The Downtown Pop Underground

Bobern Bar and Grill

42 W 28th St, New York, NY 10001

40.745520

-73.989800

0
Chelsea Hotel

222 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011

40.744370

-73.996890

1
El Quijote

226 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011

40.744410

-73.997120

2
Mother's

267 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011

40.745240

-73.997760

3
WPA Theatre

519 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011

40.748250

-74.004740

4

Bobern Bar and Grill

42 W 28th St, New York, NY 10001

Bobern Bar and Grill, on West Twenty-Eighth Street, was named after its owners, Bob and Ernie, and it was one of the small venues where the Stilettoes performed.

Chelsea Hotel

222 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011

A kind of downtown annex, this residential hotel housed many artists and bohemians through the years: poet Allen Ginsberg, philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, singer Janis Joplin, couturier Charles James, and playwrights Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Sam Shepard, to name but a few of the dozens of prominent figures who lived there at one time.

El Quijote

226 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011

Just off the Chelsea Hotel’s lobby was El Quijote, a Spanish restaurant and bar that served inexpensive lobster and was a popular hangout.

Mother's

267 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011

Early punk bands bounced back and forth between CBGB and Max’s, as well as lesser known venues like Mother’s—a gay bar near the Chelsea Hotel where Suicide, the Fast, Ramones, and Blondie played.

WPA Theatre

519 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011

Between 1971 and 1976, the WPA Theatre (Workshop of the Players Art) presented Off-Off-Broadway shows at its at 333 Bowery location—where Jackie Curtis’s Vain Victory moved after its wildly successful run at La MaMa.