Infacet Bad Bunny’s favourite New York bar — after legendary proprietor made suprise Super Bowl cameo

It’s been open for greater than 50 years, however Caribbean Social Club is abruptly the most popular bar in Brooklyn.

On Thursday night time, the Puerto Rican watering gap on Grand Street in South Williamsburg was rammed with revelers desirous to catch a glimpse of its octogenarian proprietor, Maria Antonia “Toñita” Cay.

Cay, 85, has change into a sensation since her look in Bad Bunny’s splashy Super Bowl halftime present on Sunday, throughout which she was seen serving up a shot of liquor to the Latin famous person.

“We came to meet Toñita,” patron Jaccia Sepulveda Parra, 34, advised The Post as she sipped on rum and listened to Reggaeton music blasting from the audio system.

The lawyer, who lives in Chile, was visiting New York with a pal, and the pair had braved icy temperatures to trek to the unassuming institution.

It seems they weren’t dissatisfied, with Cay pleased to entertain the starstruck vacationers as different prospects, outdated and new, danced, drank, and performed dominoes and pool.

Jose Humberto Perez, a longtime patron of Caribbean Social Club, advised The Post that the halftime present has formally turned Toñita into “a movie star,” saying she might find yourself “at the Oscars” if Bad Bunny ever decides to make a movie.

Bad Bunny — actual identify Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — visits the bar each time he’s within the Big Apple and has clearly change into enamored with its proprietor. 

His first publicized look at Caribbean Social Club got here in 2022, when he celebrated the discharge of his album Un Verano Sin Ti (A Summer Without You). 

“Oh, God, look who’s here?” Perez recalled pondering when he noticed the music famous person present up for a drink. “I said, ‘The women are gonna go ballistic in there. They’re going to go crazy.’” 

Perez, 63, was pleasantly shocked that Bad Bunny had popped into the bar by himself.

“No entourage… Completely alone,” Perez said. “He’s very respectful… a very humble human being. And Toñita is the same way.”

Brooklyn-born Perez, who’s of Puerto Rican descent and served 20 years within the army, has been frequenting Caribbean Social Club for greater than 15 years.

“This is the last bar of Puerto Rican heritage that we have,” he defined, saying a few of South Williamsburg’s longtime Puerto Rican residents have been pushed out of the neighborhood resulting from gentrification.

“There used to be over 20 or 30 bars here, but when gentrification came, a lot of places had to close,” he defined. “This is the last bastion that we have here. This is the only place where you get $3 beers and $4 shots. You can’t beat that with a baseball bat.”  

According to courtroom information, Cay purchased the constructing that homes her bar again in 1974 — however she had been working a social membership for years earlier than that. In the early Nineteen Seventies, she sponsored an area baseball crew and would serve free meals and drinks to gamers and cheerleaders after the video games.

The bar proprietor reportedly refused a proposal to promote her constructing for an eye-popping $9 million, together with her supervisor, Giovanni Gonzalez, 37, telling The Post: “She doesn’t care about the money, she cares about her community… She is a mother to all of us. She feels a big responsibility to all of us… If she leaves, people have nowhere to go.”

Gonzalez in contrast Caribbean Social Club to a church, “without the religious part.”

Every Sunday at 1 p.m., Cay palms out free meals to homeless individuals “in little boxes,” Gonzalez said.

On Thursday night time, when The Post popped by, Cay’s hospitality was additionally evident. Complimentary plates of white rice and black beans have been out there to anybody who wished an appetizer to crew with their low cost drinks. 

“You can see a lawyer playing dominoes here with a homeless guy,” Gonzalez stated. “There is no separation of class or age, and she (Cay) created this organically.”

In between the numerous work and outdated images that beautify the partitions of Caribbean Social Club, there are additionally awards, together with one from the City of New York honoring Cay as an “Outstanding Citizen” in 1998. 

Gonzalez accompanied Cay to the Super Bowl in San Francisco final Sunday, whereas dozens of her longtime patrons watched within the bar again dwelling.

Maribel Ramirez, a 61-year-old ICU nurse, advised The Post that locals heard rumors that Cay would cameo in Bad Bunny’s halftime present, inflicting crowds to type contained in the institution.

“I watched the halftime show here,” Eitan Tovar, a 22-year-old Colombian who moved to New York final month and works in a tattoo retailer subsequent door, said. “The place was packed, people were trying to come inside, there was a line.”

With phrase of mouth spreading concerning the beloved bar for the reason that Super Bowl, strains and crowds might change into par for the course.

However, some are enticed extra for the genuine environment and low cost drinks than they’re for any Bad Bunny buzz. 

Nicola Palmisano, 29, an Italian sous chef at Cipriani Downtown, was sweating within the kitchen on Sunday and missed Cay’s cameo in Bad Bunny’s present.

But on Thursday night time, he determined to enterprise to The Caribbean Social Club merely to get pleasure from a New York gem. 

“I really like the vibe,” Palmisano advised The Post. “It’s like a neighborhood bar. So I like it.”