Before the Village became myth,Café Bizarrewas already living it — a dim, bohemian hangout on West 3rd Street where poets, punks, folk singers, drag performers, and downtown misfits shared the same smoky air. Operating through the1950s and 1960s, it was equal parts coffeehouse, freak-show cabaret, and counterculture crossroads.
The Bizarre earned its name: black walls, strange décor, beatniks reciting poetry at 2 a.m., and a crowd that blurred the lines between art, nightlife, and queer subculture long before Stonewall. Even the Velvet Underground played here early on — briefly and chaotically — adding to its legend.
It was the kind of room where underground theater, queer performance, and Beat sensibility collided under cheap lights and cheaper wine. A place that shaped the Village before the Village became a postcard.
(Café Bizarre • Greenwich Village, NYC • 1950s–1960s counterculture landmark.)
