The Cedar Tavern (or Cedar Street Tavern) was a bar and restaurant at the eastern edge of

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. In its heyday, known as a gathering place for

avant garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

writers and artists, it was located at 24 University Place, near 8th Street. It was famous in its day as a hangout of many prominent

Abstract Expressionist Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

painters and

Beat Beat, beats, or beating may refer to: Common uses * Assault, inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact * Battery (crime), a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact * Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of inte ...

writers and poets. It closed in April 1963 and reopened three blocks north in 1964, at 82 University Place, between 11th and 12th Streets.

History

1860s-1950s

The Cedar Tavern was opened in 1866 on Cedar Street, near present-day

Zuccotti Park Zuccotti Park (formerly Liberty Plaza Park) is a publicly accessible park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is located in a privately owned public space (POPS) controlled by Brookfield Properties and Goldman S ...

. In 1933 it moved north to 55 West Eighth Street. In 1945 it moved east to 24 University Place.Lieber, Edvard. ''Willem de Kooning: Reflections in the Studio'', Abrams:2000, pg. 127. In 1955, the Cedar Tavern was purchased by Sam Diliberto, a butcher, and his brother in law, John Bodnar, a window washer, from Joe Provenzano.

1950s

Robert Motherwell Robert Motherwell (January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991) was an American Abstract Expressionism, abstract expressionist Painting, painter, printmaker, and editor of ''The Dada Painters and Poets: an Anthology''. He was one of the youngest of th ...

had a studio nearby in the early 1950s, and he held a weekly salon for artists there. The Cedar was the closest place for them to have a drink afterwards. Habitués liked it for its cheap drinks and lack of tourists or middle-class squares. University Place in those days was downmarket because of the several welfare and single-room occupancy hotels in the area.

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household ...

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning ( , ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a US citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married pa ...

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko ( ; Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz until 1940; September 25, 1903February 25, 1970) was an American abstract art, abstract painter. He is best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular reg ...

Franz Kline Franz Kline (May 23, 1910 – May 13, 1962) was an American painter. He is associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940s and 1950s. Kline, along with other action painters like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Mo ...

, Michael Goldberg, Landes Lewitin,

Aristodimos Kaldis Aristodimos Kaldis (August 15, 1899 in Dikeli, Ottoman Empire – May, 1979) was an artist and left-wing activist in New York. Aristodimos Kaldis was influential in the gallery and museum scene during the 1950s. His friendship with leading members ...

, Lynne Drexler,

Phillip Guston Philip Guston (born Phillip Goldstein, June 27, 1913 – June 7, 1980) was a Canadian American painter, printmaker, muralist and draftsman. "Guston worked in a number of artistic modes, from Renaissance-inspired figuration to formally accomplis ...

Knute Stiles Knute Stiles (1923-December 1, 2009) was a union organizer, painter, collagist, art critic, poet and entrepreneur. He was born in Minnesota, the son of the state's first female physician. He went to the St. Paul Art School, and after World War II, ...

Ted Joans Theodore Joans (July 4, 1928 – April 25, 2003) was an American beatnik, surrealist, painter, filmmaker, collageist, jazz poet and jazz trumpeter who spent long periods of time in Paris while also traveling through Africa. His complex body of w ...

, James Brooks, Charles Cajori,

Mercedes Matter Mercedes Matter (née Carles; 1913 – December 4, 2001) was an American painter, draughtswoman, and writer. She was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists, and the Founder and Dean Emeritus of the New York Studio School ...

Howard Kanovitz Howard Kanovitz (February 9, 1929 – February 2, 2009) was a pioneering painter in the Photorealism, Photorealist and Hyperrealism (painting), Hyperrealist Movements, which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s in response to the abstract art movem ...

, Al Leslie, Stanley Twardowicz,

Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminacy in music, a development associated with the experimental New York School o ...

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

, and others of the New York School all patronized the bar in the 1950s when many lived in or near

. Historians consider it an important incubator of the Abstract Expressionist movement. It was also popular with writers

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian ...

Gregory Corso Gregory Nunzio Corso (March 26, 1930 – January 17, 2001) was an American poet. Along with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs, he was part of the Beat Generation, as well as one of its youngest members. Early life Born N ...

