Joel's Bohemia was a two-story all-night restaurant near

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...

, New York from 1902 to 1925, catering to artists, writers, revolutionaries, and other

bohemians Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a f ...

. Owned by and managed by

Joel Rinaldo Joel Rinaldo (June 11, 1870, New York City– December 23, 1956) was a restaurateur whose restaurant and hotel, Joel's Bohemia, near Times Square, was a Manhattan institution from 1902 to 1925.Benjamin De Casseres, "Joel's", ''The American Me ...

, it was also known as Joel's or Joel's Bohemian Refreshery. Above the restaurant, Rinaldo ran a three-story hotel.

Benjamin De Casseres Benjamin De Casseres (April 3, 1873 – December 7, 1945) (often DeCasseres) was an American journalist, critic, essayist and poet. He was born in Philadelphia and began working at the Philadelphia Press at an early age, but spent most of his prof ...

, "Joel's", ''

The American Mercury ''The American Mercury'' was an American magazine published from 1924Staff (Dec. 31, 1923)"Bichloride of Mercury."''Time''. to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured w ...

'
26:103:360
(July 1932) Its address was 206 West 41st Street. Joel's claimed to be the only place in New York offering

Mexican food Mexican cuisine consists of the cuisines and associated traditions of the modern country of Mexico. Its earliest roots lie in Mesoamerican cuisine. Mexican cuisine's ingredients and methods arise from the area's first agricultural communities ...

, with specialties of chile con carne and

tamales A tamale, in Spanish , is a traditional Mesoamerican dish made of ''masa'', a dough made from nixtamalized corn, which is steamed in a corn husk or banana leaves. The wrapping can either be discarded prior to eating or used as a plate. Tam ...

. His Blue Moon cocktail was notoriously strong. Joel's was once described as a "poor man's Rector's". There was usually piano music, singing, and often an impromptu

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...

show.Joe Laurie, Jr., "Lefty Writes a Letter", ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'
157:9:4
(February 7, 1945) Among the regulars were

Booth Tarkington Newton Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869 – May 19, 1946) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels ''The Magnificent Ambersons'' (1918) and ''Alice Adams (novel), Alice Adams'' (1921). He is one of only four novelists to w ...

, Horace Traubel,

William Glackens William James Glackens (March 13, 1870 – May 22, 1938) was an American realist painter and one of the founders of the Ashcan School, which rejected the formal boundaries of artistic beauty laid down by the conservative National Academy of De ...

George Luks George Benjamin Luks (August 13, 1867 – October 29, 1933) was an American artist, identified with the aggressively realistic Ashcan School of American painting. After travelling and studying in Europe, Luks worked as a newspaper illustrator a ...

, Alan Dale, William Winter, Zoe Anderson Norris, Shaemas O'Sheel,

Sadakichi Hartmann Carl Sadakichi Hartmann (November 8, 1867 – November 22, 1944) was an American art critic, poet, and anarchist. Biography Hartmann, born on the artificial island of Dejima, Nagasaki, to a Japanese mother Osada Hartmann (who died soon after ...

Robert Chanler Robert Winthrop Chanler (February 22, 1872 – October 24, 1930) was an American artist and member of the Astor and Dudley–Winthrop families. A designer and muralist, Chanler received much of his art training in France at the École des Beaux- ...

Hippolyte Havel Hippolyte Havel (August 11, 1871 – March 10, 1950) was an American anarchist who was known as an activist in the United States and part of the radical circle around Emma Goldman in the early 20th century. He had been imprisoned as a young ma ...

, "General" Jake Coxey, and

O. Henry William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer known primarily for his short stories, though he also wrote poetry and non-fiction. His works include "The Gift of the Ma ...

