Esther Halpern, 79, coffeehouse operator and musician

Esther Tabachnick Halpern, 79, of Center City, a musician who co-owned the Gilded Cage, an innovative Center City coffeehouse, died of liver failure Thursday at home.

In 1956, when Mrs. Halpern and her husband, Edward, were newlyweds, they opened the Gilded Cage at 21st and Rittenhouse Streets. They sold espresso for 25 cents a cup. Ed Halpern assembled the corned beef sandwiches and Mrs. Halpern made onion soup - the first in Philadelphia to have a thick cheese crust, she told an Inquirer reporter in 1981.

Young people flocked to the coffeehouse to read poetry, play chess, and listen to the music.

Mrs. Halpern entertained patrons with blues, folk, and the Yiddish songs she had learned from her Russian-immigrant father. The coffeehouse became a popular venue for other folk musicians, including Peter Paul & Mary, Pete Seeger, and Arlo Guthrie, who hitchhiked to Philadelphia from New York.

When Simon and Garfunkel arrived by limo one evening in the 1960s, it wasn't to warble about parsley and sage, an Inquirer reporter later wrote. "No indeed," Mrs. Halpern told the reporter, "They heard my onion soup was the best in the world."

In 1957, the Halperns and several friends founded the Philadelphia Folk Song Society. Five years later, the society launched the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Mrs. Halpern performed the first year at the festival, which became an annual event.

After the Halperns closed the coffeehouse in 1969, Mrs. Halpern operated a guitar school in Center City for many years. She continued to sing in concerts and at private folk gatherings. She loved children and would entertain them with her songs and guitar playing, said her daughter, Annie Leonard.

In the early 1980s, Mrs. Halpern performed in the cocktail lounge at the Latham Hotel on Rittenhouse Square. She told an Inquirer reporter, "I'm singing the same songs I sang 20 years ago. The difference is the customers. They're older, and now they drink liquor instead of coffee."

In 1994, the espresso machine from the Gilded Cage was included with other memorabilia in the "Crossroads: Center City Philadelphia" exhibit at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Mrs. Halpern grew up in Erie. She and her husband were introduced by a hometown friend she was visiting in Philadelphia. The Halperns were active with the Center City Residents Association. He died in 2006.

She enjoyed knitting and crafts and created clever mobiles for friends and family, her daughter said.

Mrs. Halpern also is survived by a sister; a brother; four grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

The funeral will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Goldsteins' Rosenberg's Raphael-Sacks, 64010 N. Broad St., Philadelphia. Burial will be in Shalom Memorial Park. A Gilded Cage reunion honoring Mrs. Halpern will be held at 7 p.m. tomorrow at Elkins Estate, 1750 Ashbourne Rd., Elkins Park.