New York on Tap 2008
Archive · modern edition Every bar New York on Tap knew, as it stood around 2008, with a 2026 check on each one. This page in the 2008 edition
Bridge Café, photographed for New York on Tap
Photo from the 2008 site

A New York on Tap pick

Bridge Café

279 Water St. · at Dover St.
Financial district, Manhattan

In 2026

Closed

Checked October 15, 2026.

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Overview

In the early 19th century Water street was home to a nearly continuous string of saloons and brothels. The Bridge Café was one of the latter.

History

Closed by Sandy, cast by Netflix

Back then we noted that in the early nineteenth century Water Street was a nearly continuous string of saloons and brothels, and that the Bridge Café was one of the latter. By our day it had been the Bridge Cafe since 19791.

The cafe closed when Hurricane Sandy flooded the area in October 20121. It never reopened, and in 2021 the family that owned the building sold it1, 2.

In spring 2025 its windows were papered over with Chinese-language newspapers1. That year it was also cast as a bar, set to stand in for the Black Rabbit on Netflix1. A company called Bridge Cafe NYC LLC has been approved to reopen it1, though, as Forgotten NY put it, that's "a tune we have heard played before"1. For now Time Out lists it as closed2.

Sources

  1. forgotten-ny.com
  2. timeout.com

Researched October 2026.

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