@Cafe

{{Short description|Internet café in New York City}} {{Infobox organization | name = @Cafe | logo = | type = | purpose = Internet café | fate = | predecessor =  | successor =  | founded = {{Start date and age|1995|4|25}}<br>12 St. Marks Place<br>New York City, New York, U.S. | founders = Glenn McGinnis<br>Nicolas Barnes<br>Chris Townsend | dissolved = {{End date|1996}} | hq_location_city = | hq_location_country = | region_served = New York City | key_people = | products = | owner = [http://www.jamescasey.com James Casey] (manager) | num_employees = | num_employees_year =  | parent = | website =  }} '''@Cafe''', one of New York City's first dedicated internet cafes,<ref name="NY Daily News">{{cite news|last1=Landman|first1=Beth|title=It's De-Lovely, It's De Niro|publisher=New York Daily News|date=April 28, 1995|page=60}}</ref> was incorporated in early 1995<ref name="New York Daily News">{{cite news|last1=Reyes|first1=Sonia|title=Combining cafe and computers|publisher=New York Daily News|date=Jan 27, 1995|page=37}}</ref> by Glenn McGinnis, Nicolas Barnes and Chris Townsend<ref name="NY Daily News" /><ref name="Sunday Styles">{{cite news|last1=Wolff|first1=Jennifer|title=At Two Cyber Cafes, They Eat and Drink, Hunt and Peck|work=New York Times|date=April 30, 1995|page=45}}</ref><ref name="Vox">{{cite web|last1=Edwards|first1=Phil|title=The hippest internet cafe of 1995|url=https://www.vox.com/2016/8/24/12593214/internet-cafe-history|website=Vox|publisher=Vox Media, Inc|access-date=25 August 2016}}</ref> and opened its doors on Tuesday, April 25, 1995 with the slogan “Eat, Drink, ‘Net.”<ref name="Ad Age">{{cite journal|last1=Hodges|first1=Jane|title=Getting a taste of cyberspace|journal=Advertising Age|date=July 24, 1995|page=17}}</ref> Founded at 12 St. Marks Place on the site of the original location of St. Mark's Bookshop,<ref name="NY Daily Nosh">{{cite news|last1=Kalish|first1=Jon|title=Cybercafes new sites to network and nosh|publisher=New York Daily News|date=April 30, 1995|page=13}}</ref> the 2,500 sq foot<ref name="New York Daily News" /> 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.<ref name="Sunday Styles" /><ref name="AP">{{cite web|title=3 NEW CYBER CAFES OPEN|url=http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/USA-NEW-YORK-3-NEW-CYBER-CAFES-OPEN/0a5a5c555f3265ea52708260bff18cf6?query=cyber+cafe&current=7&orderBy=Relevance&hits=107&referrer=search&search=%2fsearch%3fstartd%3d%26endd%3d%26allFilters%3d%26query%3dcyber%2bcafe%26advsearchStartDateFilter%3d%26advsearchEndDateFilter%3d%26searchFilterHdSDFormat%3dAll%26searchFilterDigitized%3dAll%26searchFiltercolorFormat%3dAll%26searchFilteraspectratioFormat%3dAll&allFilters=&productType=IncludedProducts&page=1&b=f18cf6|website=AP Archive|publisher=AP|access-date=29 July 2016}}</ref> In addition to the food and drink, the cafe offered dial-up internet services and email accounts through their fly.net web portal.<ref name="Ad Age" /><ref name="Interactive">{{cite journal|title=Internet Over-Easy|journal=Interactive Age|date=April 10, 1995|page=50}}</ref><ref name="Investor's">{{cite news|last1=Much|first1=Marilyn|title=@ Your Convenience: Dine, Sip Latte And Surf The World Wide Web|publisher=Investor's Business Daily|date=May 23, 1995}}</ref> Computer and internet usage was billed at $5 per half-hour.<ref name="Sunday Styles" /> The business idea was inspired by Japanese video game cafes that McGinnis had frequented when he lived in Japan during the 1980s.<ref name="Vox" /> During the internet's early days when the medium was still mostly unexplored, @Cafe tried to present “the internet at its best,”<ref name="AP" /> paying $9,000 a month<ref name="Vox" /> for a dedicated T1 line<ref name="Interactive" /><ref>{{cite news|last1=Stempler|first1=Randall|title=New York On The Net|publisher=New York Post|date=June 15, 1995|page=PC16}}</ref> and supplying powerful PC or Mac computers at every table.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Baron|first1=Tom|title=Welcome to the Cyberbar|publisher=Manhattan Mirror|date=May 24, 1995|page=8}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web|title=MOSAIC COMMUNICATIONS OFFERS NEW NETWORK NAVIGATOR FREE ON THE INTERNET|url=http://home.mcom.com/info/newsrelease.html|website=MCOM|access-date=26 August 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Wilson|first1=Brian|title=Netscape Navigator|url=http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/history/netscape.htm|website=Blooberry|publisher=Brian Wilson|access-date=26 August 2016}}</ref> @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.<ref name="Newsday">{{cite news|last1=Garrick|first1=David|title=espresso@cafe.nyc|publisher=New York Newsday|date=May 1, 1995|page=B4}}</ref><ref name="New York Mag">{{cite journal|last1=Krantz|first1=Michael|title=The Great Manhattan Geek Rush of 1995|journal=New York Magazine|date=Nov 13, 1995|page=39}}</ref> @Cafe also made connections with early internet pioneers The WELL, hosting their ten-year anniversary party a few weeks after they opened<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Green|first1=Noah|title=Logging in at the Cybercafe|journal=Spin Magazine|date=August 1995|page=108}}</ref> and was also an early meet up location of the Women's Technology advocacy group Webgrrls.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Levine|first1=Joanne|title=Without the net, they wouldn't have met|publisher=New York Post|date=Mar 5, 1996|page=33}}</ref>

