Bar Next Door at La Lanterna di Vittorio

The story

The earliest known mention of the caffè macchiato comes from a 1988 review of this place. Tucked beneath a restored Greenwich Village townhouse on MacDougal Street, the Bar Next Door lives in a basement of low ceilings, exposed brick, and romantic lighting — easy to walk past, impossible to forget once you've found it. In 2007, Jazz Education Journal named it one of NYC's great secrets for a first-class jazz experience. The Jonathan Kreisberg Trio still plays here on Wednesdays, keeping the room exactly what it's always been.