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Pfaff's beer cellar in

1857. Depicted seated is

Pfaff's

was a drinking establishment in

, known for its literary

and artistic clientele.

Description

[

]

Opened in 1855 by Charles Ignatious Pfaff, the original Pfaff's was modeled after the German

that were

popular in Europe at the time. Charles Pfaff's beer cellar was located on

near

(before 1862,

Pfaff's address was given as 647 Broadway; after 1865, its location was advertised as 653 Broadway) in

. To enter the beer cellar—which was actually a vaulted ceiling bar and restaurant—its patrons

had to go down a set of stairs.

From the mid-1850s to the late 1860s, Pfaff's was the center of New York's revolutionary culture. As writer

has said, "Pfaff’s was the

, the

all rolled into

one."

Habitués included journalist and social critic

, author and actress

, poet and

actress

, playwright

, artist

, pianist and composer

(who also had an affair with Ada Clare), actor

, author

, and humorist

Whitman called Charlie Pfaff "a generous German restaurateur, silent, stout, jolly," as well as "the best

selector of champagne in America."

Whitman also wrote an unfinished poem about Pfaff's called "The Two Vaults,"

which included the lines:

...The vault at Pfaffs where the drinkers and laughers meet to eat and drink and carouse

While on the walk immediately overhead pass the myriad feet of Broadway...

Writer

also wrote an ode to Pfaff's and to the clientele; an annotated copy of these lyrics titled

At Pfaff's

was pasted by

into his 1860 diary and can be seen at

The Vault at Pfaff's

website.

Clapp, considered by many the "King of Bohemia", founded

as New York's answer to the

. Started as a literary magazine,

The Saturday Press

eventually became a countercultural zine "with a mix of

poetry, stories, radical politics, and an enthusiastic spirit of personal freedom and sexual openness. Before it

folded in 1868, it published numerous poems by Whitman and a short story by

. The Saturday Press championed

a move that many view as a significant factor in the success of the 1860 edition."

In 1870, Charles Pfaff moved his business up to midtown. Whitman wrote about Pfaff's in

Specimen Days

after a visit to

the restaurateur's newer location many years later:

An hour’s fresh stimulation, coming down ten miles of

by railroad and 8 o’clock stage. Then

an excellent breakfast at Pfaff’s restaurant, 24th Street. Our host himself, an old friend of mine, quickly

appear’d on the scene to welcome me and bring up the news, and, first opening a big fat bottle of the best

wine in the cellar, talk about ante-bellum times, '59 and '60, and the jovial suppers at his Broadway place,

near Bleecker Street.

Ah, the friends and names and frequenters, those times, that place. Most are dead - Ada Clare, Wilkins, Daisy

Sheppard, O’Brien, Henry Clapp, Stanley, Mullin, Wood, Brougham, Arnold - all gone.

And there Pfaff and I, sitting opposite each other at the little table, gave a remembrance to them in a style

they would have themselves fully confirm’d, namely, big, brimming, fill’d-up champagne-glasses, drain’d in

abstracted silence, very leisurely, to the last drop."

Current status

[

]

647 Broadway in 2025

The original location at 653 Broadway eventually became an envelope factory. In

1975, it became a

called Infinity, which was destroyed by fire in 1979.

Today, the location is home to a few shops.

In the spring of 2011, a restaurant and bar using the name

The Vault at Pfaff's

opened at 643 Broadway, near the

original Pfaff's location. It too was accessed by descending a set of stairs, which led into a refurbished cellar.

The Vault at Pfaff's has since closed. However, in 2024 a new establishment opened, Delmonico's sister establishment

TUCCI- New York by Max Tucci. The restaurant serves modern Italian cuisine in an elegant atmosphere with hints of

Gilded Age days.

References

[

]

Gordus, Sara Oliver (July 2, 2010).

The Rumpus.net

"Events. Upcoming: Original Bohemians in a New York Saloon. 'Rebel Souls'

Library of Congress Gazette

(15): 2. April 27,

2015.

Poetrybay

. Winter 2003–2004.

The Vault at Pfaff's

. Lehigh University

. Retrieved

26 May

2023

. April 20, 2011

. Retrieved

July 21,

2012