9. Postcrypt Coffeehouse, 1160 Amsterdam Ave.
In the middle ’60s, a reverend decided to clean up a 200-year-old church basement storage room, buy a few tables, build a stage, name it after philosopher Soren Kierkegaard’s Concluding Unscientific Postscript, and start what has become one of Columbia University’s best-kept secrets. For nearly six decades now, Postcrypt Coffeehouse has continued to operate out of its little 30-person hollow beneath the university campus’ St. Paul’s Chapel on Amsterdam Avenue.