McSorley's Old Ale House
Two choices, light or dark, both brewed for the house, and whatever you order lands as a pair of half-pints. The pub has been on East 7th Street since 1854.
Why go
The floor carries a fresh layer of sawdust, old newspaper clippings cover the walls, and the ordering is a drill: you say which beer and how many, and Will Hartman's warning is that the bartenders will not wait while you decide (The Infatuation, March 2024). The pub's own history says Woody Guthrie inspired the union movement from a front table, guitar in hand. The pub kept women out until 1970, when the civil rights attorneys Faith Seidenberg and Karen DeCrow took the case to the Supreme Court to get in (the pub's own history page). It calls itself New York City's oldest continuously operated saloon.
Order this / avoid
- Order: light or dark, and say how many.
- Order: the cheese plate with crackers and raw onions, which is Hartman's pick to go with them. There is a fuller menu of daily specials if you want more.
- Avoid: a weekend night. Hartman sends you during the day on a weekend to get around the crowd.
What locals & experts say
- Will Hartman, The Infatuation (5 March 2024):
If McSorley's weren't so crowded with people shuffling around its sawdust-strewn floor, stepping aside for bartenders carrying more beers than seemingly possible, it would be one of the coolest bars in the city.
1 - Hartman on who should go: every New Yorker should do it at least once.1
Good to know
- Timing: it runs all day, and the daytime is the version you can move around in.
- Booking: no reservations, first come first served, cash only.
Verdict
should-visit — Go once, in daylight, with cash. I would not send you here for the beer.