@Cafe was one of the first businesses that was predicated on monetizing what had previously been the domain of academics and programmers.<ref name="Investor's" /> 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.<ref name="NY Daily Nosh" /><ref>{{cite news|last1=Sugimoto|first1=Keiko|title=SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL Senken Exclusive Series: New Yorkers' Choice Valuing the Café|publisher=The Senken Shimbun Company|date=Sep 30, 1995|page=4}}</ref><ref name="Playboy">{{cite journal|last1=Sasaki|first1=Rei|title=Inside the Authentic American Cybercafe|journal=Playboy Japan|date=Feb 1996|page=66}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{cite news|last1=Massarella|first1=Linda|title=Rudy sends Boston boss to Cyberia|publisher=New York Post|date=Aug 16, 1995|page=8}}</ref> the launch of the Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge CD-ROM,<ref name="Playboy" /> The Wall Street Journal's Interactive Edition website premier,<ref name="AP" /><ref name="Playboy" /> a Donna Karan men's fragrance and website debut,<ref name="Playboy" /><ref>{{cite journal|date=September 25, 1995|title=You Log On Here Often?|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983476,00.html|journal=Time Magazine|page=69|access-date=November 27, 2020|first1=Ginia|last1=Bellafante}}</ref> 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.<ref name="NYT Cyber Times" /> Corporate clients MTV, MasterCard, IBM and Budweiser also held technology events at the cafe.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Rousseau|first1=Bryant|title=Groups Pair Technology, Gastronomy At Cyber-Dining Venue|journal=Meeting News|date=Mar 18, 1996|pages=6 + 9}}</ref>

The cafe also played host to an early web/television hybrid program called "Encarta On the Record."<ref name="Encarta NYT">{{cite web|last1=Lewis|first1=Peter H.|title=Internet Courtroom Battle Gets Cyberspace Preview|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/20/us/internet-courtroom-battle-gets-cyberspace-preview.html|website=New York Times|access-date=7 October 2016}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|title=MICROSOFT ANNOUNCES NEW 90-MINUTE INTERNET SHOW HOSTED BY LINDA ELLERBEE|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/MICROSOFT+ANNOUNCES+NEW+90-MINUTE+INTERNET+SHOW+HOSTED+BY+LINDA...-a017824413|website=The Free Library|publisher=PRNewswire|access-date=7 October 2016}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hunt|first1=Kevin|title=Pixels: ELLERBEE, ON-LINE|url=https://www.courant.com/1996/02/08/pixels-251/|website=The Hartford Courant|publisher=The Hartford Courant|access-date=7 October 2016}}</ref>

In contemporary interviews, Barnes and McGinnis spoke of opening a number of internet-based cafes around the world,<ref name="Investor's" /><ref name="NYT Cyber Times">{{cite news|last1=Frenkel|first1=Karen|title=Cybercafes: More Than Just A Place to Compute|publisher=New York Times CyberTimes|date=Feb 4, 1996}}</ref> where technology novices and professionals could experience the full potential of the internet.<ref name="AP" />

Despite media and public interest, @Cafe never broke even and closed in 1996 before additional locations or franchises could be opened.<ref name="Vox" />

== References == {{Reflist|30em}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cafe}} Category:Internet cafés Category:1995 establishments in New York City Category:1996 disestablishments in New York (state)