When two Australians took over a legendary New York cafe, the locals turned on them

New York: When Sydney husband-and-wife team Linden Pride and Nathalie Hudson took over a much-loved, 100-year-old cafe in New York's Greenwich Village, the response was swift and brutal.

"What's coming to Caffé Dante is even worse that we thought," one blogger wrote after a local publication found Pride's liquor licence application and shuddered at its unbearably trendy promise of "seasonal flatbreads", "clean, healthy eating" and artisanal cocktails "garnished with salad".

"It's a real loss for New York," New York magazine wrote, lamenting the end of a neighbourhood hangout famed for its day-and-night espresso and old Italian regulars who chain-smoked and played chess on footpath tables.

Australian bar owner Linden Pride took over New York's Caffe Dante, turning it into the world's best bar.Credit: Rachel Olding

Four years later though, it seems Pride can do no wrong. Last weekend, Dante, as it was renamed, was crowned the best bar in the world by industry group Tales of the Cocktail. It added to a packed trophy cabinet: best bar in New York, according to Time Out; best American restaurant bar for two years running, according to Tales of the Cocktail, and ninth on the prestigious World 50 Best Bars list.

"It's not vindication," Pride, former beverage director of Neil Perry's restaurant group, said. "I think the vindication was winning over each person that came in, one by one."

In New York, a city of astonishing turnover and constant change, it can feel like a landmark establishment closes down almost every day, replaced by a pharmacy chain or a soulless gastropub.

Actor Al Pacino leaving the former Caffe Dante in an undated photo.Credit: Dante

Fiercely protective locals feared Caffé Dante was another case in point. Since 1915, it had been a legendary joint in a neighbourhood populated by Italians and beatniks. Al Pacino, Ernest Hemingway and Bob Dylan were regulars. In 1985, New York gave it "best espresso" honours.

By 2014, the quality had fallen drastically under Mario Flotta, owner of 40 years, and his son, and they agreed to sell it to Pride and Hudson, who promised to keep it largely unchanged.

"We were definitely blind-sided by [the backlash]," Pride said. "People were like, 'Oh avocado toast and flat whites, so much for Caffe Dante'. It was a punch in the gut."

Former owners Mario Flotta snr and jnr pictured presiding over the cafe in the late 80s.Credit: Instagram/Dante

With financial backing from Aussie Home Loans boss James Symond and Sydney publican Chris Cheung, Pride and Hudson kept the façade and layout of the old café and restored it gently with an original pressed tin ceiling, old photos, a huge bar and a simple menu of pastas, coffee and 12 versions of negroni cocktails.

For the first eight months, however, they were losing money. Hudson was pregnant with the couple's first child and they couldn't afford to pay staff.

"The idea that a couple of Australians were going to show Americans how to drink in the Italian manner - well, let’s just say it sounded like a long shot," New York bar writer Robert Simonson wrote. But, in his first review, he declared Dante a roaring success, an "effortlessly urbane" homage to the original, with the best draft negroni in town.

Pride said the early months were "the most stressful period of our lives" but ended up making Dante an award-winning spot.

"It was Nathalie and I and [creative director and bartender] Naren [Young] here every day running it because we weren't making any money," he said. "But what that did was actually set this up to be the business it is. We were here every day meeting the community, greeting people, winning people over."

They'd explain to unhappy regulars what the new Dante was and ask for input. People started sharing photos and stories, and coming back more often.

"You'd give them a coffee or a cocktail and eventually they'd say, 'This is really good'."