Although the original building housing the Bridge Cafe predates 1794 (and the Brooklyn
Bridge - in the background), it was this year that a 'grocery and wine and porter
bottler'opened at this site, operating until 1826. From 1826 to 1905 it was leased
to a variety of saloon and boarding house operators. The building was indicted in 1879
by the district attorney as a 'disorderly house' (aka brothel). It has since changed
hands many times, but has always sold liquor, even during Prohibition when it was run
as a restaurant and sold cider, (beer), supplied by a Brooklyn bootlegger. According
to the cafe's website: “The 1794 date is significant because from that date the building
has been ‘the site of a food and/or drinking establishment on the same site in New York,’
as well as the oldest business in New York City. Chase Manhattan can only trace its origin
to 1799. When Henry Williams opened his porter house here in 1847, he began the unbroken
record of 279 Water Street as a ‘drinking establishment’–the oldest in New York City
(eclipsing McSorley’s Old Ale House).”

Since 1979 it has been named the Bridge Cafe, serving outstanding food in a quirky,
historical setting.