well, one of the other pieces that we have in the cafe is a bench from the Medici family. They are a port family from Italy that were really sort of rose to power during the Renaissance. But there is one item here that is particularly cherished, a cappuccino machine that can actually lay claim to being the first of its kind in America. The machine itself was one of a kind and was run by coal in order to warm up the steam. Domenico spent his life savings on the machine, $1,000, a princely s There's And then they would get served this incredible coffee that was so different from anything that had been in the United States prior to that. The cappuccino machine now sits quietly in the cafe And what an eclectic blend over the decades. For the cafe, Reggio has been the backdrop for a multitude of trends, movements and events. It was one of the intellectual hubs for the beat, bohemian and folk movements New York City helped usher in. We had clientele such as Bob Dylan, Jack Kerouac, Elvis Presley used to come here. Hollywood has also come calling. The Godfather 2 was filmed here with the original shaft. The movie called Next Stop, Greenwich Village with Christopher Walken was filmed here. There's even a piece of movie history on the ceiling. But one of the more interesting pieces that people don't really know about is the ceiling fan in the cafe, which was actually a prop in the movie Casablanca. And it'still functional and we use it in the s And with all this history comes a great menu of coffee, pastries and more. We have sort of an eclectic but wonderful menu. We serve all kinds of coffee. I mean, cafe latte, espresso, doppio espresso, macchiato. So we have small pasta dishes and we also sell panini and tramizzini. And a lot of the things that we try to sell, we do our best to try to purchase from historical and local vendors. Buying local is one of the ways their coffee sets them apart. For they are true coffee connoisseurs, elevating it to an art form. The people that have been working behind the bar at Cafereggio, it's a generational thing. So they have a culture of coffee and have an understanding of what we do at Cafereggio. We are meticulous about the kind of coffee bean that we use. I mean, if you go to some of these sort of chain coffee places, you get this horrifically burned, And espresso beans should be well roasted, but it shouldn't be burned. And that's what Cafereggio attains and is constantly striving to do, is provide the customer with Not something that you have to drown with syrups and sugars and all kinds of other stuff. History, atmosphere, not to mention a great cup of coffee. Cafereggio will always be one of those places in New York that just by being itself, reminds people why they love the city so much. Cafereggio has taken their old world ways to the internet. They have a website that has a full menu and other cool stuff to buy.