Pfaff's was a drinking establishment in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, known for its literary and artistic clientele.

Description

Opened in 1855 by Charles Ignatious Pfaff, the original Pfaff’s was modeled after the German

Rathskeller Ratskeller (German: "council's cellar", pl. ''Ratskeller'', historically ''Rathskeller'') is a name in German-speaking countries for a bar or restaurant located in the basement of a city hall (''Rathaus'') or nearby. Many taverns, nightclubs, ba ...

s that were popular in Europe at the time. Charles Pfaff's beer cellar was located on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

near Bleecker Street (before 1862, Pfaff's address was given as 647 Broadway; after 1865, its location was advertised as 653 Broadway) in

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

. To enter the beer cellar—which was actually a vaulted ceiling bar and restaurant—its patrons had to go down a set of stairs. From the mid-1850s to the late 1860s, Pfaff’s was the center of New York’s revolutionary culture. As writer Allan Gurganus has said, "Pfaff’s was the Andy Warhol factory, the Studio 54, the Algonquin Round Table all rolled into one."Gordus, Sara Oliver. '
Walt Whitman’s Watering Hole: Pfaff’s Cellar, NYC
'. The Rumpus.net, July 2, 2010. Habitués included journalist and social critic Henry Clapp, Jr.,

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...

, author and actress Ada Clare, poet and actress

Adah Isaacs Menken Adah Isaacs Menken (June 15, 1835August 10, 1868) was an American actress, painter and poet, and was the highest earning actress of her time.Palmer, Pamela Lynn"Adah Isaacs Menken" ''Handbook of Texas Online,'' published by the Texas State Histor ...

, playwright

John Brougham John Brougham (9 May 1814 – 7 June 1880) was an Irish-American actor and dramatist. Biography He was born at Dublin. His father was an amateur painter, and died young. His mother was the daughter of a Huguenot, whom political adversity had f ...

, artist

Elihu Vedder Elihu Vedder (February 26, 1836January 29, 1923) was an American symbolist painter, book illustrator, and poet, born in New York City. He is best known for his fifty-five illustrations for Edward FitzGerald's translation of ''The Rubaiyat of Om ...

, pianist and composer

Louis Moreau Gottschalk Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works. He spent most of his working career outside the United States. Life and ca ...

(who also had an affair with Ada Clare), actor Edwin Booth, author

Fitz Hugh Ludlow Fitz Hugh Ludlow, sometimes seen as Fitzhugh Ludlow (September 11, 1836 – September 12, 1870), was an American author, journalist, and explorer; best known for his autobiographical book '' The Hasheesh Eater'' (1857). Ludlow also wrote about h ...

, and humorist Artemus Ward. Whitman called Charlie Pfaff "a generous German restaurateur, silent, stout, jolly," as well as "the best selector of champagne in America."Walt Whitman, America's "First" Bohemian
Poetrybay, Winter 2003-2004. Whitman also wrote an unfinished poem about Pfaff’s called "The Two Vaults," which included the lines: Writer Fitz James O'Brien also wrote an ode to Pfaff's and to the clientele; an annotated copy of these lyrics titled ''At Pfaff's'' was pasted by Thomas Butler Gunn into his 1860 diary and can be seen at ''The Vault at Pfaff's'' website. Clapp, considered by many the "King of Bohemia", founded '' The Saturday Press'' as New York's answer to the '' Atlantic Monthly''. Started as a literary magazine, ''The Saturday Press'' eventually became a countercultural zine "with a mix of poetry, stories, radical politics, and an enthusiastic spirit of personal freedom and sexual openness. Before it folded in 1868, it published numerous poems by Whitman and a short story by Mark Twain. The Saturday Press championed ''

Leaves of Grass ''Leaves of Grass'' is a poetry collection by American poet Walt Whitman. Though it was first published in 1855, Whitman spent most of his professional life writing and rewriting ''Leaves of Grass'', revising it multiple times until his death. T ...

,'' a move that many view as a significant factor in the success of the 1860 edition." In 1870, Charles Pfaff moved his business up to midtown. Whitman wrote about Pfaff’s in ''Specimen Days'' after a visit to the restaurateur's newer location many years later:

Current status

The original location at 653 Broadway eventually became an envelope factory. In 1975, it became a disco called Infinity, which was destroyed by fire in 1979. Today, the location is home to a few shops. In the spring of 2011, a restaurant and bar using the name ''The Vault at Pfaff's'' opened at 643 Broadway, near the original Pfaff's location. It too was accessed by descending a set of stairs, which led into a refurbished cellar. The Vault at Pfaff's has since closed.

Description

Current status

References

Further reading