Cool cats find a new home
Nolita’s exclusive San Remo Cafe pays homage to original
IT’S a Friday evening, and entrepreneur Hakim Dubois, 27, wants to avoid the bridgeand-tunnel crowd packing the Meatpacking District’s clubs. Instead, he heads to San Remo Cafe, a nondescript bar behind a coffee shop at 201 Lafayette St. in Nolita.
When Dubois, clad in a bomber jacket and Yeezy sneakers, enters the dimly lit bar with his 25-yearold model friend Gloria Mensah, he feels immediately at home.
“We don’t really want to be out with the masses, and we like to go to more exclusive places,” says Dubois, founder of luxury brand Dekad Lifestyle. He nods to the crowd of 20- and 30-somethings, sporting a mix of business casual and athleisure, calling them “young urban professionals mixed with cool kids.”
“I know at least 40 to 50 people here,” he says.
San Remo Cafe is named after the Greenwich Village watering hole that was frequented by legions of creative types such as Jack Kerouac, Miles Davis and Tennessee Williams.
Its newest iteration, which had a soft opening last Friday, pays homage to the original cafe, which shuttered in 1967. During the day, its storefront coffee shop is open to the public, serving $3.50 espressos under globe lights.
The backroom bar, which opens after 7 p.m., features a retro décor of corrugated mirrors, lacquered tables and moss- green couches, and is now home to yuppies and downtown scenester types.
During opening night, Katya Taran, a svelte Russian model wearing a seethrough turtleneck, ripped jeans and YSL bag, uploads a photo of herself on Instagram, praising the new space with a caption, “‘Hip without being slick, intelligent without being corny,’ Jack Kerouac put it best.”
Sitting with the cool cats, however, can be costly: A table at San Remo has a bar-tab minimum of $5,000. Menu items include a $2,800 bottle of Champagne Salon and a $1,275 bucket containing Johnnie Walker Blue Label and mixers.
“You have to know someone to get in,” Sean Nasiri, a partner at the bar, says. “You won’t know about [the place] unless we want you to.”
Those not buying bottles make their way to the granite bar at the end of the room, which offers $16 cocktails like Bashful and Green, containing green-tea vodka and Caribbean sweet syrup, as well as La Traviata, a blend of prosecco and grapefruit.
Tucked behind empty bottles of Aperol behind the bar is a bookshelf containing works by Arthur C. Clarke, Herbert Aptheker and Zora Neale Hurston.
Patrons sipping Champagne survey the room’s artwork, which features plate paintings by Julian Schnabel and street art by Richard Hambleton, while other guests greet one another with air kisses and thumb-grab handshakes. A mix of deep house music and ’90s hip-hop plays through the speakers.
“Everyone’s so well-dressed, and it’s supertrendy,” says 24year-old stylist Shalimar Ortiz, who’s based in the West Village. “I’ve finally found a great place to be among people like me.”