Bad Bunny\u2019s splashy Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday<\/a>, during which she was seen serving up a shot of liquor to the Latin superstar.<\/p>\nCaribbean Social Club\u2019s owner Maria Antonia \u201cTo\u00f1ita\u201d Cay is pictured with patrons on Thursday \u2014 four days after her cameo in Bad Bunny\u2019s Super Bowl halftime show. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n
Cay is seen serving a shot to Bad Bunny partway through his Super Bowl halftime show in San Francisco on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Cay is seen cuddling up to Bad Bunny (right) and Ricky Martin (left), who also made an appearance during the halftime show. tonitasny\/ Instagram<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came to meet To\u00f1ita,\u201d patron Jaccia Sepulveda Parra, 34, told The Post as she sipped on rum and listened to Reggaeton music blasting from the speakers.<\/p>\n
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 establishment.<\/p>\n
It turns out they weren\u2019t disappointed, with Cay happy to entertain the starstruck tourists as other customers, old and new, danced, drank, and played dominoes and pool.<\/p>\n
Jose Humberto Perez, a longtime patron of Caribbean Social Club, told The Post that the halftime show has officially turned To\u00f1ita into \u201ca movie star,\u201d saying she could end up \u201cat the Oscars\u201d if Bad Bunny ever decides to make a film.<\/p>\n
Bad Bunny is pictured with Cay at Caribbean Social Club in 2022. He has been a longtime fan of the bar and its adorable owner. tonitasny\/ Instagram<\/p>\n
Cay has owned the building that houses her bar since 1974. She has refused to sell, despite reported offers of up to $9 million. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n
On Thursday, patrons played pool, danced and drank as Cay watched on from her seat at the bar. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n
The South Williamsburg establishment attracts a diverse crowd, with some Super Bowl fans checking out the bar after Cay\u2019s cameo in Bad Bunny\u2019s show. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n
Bad Bunny \u2014 real name Benito Antonio Mart\u00ednez Ocasio \u2014 visits the bar whenever he\u2019s in the Big Apple and has clearly become enamored with its owner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His first publicized appearance at Caribbean Social Club came in 2022, when he celebrated the release of his album Un Verano Sin Ti (A Summer Without You).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, God, look who\u2019s here?\u201d Perez recalled thinking when he saw the music superstar show up for a drink. \u201cI said, \u2018The women are gonna go ballistic in there. They\u2019re going to go crazy.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perez, 63, was pleasantly surprised that Bad Bunny had popped into the bar by himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo entourage\u2026 Completely alone,\u201d Perez stated. \u201cHe\u2019s very respectful\u2026 a very humble human being. And To\u00f1ita is the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooklyn-born Perez, who is of Puerto Rican descent and served two decades in the military, has been frequenting Caribbean Social Club for more than 15 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the last bar of Puerto Rican heritage that we have,\u201d he explained, saying some of South Williamsburg\u2019s longtime Puerto Rican residents have been pushed out of the neighborhood due to gentrification.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere used to be over 20 or 30 bars here, but when gentrification came, a lot of places had to close,\u201d he explained. \u201cThis is the last bastion that we have here. This is the only place where you get $3 beers and $4 shots. You can\u2019t beat that with a baseball bat.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
According to court records, Cay bought the building that houses her bar back in 1974 \u2014 but she had been operating a social club for years before that. In the early 1970s, she sponsored a local baseball team and would serve free food and drinks to players and cheerleaders after the games.<\/p>\n
The bar owner reportedly refused an offer to sell her building for an eye-popping $9 million, with her manager, Giovanni Gonzalez, 37, telling The Post: \u201cShe doesn\u2019t care about the money, she cares about her community\u2026 She is a mother to all of us. She feels a big responsibility to all of us\u2026 If she leaves, people have nowhere to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The unassuming entrance of Caribbean Social Club on Grand Street, Williamsburg, is pictured. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n
With beers costing just $3, the club attracts patrons looking for cheap drinks and good vibes. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n
Gonzalez compared Caribbean Social Club to a church, \u201cwithout the religious part.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every Sunday at 1 p.m., Cay hands out free food to homeless people \u201cin little boxes,\u201d Gonzalez stated.<\/p>\n
On Thursday night, when The Post popped by, Cay\u2019s hospitality was also evident. Complimentary plates of white rice and black beans were available to anyone who wanted an appetizer to team with their cheap drinks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see a lawyer playing dominoes here with a homeless guy,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cThere is no separation of class or age, and she (Cay) created this organically.\u201d<\/p>\n
In between the many paintings and old photographs that decorate the walls of Caribbean Social Club, there are also awards, including one from the City of New York honoring Cay as an \u201cOutstanding Citizen\u201d in 1998.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cay\u2019s manager Giovanni Gonzalez is pictured. He accompanied the bar owner to San Francisco for her Super Bowl halftime show cameo last Sunday. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n
Chilean tourists Brenda Briones and Jaccia Sep\u00falveda were in the Big Apple and were eager to meet Cay. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n
Gonzalez accompanied Cay to the Super Bowl in San Francisco last Sunday, while dozens of her longtime patrons watched in the bar back home.<\/p>\n
Maribel Ramirez, a 61-year-old ICU nurse, told The Post that locals heard rumors that Cay would cameo in Bad Bunny\u2019s halftime show, causing crowds to form inside the establishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI watched the halftime show here,\u201d Eitan Tovar, a 22-year-old Colombian who moved to New York last month and works in a tattoo store next door, stated.\u00a0\u201cThe place was packed, people were trying to come inside, there was a line.\u201d<\/p>\n
With word of mouth spreading about the beloved bar since the Super Bowl, lines and crowds could become par for the course.<\/p>\n
However, some are enticed more for the authentic atmosphere and cheap drinks than they are for any Bad Bunny buzz.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cay (pictured at top) is seen looking on as Bad Bunny performs at Sunday\u2019s Super Bowl. San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Puerto Rican star (seen at the Super Bowl) loves frequently Cay\u2019s bar whenever he\u2019s in the Big Apple. AP<\/p>\n
Nicola Palmisano, 29, an Italian sous chef at Cipriani Downtown, was sweating in the kitchen on Sunday and missed Cay\u2019s cameo in Bad Bunny\u2019s show.<\/p>\n
But on Thursday night, he decided to venture to The Caribbean Social Club simply to enjoy a New York gem.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI really like the vibe,\u201d Palmisano told The Post. \u201cIt\u2019s like a neighborhood bar. So I like it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been open for more than 50 years, but Caribbean Social Club is suddenly the hottest bar in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[6014,8075,232,267,75,84,83,9,24,63,1424],"class_list":{"0":"post-133607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-bad-bunny","9":"tag-bars","10":"tag-lifestyle","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-manhattan","13":"tag-manhattan-headlines","14":"tag-manhattan-news","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-williamsburg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}