Cafe Wha? was founded as a coffee house. Owner and nightclub impresario Manny Roth, AKA the “Duke of Macdougal Street”, painted the walls black and spent his last dollars on broken marble pieces that he laid down himself. Roth, uncle to Van Halen’s David Lee Roth, had a knack for discovering legendary musical and comic talent ranging from Little Richard to Joan Rivers.

A business card for Cafe Wha? featured a funky illustration of an elephant beside the slogan, “Greenwich Village’s Swingingest Coffee House.” As the card proclaims, Cafe Wha? quickly became known for hosting an eclectic blend of folk singers, artists, poets, political protestors, and rockers.

Marked Bob Dylan’s first performance during a “Hootenanny Night.” Dylan had hitchhiked across the USA and Roth helped him find a couch to sleep on by taking Dylan’s mic back to ask the Cafe’s crowd. Dylan compared the venue to, “A subterranean cavern, liquorless, ill-lit, low ceiling, like a wide dining room with chairs and tables.”

A then-unknown Jimi Hendrix, who called himself Jimmy James, played five sets a night with his band The Blue Flames. He and other “basketmen” played for money from a tip basket that was passed around the Cafe’s crowd.

A young Bruce Springsteen played afternoon sets for teenagers backed by his band The Castiles. Springsteen would go on to play about thirty performances at Cafe Wha?

A house band made up of some of NYC’s most talented musicians took the stage this year for a few gigs but by 1987 they were so popular that they took over the entire week. To this day, the Cafe Wha? house band plays high-energy cross-genre covers that help the audience kick back and enjoy the night.

David Lee Roth returned to play Cafe Wha? He commented that he loved visiting as a boy and that the venue looked almost the same as he remembered it. He told the crowd, “This is a temple. This is a very special place, and I am more nervous about this gig than I would ever be at the Garden. There is no hiding up here. There are no fake vocals. There is no fake anything.”

Today, Cafe Wha? continues to pack the house night after night with international jazz superstars, homegrown rock bands, and soulful artists with stories to tell. There’s a shared energy amongst the artists that galvanizes talented musicians to reach new heights.