Frank O'Hara Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure i ...

George Plimpton George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American writer. He is known for his sports writing and for helping to found ''The Paris Review'', as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. He was known for " participat ...

Jean Stein Jean Babette Stein (February 9, 1934 – April 30, 2017) was an American author and editor. Early life Stein was born to a Jewish family in Chicago. Her father was Jules C. Stein (1896–1981), co-founder of the Music Corporation of America (M ...

, Harold "Doc" Humes,

Alex Trocchi Alexander Whitelaw Robertson Trocchi ( ; 30 July 1925 – 15 April 1984) was a Scottish novelist. Early life and career Trocchi was born in Glasgow to Alfred (formerly Alfredo) Trocchi, a music-hall performer of Italian parentage, and Annie ...

, and

LeRoi Jones Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism. He was the author of numerous b ...

. Pollock was eventually banned from the establishment for tearing the bathroom door off its hinges and hurling it across the room at Franz Kline, as was Kerouac, who allegedly urinated in an ashtray.

1960s

Sam and John looked to the East Village around St. Mark's Pl. to reopen after the building was sold and demolished in 1963. After a year they bought the building at 82 University Place, which had been occupied by an antique store, and built the new bar in a more upscale pub style. By this time Pollock and Kline were gone, de Kooning had moved to East Hampton, and the scene gradually dissipated. In the 1960s,

Tuli Kupferberg Naphtali "Tuli" Kupferberg (September 28, 1923 – July 12, 2010) was an American counterculture poet, author, singer, editorial cartoonist, comic artist, columnist, publisher, and co-founder of the rock band The Fugs. Biography Naphtali Ku ...

The Fugs The Fugs are an American rock band formed in New York City in late 1964, by the poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver (musician), Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy ...

David Amram David Werner Amram III (born November 17, 1930) is an American composer, arranger, and conductor of orchestral, chamber, and choral works, many with jazz flavorings.

, and occasionally

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

, were known to patronize the Cedar Tavern. D.A. Pennebaker, Dylan, and

Bob Neuwirth Robert John Neuwirth (June 20, 1939May 18, 2022) was an American folk singer, songwriter, record producer, and visual artist. He was noted for being the road manager and associate of Bob Dylan, as well as the co-writer of Janis Joplin's hit son ...

met there to plan the shooting of their 1967 documentary, ''

Dont Look Back '' Look Back'' is a 1967 American documentary film directed by D. A. Pennebaker that covers Bob Dylan's 1965 concert tour in England. In 1998, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library ...

.''

1970s

Cedar Tavern was located midway, within a block, from the Village Voice offices and Textmasters, Inc, the production subsidiary of the Village Voice. Every Tuesday night (1973-early 1975) the staff of Textmasters would decompress after completing the production negatives for the weekly Village Voice newspaper. This final shift lasted 26 hours: beginning Monday at 2 PM, working through the night until 5:30 PM Tuesday when final page negatives were packaged. The night included coding, typing, proofing, scanning, creating paper tapes that would be fed into a computer that would disgorge columns of type printed on photo sensitive galleys. Paste-up artists worked through the night assembling pages of copy & images onto artist boards that would then be photographed & touched up to create clean page negatives, ready for the printing press. The staff learned early on that it was wise to relax for an hour at the Cedar Tavern before braving the subway ride home.''

2000s

Diliberto's sons Mike and Joe ran the place successfully for many years until 2006, when they decided to develop the site into condominiums. In December 2006, the Cedar Tavern closed to allow for the construction of a seven-story addition to the building in which it is housed. Its owners had pledged to reopen in six months, but an opinion piece in the December 3, 2006, edition of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' speculated that it was closed for good. This proved prescient; in the wake of Joe Diliberto's death on October 27, 2007, his brother Mike failed to reopen the establishment. When the Cedar Tavern closed in 2006, its century-old, 50 foot mahogany bar was sold to Austin businessmen, John M. Scott and Eddy Patterson. The bar was taken apart into hundreds of pieces, transported by movers of fine art, and stored for ten years. In 2016, it was brought out of storage to serve as the centerpiece of Eberly, a restaurant in Austin, Texas. The 24 University Place site, where most of the significant events in the establishment's history occurred, is now a full-block residential building; the primary ground-floor retail space of the building's University Place frontage is occupied by a

CVS Pharmacy #REDIRECT CVS Pharmacy {{R from other capitalisation Company now has a new name to go along with it's anti-tobacco changes. New name is CVS Health ...

