4. El Quijote

Situated directly below the balconies of the Chelsea Hotel, El Quijote, a Spanish bar and restaurant, acted almost as the hotel’s second lobby. When Smith walked in during one of her first visits, she was awestruck by its patrons. “At the table to my left, Janis Joplin was holding court with her band. To my far right were Grace Slick and the Jefferson Airplane, along with members of Country Joe and the Fish. At the last table facing the door was Jimi Hendrix…. There were musicians everywhere, sitting before tables laid with mounds of shrimp with green sauce, paella, pitchers of sangria, and bottles of tequila,” she recounted in Just Kids.