Fanelli Café

Long before SoHo morphed into the bustling shopping, art and culinary destination it is today, there was Fanelli Café, a teeny, dark, tin-stamped-ceiling bar on the corner of Prince and Mercer Streets. The second-oldest restaurant/bar in the city, Fanelli Café has had a slew of iterations since it opened in 1847: grocery store, saloon, Prohibition speakeasy, tavern, and now restaurant and bar. But what has remained the same for over 150 years is Fanelli Café’s role as a gathering place for the community. All of the artists who were working in SoHo at the time were constantly inspired by the conversations they had with other creatives or chefs or locals over a pitcher of beer at Fanelli’s. These days, the artists may have been replaced by chain stores, but the clientele largely remains the same: long-standing locals bellying up to the bar for a drink and stimulating conversation.