Local cafe sets stage for musicians

Nineteen years ago, Nyack, NY became home to Art Cafe. For 15 of those years, the Tel Aviv inspired restaurant and cafe has been holding live music events, featuring a variety of musicians. With indoor seating year-round and outdoor-seating through warmer seasons, Art Cafe has a warm, homey atmosphere. The cafe serves Mediterranean-style dishes suitable for most diets, such as vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free, and dishes feature organic ingredients when available.

The cafe is also known for their coffee and latte art. All of these can be enjoyed while listening to local artists performing live on select days each month, which can be found on the Art Cafe website. Daniel Kramer, owner of Art Cafe, summarizes the regular music events as “Cozy Cafe Live Music by local artists.” The cafe workers lovingly refer to it as “Chirp Cafe,” referencing the cafe’s bird logo.

“It’s always been a vision of ours to host musicians and we used to just have spontaneous musicians playing early on while enjoying their coffee,” said Kramer.

“As we became more popular and a bit more of a restaurant, we saw the opportunity to add sets in the garden and that’s how it started.” Now, after a decade and a half of hosting these events, Art Cafe has established itself as a place for local musicians to share their talents and passion for music. “We initially put feelers out and, at this point, people just know us as a venue and we have a lot of repeat musicians,” said Kramer.

Art Cafe recommends reserving a table in advance due to limited seating, which can be done through a link found on their website. On the nights of live music events, tables and chairs are moved aside to provide a space for the musician, further limiting seating. Despite the effort it takes to hold these events, Kramer still enjoys giving musicians a place to perform.

“At times it’s great for us, but it’s often not a huge needle mover in the sense that we are limited in capacity and the musicians’ setup takes up seating as well. Also we don’t charge covers or have table minimums,” shared Kramer. “We love having it though and we love supporting
all local artists.” Art Cafe also lines its walls with local art and shares an “Artist of the Month” on their events calendar, further highlighting local artists. Through these practices, the cafe is able to show support for the arts in Rockland County, while these artists give back to the cafe by providing a pleasant atmosphere to the establishment and bringing customers in.

“We love the ambiance that the cafe has in the evening and the music fits in nicely,” said Kramer. “It’s cozy and artsy and a really unique venue.”