@Cafe

@Cafe, one of New York City's first dedicated internet cafes,[1] was incorporated in early 1995[2] by Glenn McGinnis, Nicolas Barnes and Chris Townsend[1][3][4] and opened its doors on Tuesday, April 25, 1995 with the slogan “Eat, Drink, ‘Net.”[5] Founded at 12 St. Marks Place on the site of the original location of St. Mark's Bookshop,[6] the 2,500 sq foot[2] cafe positioned itself as a place where the formerly solitary pursuits of computing were combined with a social atmosphere of a full bar and restaurant.[3][7] In addition to the food and drink, the cafe offered dial-up internet services and email accounts through their fly.net web portal.[5][8][9] Computer and internet usage was billed at $5 per half-hour.[3] The business idea was inspired by Japanese video game cafes that McGinnis had frequented when he lived in Japan during the 1980s.[4] During the internet's early days when the medium was still mostly unexplored, @Cafe tried to present “the internet at its best,”[7] paying $9,000 a month[4] for a dedicated T1 line[8][10] and supplying powerful PC or Mac computers at every table.[11]

@Cafe
FoundedApril 25, 1995 (1995-04-25)
12 St. Marks Place
New York City, New York, U.S.
FoundersGlenn McGinnis
Nicolas Barnes
Chris Townsend
Dissolved1996 (1996)
PurposeInternet café
Area served
New York City
OwnerJames Casey (manager)

At the time of @Cafe's opening, the first Netscape browser had just been released; a technological advance that introduced the internet to a more general computer user.[12][13] @Cafe soon became a center for patrons curious about the internet, such as famous hacker, Phiber Optik, and was also embraced by New York's burgeoning technology sector known as Silicon Alley.[14][15] @Cafe also made connections with early internet pioneers The WELL, hosting their ten-year anniversary party a few weeks after they opened[16] and was also an early meet up location of the Women's Technology advocacy group Webgrrls.[17]

@Cafe was one of the first businesses that was predicated on monetizing what had previously been the domain of academics and programmers.[9] When it opened, @Cafe was the largest internet-based cafe in New York City and was the only internet cafe with a full kitchen and bar.[6][18][19] It played host to a number of high-profile events, including a failed online meeting between the New York and Boston mayors Rudy Giuliani and Thomas Menino,[20] the launch of the Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge CD-ROM,[19] The Wall Street Journal's Interactive Edition website premier,[7][19] a Donna Karan men's fragrance and website debut,[19][21] and a global and interactive New Year's Eve party on December 31, 1995 with the internet cafes CyberJava in Los Angeles, California and CyberSmith in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[22] Corporate clients MTV, MasterCard, IBM and Budweiser also held technology events at the cafe.[23]

The cafe also played host to an early web/television hybrid program called "Encarta On the Record."[24] The monthly program was moderated by journalist Linda Ellerbee, produced by Microsoft and Ellerbee's production company Lucky Duck and combined a live roundtable discussion with web-based resources through the Encarta web portal.[25] The web audience could ask questions to the panel in real time, the audio of the discussion could be streamed and video images of the proceedings were updated every 8 seconds.[26]

In contemporary interviews, Barnes and McGinnis spoke of opening a number of internet-based cafes around the world,[9][22] where technology novices and professionals could experience the full potential of the internet.[7]

Despite media and public interest, @Cafe never broke even and closed in 1996 before additional locations or franchises could be opened.[4]

References
  1. Landman, Beth (April 28, 1995). "It's De-Lovely, It's De Niro". New York Daily News. p. 60.
  2. Reyes, Sonia (Jan 27, 1995). "Combining cafe and computers". New York Daily News. p. 37.
  3. Wolff, Jennifer (April 30, 1995). "At Two Cyber Cafes, They Eat and Drink, Hunt and Peck". New York Times. p. 45.
  4. Edwards, Phil. "The hippest internet cafe of 1995". Vox. Vox Media, Inc. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  5. Hodges, Jane (July 24, 1995). "Getting a taste of cyberspace". Advertising Age: 17.
  6. Kalish, Jon (April 30, 1995). "Cybercafes new sites to network and nosh". New York Daily News. p. 13.
  7. "3 NEW CYBER CAFES OPEN". AP Archive. AP. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  8. "Internet Over-Easy". Interactive Age: 50. April 10, 1995.
  9. Much, Marilyn (May 23, 1995). "@ Your Convenience: Dine, Sip Latte And Surf The World Wide Web". Investor's Business Daily.
  10. Stempler, Randall (June 15, 1995). "New York On The Net". New York Post. p. PC16.
  11. Baron, Tom (May 24, 1995). "Welcome to the Cyberbar". Manhattan Mirror. p. 8.
  12. "MOSAIC COMMUNICATIONS OFFERS NEW NETWORK NAVIGATOR FREE ON THE INTERNET". MCOM. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  13. Wilson, Brian. "Netscape Navigator". Blooberry. Brian Wilson. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  14. Garrick, David (May 1, 1995). "[email protected]". New York Newsday. p. B4.
  15. Krantz, Michael (Nov 13, 1995). "The Great Manhattan Geek Rush of 1995". New York Magazine: 39.
  16. Green, Noah (August 1995). "Logging in at the Cybercafe". Spin Magazine: 108.
  17. Levine, Joanne (Mar 5, 1996). "Without the net, they wouldn't have met". New York Post. p. 33.
  18. Sugimoto, Keiko (Sep 30, 1995). "SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL Senken Exclusive Series: New Yorkers' Choice Valuing the Café". The Senken Shimbun Company. p. 4.
  19. Sasaki, Rei (Feb 1996). "Inside the Authentic American Cybercafe". Playboy Japan: 66.
  20. Massarella, Linda (Aug 16, 1995). "Rudy sends Boston boss to Cyberia". New York Post. p. 8.
  21. Bellafante, Ginia (September 25, 1995). "You Log On Here Often?". Time Magazine: 69. Retrieved November 27, 2020.
  22. Frenkel, Karen (Feb 4, 1996). "Cybercafes: More Than Just A Place to Compute". New York Times CyberTimes.
  23. Rousseau, Bryant (Mar 18, 1996). "Groups Pair Technology, Gastronomy At Cyber-Dining Venue". Meeting News: 6 + 9.
  24. Lewis, Peter H. "Internet Courtroom Battle Gets Cyberspace Preview". New York Times. New York Times Inc. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
  25. "MICROSOFT ANNOUNCES NEW 90-MINUTE INTERNET SHOW HOSTED BY LINDA ELLERBEE". The Free Library. PRNewswire. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
  26. Hunt, Kevin. "Pixels: ELLERBEE, ON-LINE". The Hartford Courant. The Hartford Courant. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
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