2. Minetta Tavern – 113 MacDougal Street

minetta tavern-beat generation-lower east side-nyc-untapped cities-001

Minetta Tavern is another authentic Beat Generation hangout that still exists. It long predates the Beat Generation however–it was popular in the time of Ernest Hemingway. This Italian restaurant and bar is where regulars like William S. Burroughs bought out the bar for his friends, Allen Ginsberg and Lucien Carr (who was involved in a murder at Columbia) had private conversations, and Gregory Corso got into a bar fight with a man that involved smashing a glass bottle in the man’s face and slicing his own hand open.