We were saddened to hear that the historic Caffe Dante in New York City’s Greenwich Village closed last weekend. Sunday, March 22, 2015 was its final day of business.

The establishment was operated on MacDougal Street for 100 years by owner Mario Flotta and his two sons, Anthony and Mario Jr. Daniel of Greenwich Village Italian writes, “Caffe Dante was a place where I could go have a coffee, relax, read, write, and meet friends, and there was always someone there that I always knew, there were the waitresses some of whom became good friends, and of course there was always Mario. Mario would come in every day around noon and stay til closing, about 1 AM in the morning. It was always a joy having a little chat with Mario.”

Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York originally reported the story. DNAInfo has some details on the venture that will replace Caffe Dante: a restaurant “modeled after a classic European-inspired neighborhood eatery — great coffee, pastries, all-day dining.”

While many of Greenwich Village’s original Italian landmarks have disappeared, we highlighted many of those that remain on our tour last fall, Discover the History of Italian Greenwich Village, led by Joyce Gold.

Image above via Gothamist.