In 1950s Greenwich Village, few places were as popular as the San Remo.
Called a cafe but really a bar, the San Remo, at 189 Bleecker Street, hosted a literary-minded Village crowd plus regulars such as William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Dylan Thomas, and Allen Ginsberg, at left below.
“With its pressed-tin ceiling, black-and-white tile floors and dollar salads with all the bread and butter you could eat, the San Remo attracted a younger, hipper crowd more into experimenting with drugs than The White Horse’s habituées,” states a PBS bio of writer Delmore Schwartz and his favorite bars in Greenwich Village.
“The San Remo, which used to be at the corner of Bleecker and MacDougal in the heart of the Italian part of Greenwich Village, was cool rather than politically and alcoholically inflamed.
“Delmore’s fellow drinkers at the White Horse were ‘hotter,’ more engaged, their ideas forged by the political struggles of the 30′s. The apolitical San Remo crowd were children of World War II and more alienated from mainstream culture by the Cold War.”
Tags: 1950s New York City, Allen Ginsburg, beatniks, Delmore Schwartz, Dylan Thomas, Famous bars of the Village, Hipster bars of New York City, San Remo bar, San Remo Bleecker Street, San Remo cafe, William S. Burroughs
February 11, 2010 at 6:41 pm |
[...] back at the San Remo Cafe which once graced 189 Bleecker Street [Ephemeral [...]
September 5, 2010 at 4:04 am |
That picture shows William Burroughs at left and the poet Alan Ansen at right. Allen Ginsberg is the one who took the photograph.
September 14, 2010 at 1:16 am |
My father was part owner of this place for years. Its amazing to finally see a picture of the place he spoke about for years. He past away in 2002. His name was Santo Stabile.
December 30, 2012 at 6:36 pm |
My father’s family was the original owners. Frank Santini was my grandfather & my Aunt Betty Santini was probably the one who sold it to your Dad. May they Rest in Peace. My father was John Calcerano & worked there till 1955
December 31, 2012 at 12:11 am
Donna! Remember when we went there in the 60′s?? You told me all about it! So we went ! Thank you for sending this!!
January 26, 2012 at 1:34 pm |
From a collection of letters written by a young gay man in late 40s early 50s NY:
“What precisely were my reactions toward Sam Remo I don’t know. Delving beneath all thoughts I think I found will uncover a blank, I believe. Or a curious ‘touristy’ interest even though in part I understood and almost sympathized: a weak interest, however. All such strange appearing men and women. Beards on the men, or shaven faces, large breasts and cropped hair on the women. All with deep sunken, dark ringed, empty, empty eyes. Couldn’t hear the talk, don’t imagine there was any of even the forced intellectual variety. Actually with the bar’s walls changed and their ragged, torn, cheap, overly simplified clothes removed it could be a scene from some middle world between earth and hell; a nonchalant, easily posing group of smiling young people. No books. Only cigarettes and beer.
They keep entering and leaving through the doors – one on Bleeker, the other on Waverly. Around the walls a few smoke stained canvasses poorly executed. There is the usual juke box near the door but it is silent; most of its records are jazz. There are three white globes with some painted scene hanging from the patterned sheet iron ceiling. All dull lifeless and unexciting.”
January 26, 2012 at 2:59 pm |
That’s great–is there any more to the letter?
January 26, 2012 at 8:10 pm |
There’s not only more to that letter – but, it’s one of dozens in my possession. I can tell you more offline.