Cafe Au Go Go

The story

Jimi Hendrix once sat in with blues harp player James Cotton in a basement on Bleecker Street — that kind of unplanned collision was ordinary at Cafe Au Go Go. Howard Solomon opened it in February 1964 beneath what became the New Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre building at 152 Bleecker Street. The Grateful Dead played here ten times in 1967 alone; it was their first New York City venue. Richie Havens and the Blues Project came weekly. Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, and a young Linda Ronstadt with the Stone Poneys all passed through before Solomon sold it in June 1969. It closed December 1970.