Mickey Ruskin

Bernard Michael Ruskin (May 8, 1933 – May 16, 1983), known as Mickey Ruskin, was an American restaurateur, nightlife impresario, and arts patron. He is best known for founding and operating the influential New York City bar-restaurant-club Max's Kansas City, which opened in 1965 and became a pivotal gathering place for visual artists, poets, musicians, and the counterculture.

Ruskin originally studied to become a lawyer, but soon shifted into operating coffeehouses and bars in Manhattan's East Village and Greenwich Village — including the Tenth Street Coffeehouse, Les Deux Mégots, and the Ninth Circle — before opening Max's. He later opened a couple of other successful places like The Lower Manhattan Ocean Club and Kipling's Last Resort (later renamed Chinese Chance) before his death at 50 in 1983.