Dante

A Greenwich Village landmark, Dante dates to 1915, when Caffé Dante opened its doors on MacDougal Street as a meeting place for Italian immigrants.

- Terry Zarikian

In 1971, Mario Flotta converted Dante into a restaurant offering a piece of Italy for the community and local celebrities such as Alec Baldwin, Al Pacino, Whoopi Goldberg and Jerry Seinfeld. Then, in 2015, another big change happened when the Flotta family turned over Dante to an Australian couple, Linden Pride and Nathalie Hudson, who with limited funds but the right vision and love transformed this century-old establishment into what would become the number-one bar in the world. Just four years later, it captured the top spot on The World's 50 Best Bars list and was named Best American Restaurant Bar and World's Best Bar at the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards. Today, though Dante has a second beautiful location in the West Village, I still opt for the original because of the historic references that make this a better ch