@Cafe

@Cafe, one of New York City’s first dedicated internet cafes,^[1] was incorporated in early 1995^[2] by Glenn McGinnis, Nicolas Barnes and Chris Townsend^[1][3][4] and opened its doors on Tuesday, April 25, 1995 with the slogan “Eat, Drink, ‘Net.”^[5] Founded at 12 St Marks Place on the site of the original location of St Mark's Bookshop,^[6] the 2,500 sq foot^[2] cafe positioned itself as a place where the formerly solitary pursuits of computing were combined with a social atmosphere of a full bar and restaurant.^[3][7] In addition to the food and drink, the cafe offered dial-up internet services and email accounts through their fly.net web portal.^[5][8][9] Computer and internet usage was billed at $5 per half-hour.^[3] The business idea was inspired by Japanese video game cafes that McGinnis had frequented when he lived in Japan during the 1980s.^[4] During the internet's early days when the medium was still mostly unexplored, @Cafe tried to present “the internet at its best,”^[7] paying $9,000 a month^[4] for a dedicated T1 line^[8][10] and supplying powerful PC or Mac computers at every table.^[11]

At the time of @Cafe’s opening, the first Netscape browser had just been released; a technological advance that introduced the internet to a more general computer user.^[12][13] @Cafe soon became a center for patrons curious about the internet, such as famous hacker, Phiber Optik, and was also embraced by New York's burgeoning technology sector known as Silicon Alley.^[14][15] @Cafe also made connections with early internet pioneers The WELL, hosting their ten-year anniversary party a few weeks after they opened^[16] and was also an early meet up location of the Women’s Technology advocacy group Webgrrls.^[17]

@Cafe was one of the first businesses that was predicated on monetizing what had previously been the domain of academics and programmers.^[9] When it opened, @Cafe was the largest internet-based cafe in New York City and was the only internet cafe with a full kitchen and bar.^[6][18][19] It played host to a number of high-profile events, including a failed online meeting between the New York and Boston mayors Rudy Giuliani and Thomas Menino,^[20] the launch of the Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge CD-ROM,^[19] The Wall Street Journal’s Interactive Edition website premier,^[7][19] a Donna Karan men’s fragrance and website debut,^[19][21] and a global and interactive New Year's Eve party on December 31, 1995 with the internet cafes CyberJava in Los Angeles, California and CyberSmith in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[22] Corporate clients MTV, MasterCard, IBM and Budweiser also held technology events at the cafe.^[23]

The cafe also played host to an early web/television hybrid program called "Encarta On the Record."^[24] The monthly program was moderated by journalist Linda Ellerbee, produced by Microsoft and Ellerbee's production company Lucky Duck and combined a live roundtable discussion with web-based resources through the Encarta web portal.^[25] The web audience could ask questions to the panel in real time, the audio of the discussion could be streamed and video images of the proceedings were updated every 8 seconds.^[26]

In contemporary interviews, Barnes and McGinnis spoke of opening a number of internet-based cafes around the world,^[9][22] where technology novices and professionals could experience the full potential of the internet.^[7]

Despite media and public interest, @Cafe never broke even and closed in 1996 before additional locations or franchises could be opened.^[4]

References