St. Marks Place

St. Marks Place Review

The longtime hub of the edgy East Village, St. Marks Place is the name given to idiosyncratic East 8th Street between 3rd Avenue and Avenue A. During the 1950s beatniks Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac lived and wrote in the area; the 1960s brought Bill Graham's Fillmore East, Andy Warhol's the Dom, the Electric Circus nightclub, and hallucinogenic drugs. The studded, pink-haired, and shaved-head punk scene followed, continuing today, although a little more diluted, with pierced rockers and teenage Goths. The blocks between 2nd and 3rd avenues have time-tested alternative-clothing boutiques and Asian restaurants galore. The cafés between 2nd Avenue and Avenue A attract customers late into the night.