The world of professional wrestling has found a new home in Harlem, where body slams, burgers, coffee and kayfabe now share the same space!
The Squared Circle Cafe, a pro wrestling-themed restaurant located at 271 W. 119th St., brings food, coffee and wrestling culture together for fans who want more than just a place to watch matches. Owned by Chef John Craiger, 45, and his wife, Val, the cafe gives New York wrestling fans a neighborhood space built around the nostalgia and community of the sport.
For Chef John, the idea came from a lifelong passion for wrestling and 30 years of experience in the restaurant industry. Before opening the cafe, he worked in several parts of New York City, including artisanal bistros and Marriott hotels. Eventually, he wanted to create a place that reflected both his culinary background and his love for professional wrestling.
“We were just envisioning how we could make it happen through pop-ups, a food truck and then we had an opportunity to come up here and get the operation started even with it in the daytime,” Chef John said.
The Squared Circle is open from Monday through Friday, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Nonetheless, they’re open until 11 p.m. on Mondays, where they host WWE “Monday Night RAW” watch parties at the bar.
“This is an all-around hospitality wrestling-themed restaurant,” Chef John said.
Inside the cafe, the wrestling influence is clear with memorabilia, wrestling references and fan culture that helps shape the environment but Chef John said the mission goes beyond decoration. There are multiple championship belts such as the big gold world heavyweight championship and various action figures. There are many posters starring WWE Superstars such as Cody Rhodes and Rhea Ripley.
The cafe is meant to be a gathering place where wrestling fans can feel understood while also welcoming customers who may simply want a tasty lunch or a simple cup of coffee.
The cafe’s slogan, “Coffee meets kayfabe,” captures the mix of food and wrestling storytelling. In wrestling, kayfabe refers to treating the scripted world of wrestling as real within the performance.
“Coffee meets kayfabe is our slogan. Kayfabe is acknowledging wrestling as fake but acting like it’s real and that’s what we envision with the cafe,” Chef John said.
The wrestling language shows up across the menu. Many of the dishes are “gimmicked,” a term wrestling fans use to describe characters. This includes the “Kurt Angle Cauliflower Ears”, the “Check-in” crispy chicken sandwich, the “Million Dollar Fires” named after Ted DiBiase and their notable “Righteous Burger” named after TNA stars Vincent and Dutch.
Having ordered the Righteous Burger as a first meal at the cafe, it is truly a premier New York City burger with double smashed beef patties, black garlic aioli, charred tomato, pickled crispy jalapenos, smoked provolone and potato roll with fries. The burger reflects that food can connect to wrestling culture without sacrificing quality. The passion for the sport behind the food is felt in the rich taste of the meals.
“We make everything in-house fresh. Everything here is made by my hands every day. A lot of our food is fresh and seasonal,” Chef John noted.
The cafe has received notable visits by former WWE stars such as Maven, Gail Kim, Enzo Amore, Victoria, Mickie James and Lio Rush who came to the Harlem spot.
Maven Huffman, a WWE Superstar-turned-YouTuber with almost one million subscribers, featured a profile documenting the cafe on his channel. The video has since received over 400,000 views, titled “I Ate at the World’s Only Wrestling Restaurant.”
The Squared Circle Cafe opened their first physical Harlem location in February 2026 and has since scaled their notable social media presence on Instagram to about 30,000 followers. For a niche restaurant centered on wrestling culture, that online following has helped turn the cafe into more than a local lunch stop.
“We’re the only one of its kind. There really isn’t any other wrestling-focused places in New York City or the East Coast, nor anywhere in the United States that’s very focused on wrestling like we are,” Chef John said.
WWF New York operated in Times Square from 1999 to 2003. Owned and operated by the WWF, it was world-renowned as the premiere wrestling establishment that reflected the height of WWE’s mainstream popularity during the Attitude Era, combining food, entertainment, merchandise and live wrestling culture in one location.
More than two decades later, The Squared Circle Cafe carries on that tradition.
“As much as you wanted to have all of those things there that was WWF/E New York, we’re a little bit more than that and it’s not just WWE,” Chef John said. “So everyone else can come in here and enjoy whatever wrestling they like.”
Chef John welcomes non-wrestling customers as well, acknowledging that it’s a great place to get lunch and eat. This is due to the intimate and respectively small feel of the cafe that other restaurants may not have.
That wider approach gives the cafe room to connect with fans of WWE, AEW, TNA, New Japan, independent wrestling and other promotions. It also allows the space to function as a community hub rather than just a themed restaurant.
The restaurant also has plans to expand its reach through events around New York City. Chef John said the cafe has already booked events in areas including the Bronx and Queens, giving the brand a chance to meet fans outside of Harlem while continuing to build its home base in Upper Manhattan.
For wrestling fans, The Squared Circle Cafe offers something rare, a place where the culture is not just playing on a television in the background but built into the food, the language and the experience. For Chef John and Val, the cafe is also a personal venture shaped by years of restaurant work and a shared love for the sport.
In a city filled with restaurants competing for attention, The Squared Circle Cafe stands out by turning wrestling fandom into a dining experience. It gives fans a place to eat, watch, talk and celebrate the characters, stories and memories that made them fall in love with wrestling in the first place.
The Squared Circle Cafe has achieved very notable success, laying the foundation of notoriety within the wrestling world. This socially rich and intimate cafe will lead to further organic visibility due to the nature of this colorful establishment for Chef John and Val.
For more information, visit thesquaredcirclecafenyc.com and follow them @squaredcirclecafe on Instagram.
