Cafe Wha?

On our list of the best live music venues in New York.

A World War II veteran named Manny Roth bought a former underground horse stable at the corner of MacDougal Street and Minetta Lane in 1959 and turned it into Cafe Wha?. Bob Dylan played his first New York show here on his first day in the city, January 24, 1961, during a hootenanny night when anyone could get on stage. Jimi Hendrix landed a three-month residency in the summer of 1966 on Richie Havens' recommendation, backing a band called the Blue Flames. A nine-piece house band has covered decades of hits on the same stage every Wednesday through Sunday since 1988.