Caffe Cino

You are standing at thirty-one Cornelia Street, the former site of Caffe Cino. Between nineteen fifty-eight and nineteen sixty-eight, this small storefront functioned as a radical incubator for American theater. Its founder, Joe Cino, arrived from Buffalo with dreams of running a simple coffeehouse. He eventually turned the space into the birthplace of what became known as Off-Off-Broadway. The venue lacked a formal stage, so early performances took place in the narrow aisles between tables. Even after a makeshift platform was constructed from discarded milk cartons and carpet remnants, the theater remained intimate and scrappy. Joe Cino managed the space with a unique lack of traditional oversight, often deciding which plays to produce simply by asking the playwright for their astrological sign.