Caffè Reggio

Caffè Reggio has been pouring espresso on MacDougal Street since 1927, and it wears every one of those years well. The room is small and dim, crowded with dark oil paintings, marble-topped tables, and the original chrome-and-bronze espresso machine that the founder reportedly brought from Italy. The café has long claimed a role in introducing the cappuccino to America, and whether or not you take the claim at face value, the cup in front of you makes a convincing argument.

This is a place for lingering. Students mark up paperbacks, older regulars read the paper, and nobody hurries you out. Come on a weekday afternoon when the light slants in from the street and the room feels like the Village the movies promised — it was, in fact, a location in several of them.