. George S. Chappell, ''The Restaurants of New York'', 1925
full text
/ref>"Note on a Passing" (Talk of the Town), ''The New Yorker''
June 6, 1925
p. 3 The El Refugio café in O. Henry's 1910 short story "The Gold that Glittered" was probably based on Joel's. When he was in town,

Edwin Markham Edwin Markham (born Charles Edward Anson Markham; April 23, 1852 – March 7, 1940) was an American poet. From 1923 to 1931 he was Poet Laureate of Oregon. Early life and education Edwin Markham was born in Oregon City, Oregon Oregon Cit ...

would drink coffee at the restaurant and sleep at the hotel. Joel's was a "renowned" meeting place for Spanish-language exiles, especially "bohemians, painters, musicians, caricaturists, actors". A table in the corner of the dining-room had a sign on it, starting at 11 o'clock, reading "Reserved for Literature and Revolution", "where famous Hispanic-American revolutionaries used to sit". Leaders of the Mexican

Carrancistas This is a list of factions in the Mexican Revolution. Carrancistas Revolutionary followers of Venustiano Carranza from 1913 to 1914, and thereafter the Government army from 1914 until his death in 1920. In 1915, an insurgent group known as the ...

met here, and the

Mexican Liberal Party The Mexican Liberal Party (, PLM) was founded in August 1900 when engineer Camilo Arriaga published a manifesto entitled (Invitation to the Liberal Party). The invitation was addressed to Mexican liberals who were dissatisfied with the wa ...

's headquarters were here. When the US joined the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in 1917, the table was renamed the "Newspaper and Literary Table". Several artists painted scenes set in the restaurant: *

Max Weber Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German Sociology, sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economy, political economist who was one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sc ...

's oil painting "Joel's Cafe", 1909 or 1910. * George Luks, "Joel's Famous Bohemia at 41st Street and Seventh Avenue. The Tall Man is Joel", published in '' Vanity Fair'' in 1934.Lauren Freese, ''Taste in the city: depictions of food consumption in urban America, 1880-1920'', Ph.D. dissertation, University of Iowa, Spring 2017
full text
p. 231

, "Old New York drinking places: by George Luks", '' Vanity Fair''
41:5:20
(January, 1934) Joel's was famous for its

celebrity wall A celebrity wall, caricature wall, or wall of fame is a gallery of photographs or caricatures of celebrities, typically found on the wall of restaurants and bars. They suggest that celebrities are liable to be encountered there, and also function a ...

of drawings and caricatures, some by

Carlo de Fornaro Carlo de Fornaro (sometimes spelled Carlo di Fornaro) (1872–1949) was an artist, caricaturist, writer, humorist, and revolutionary. His work is in the collection of the US National Gallery of Art and Harvard's Fogg Art Museum."bachman", "The M ...

, an opponent of

Porfirio Díaz José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori (; ; 15 September 1830 – 2 July 1915) was a General (Mexico), Mexican general and politician who was the dictator of Mexico from 1876 until Mexican Revolution, his overthrow in 1911 seizing power in a Plan ...

.Jan Whitaker, "Faces on the wall", ''Restaurant-ing through history'', blog
September 11, 2016
!-- Whitaker is an established subject-matter expert (cf. WP:SPS), a social historian with several published books on restaurant history -- see https://us.macmillan.com/author/janwhitaker/ --> Paintings by Luks, Glackens, and

John Sloan John French Sloan (August 2, 1871 – September 7, 1951) was an American painter and etcher. He is considered to be one of the founders of the Ashcan school of American art. He was also a member of the group known as The Eight (Ashcan School), T ...

hung on the walls. The closing of Joel's in 1925 was memorialized in the ''

New Yorker New Yorker may refer to: * A resident of New York: ** A resident of New York City and its suburbs *** List of people from New York City ** A resident of the New York (state), State of New York *** Demographics of New York (state) * ''The New Yor ...

'':

Joel's has closed; perhaps the last of the older order of restaurants, whose hosts were individuals, not corporations. It was never a gaudy, nor a gilt-edged establishment, that one on Forty-first street, with its green-tinted door; and its heydays were ten, or even fifteen years behind when it surrendered to the inevitable.

Notes

{{reflist

Notes

Further reading