REVIEWS

Really the “quintessential Village bistro,” this “quirky,” “down-to-earth” French-American has “been there forever” (actually since 1977) dispensing “affordable,” “homey” staples, especially at its “lovely brunch;” an affable staff and nightly music or poetry “keep the “convivial” “regulars” coming.

- ZAGAT
New York City
Restaurants 2010

“Few places can play all the key roles of a New York restaurant: good for dinner with the boss, an evening outing with pals and brunch with the family. Brick-walled, wood-floored Cornelia Street Café aces the audition.”

- Time Out New York
Eating and Drinking Guide 2004

“The Bohemian café of your dreams.”

- Roald Hoffmann
Chemical and Engineering News
May 26, 2003


" . . . a downstairs space offering wonderful live jazz, poetry readings and more; warm and friendly, it's exactly the place to be with friends on a cold night."

- Zagat
New York City Nightlife 2000

"Today, as you celebrate your 10th anniversary … I am pleased to add my voice--on behalf of the city of New York--to the chorus of praise, tribute, and general merriment … For a decade you have been providing artistic as well as gastronomic nourishment … Now, in 1987, you are a culinary as well as a cultural landmark … "

- Edward I. Koch, Mayor,
City of New York,
July 4th, 1987

"A couple of months ago it occurred to me that a place in Greenwich Village called the Cornelia Street Café seemed to be going about its business under the assumption that the Village is still the Village . . . "

- Calvin Trillin
The New Yorker, June 7, 1982

"The Cornelia Street Café . . . has wonderful pastries and inky, thick iced cappuccino. There are a few rickety tables, and the help is casually efficient. Seriously good-looking people will approach your table and wonder if they know you."

- Cynthia Heimel,
New York Magazine, July 6, 1981


"There is a slender, leafy tree in front of the Cornelia Street Café, midblock on the quiet byway in Greenwich Village, and the three young proprietors, in a typical touch, have painted the protective wiring around the roots white. Open since July, and brightly transforming the site of a musty used-goods shop, this is a cheerful, immaculate little oasis."

- Howard Thompson,
The New York Times, August 3, 1977