CIRO'S TAVERN

In 1893 the Mee family, proprietors of a bottling company fulfilling bourbon and Ales for New York distilleries set forth to expand their business going into retail. Building a four-story building containing a retail liquor store on the first floor, the second floor a home for family members who managed the store, and the third and fourth floors to accommodate immigrants coming into America for new opportunities. Business thrived until prohibition forcing closure and property changing hands until post-prohibition where the store turned into a bar by a local Irish politician calling it Uncle’s Café. The upper levels became rundown and the boarding rooms became a brothel. It wasn’t until a new entrepreneur Evo “Curly” Donnini & his wife Martha took over in 1962 with a vision to build a highend food & wine establishment using King Henry VIII Palace of Hampton Court for its Tudor style as its inspiration with a budget of over one-million dollars to rehab the building in its entirety, now receiving architectural design awards for its design.