The Del Monte

Cesar Menotti opened this building as a bar in 1915, then converted the upstairs into a grocery store when Prohibition hit and kept serving downstairs in the basement, reachable at first only through a trapdoor and a rope-operated dumbwaiter built for two. A 1968 renovation added a staircase in place of the trapdoor; a 2007 overhaul restored the basement to its Prohibition-era look. DJs, comedians, and live bands now fill the room most nights, with hand-crafted cocktails poured both down here and in the bar upstairs.