Owner | Eleanor Ridgley | Established | 2016 |
Purpose | Cafe | ||
Status | Daily, 7am to 8pm | ||
Employees |
Eileen's Cafe is a venerable establishment in the Red Hook Market. What began as a coffee cart near the market's west entrance, Eileen's grew to become a well-traveled kiosk. In the winter of 2019, Eileen's Cafe took over the corner vendor space once held by Wayfarer Books. In its current form, Eileen's Cafe is a cozy, windowless coffee shop located in the vaulted basement market. The cafe takes its design aesthetic from 1920s speakeasy style with subtle aviary cues like bird cages around light fixtures. It is unclear if the cafe is named after the former Ferryman council member Eileen Ruskin or if these trappings are purely coincidental.
Additional Info
At 9:00pm, after the Red Hook Market officially closes, Eileen's Safe turns into a speakeasy run off the books. Eleanor leaves maintenance of the speakeasy to other staff members and feigns ignorance of its existence. The NYPD are aware of this operation but so far have turned a blind eye to it.
It is suspected that Eleanor has smuggler connections due to her reliable supply of coffee, which is otherwise expensive and difficult to source in the Safe Zone.