Artist photos

(Selection was limited by availability.) File:Amiri Baraka.jpg, Writer

Amiri Baraka Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism. He was the author of numerous b ...

(formerly known as Leroi Jones) in San Antonio Park, Oakland, California in 2007. File:John Cage (1988).jpg, Composer

in 1988. File:Willem de Kooning in his studio.jpg, Artist

in 1975. File:Persconferentie componist Morton Feldman in concertgebouw Amsterdam in verband m, Bestanddeelnr 928-6143.jpg, Composer

in 1976. File:Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan by Elsa Dorfman.jpg, Poet

and musician

, photographed by Elsa Dorfman in 1975. File:Archives of American Art - Philip Guston - 3028.jpg, Artist

Philip Guston Philip Guston (born Phillip Goldstein, June 27, 1913 – June 7, 1980) was a Canadian American painter, printmaker, muralist and draftsman. "Guston worked in a number of artistic modes, from Renaissance-inspired figuration to formally accomplis ...

working on a mural in 1940. File:Kerouac by Palumbo 2.png, Writer

by photographer Tom Palumbo, c. 1956. File:TuliKupferberg.jpg, Musician

of the Fugs in 2008. File:Frank O'Hara (photo portrait).jpg, Poet

in a mid-century photo. File:D A Pennebaker 2 by David Shankbone.jpg, Filmmaker

D. A. Pennebaker Donn Alan Pennebaker (; July 15, 1925 – August 1, 2019) was an American documentary filmmaker and one of the pioneers of direct cinema. Performing arts and politics were his primary subjects. In 2013, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sci ...

by David Shankbone in 2007. File:George Plimpton 1993.jpg, Writer

in a 1993 photograph by Nancy Wong.

Literary and TV depictions

(Selection was limited by availability.) File:Augusten Burroughs by David Shankbone.jpg, Writer Augusten Burroughs photographed by David Shankbone in 2011. The Cedar Tavern appears in the first chapters of his book ''Dry''. File:Jonathan Franzen at the Brooklyn Book Festival.jpg, Writer

Jonathan Franzen Jonathan Earl Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel ''The Corrections'' drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist, earned a Jame ...

in 2008. Chip Lambert steals $9 from a Cedar Tavern bartender to pay for a cab to Tribeca in ''

The Corrections ''The Corrections'' is a 2001 novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. It revolves around the troubles of an elderly Midwestern couple and their three adult children, tracing their lives from the mid-20th century to "one last Christmas" toget ...

''. File:Joyce Johnson by David Shankbone.jpg, Writer Joyce Johnson photographed by David Shankbone in 2007. The Cedar Tavern appears in ''Minor Characters'' her memoir about Jack Kerouac. File:Cast of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.jpg, The cast of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in 2018. In season 2's "Look, She Made a Hat," Benjamin takes Midge to the Cedar Tavern to introduce her to the New York art world. File:Dawnpowell 1914.jpg, Author

Dawn Powell Dawn Powell (November 28, 1896 – November 14, 1965) was an American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and short story writer. Known for her acerbic prose, "her relative obscurity was likely due to a general distaste for her harsh satiric ...

in 1914. The Cedar Tavern is the setting of her book ''The Golden Spur.'' File:Kurt Vonnegut 1972.jpg, Author

Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut ( ; November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American author known for his Satire, satirical and darkly humorous novels. His published work includes fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and five nonfict ...

in 1972. The Cedar Tavern features as the meeting place of fictional artist Rabo Karabekian and his Abstract Expressionist painter friends in ''Bluebeard''.

References

External links

Features photographs then and now
{{Greenwich Village Abstract expressionism Beat Generation 1866 establishments in New York (state) Drinking establishments in Greenwich Village