The Old Town Bar is part of a series of tidbits from the chapters of my book Bars, Taverns and Dives New Yorkers Love, published by Rizzoli. You can order it from Powell’s, Amazon, Rizzoli, and Barnes & Noble. Signed prints of all the bars in the book are available here.
The Old Town is a gorgeous, classic bar with a very human vibe. You won’t hear a TV when you walk in. They have one, but the volume is almost always low or completely off. You might not even hear music, usually playing also playing at or below indoor-voice level. What you will hear are the voices of actual, live people. People who come there, self-selected, to eat, drink and talk.
It’s a vocal bar, New York through and through. “What really distinguishes us is that most of our employees are New York born and raised, with a connection to the city. They’re real New Yorkers.” So says owner Gerard Meagher, whose NY family roots date back to the early 1800s in Brooklyn. Look around to feel that old New York vibe: dozens of photos of drinkers past, Fordham pennants and posters in every room from Meagher’s alma mater, a signed headshot of beanball specialist Whitlow Wyatt, who pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1939 to 1944 and was “the meanest guy I ever saw,” according to Joe DiMaggio.
The Old Town Bar IS really, truly, old (opened in 1892), and you can tell just looking at the beveled mirrors, brass fixtures, pressed tin ceiling, four-tone tiled floor, and all that deep, dark mahogany. A small brass plaque on the front of the 55-foot-long marble top bar confirms it was built by C. Rieger’s Sons at 450 & 452 East 148th Street in the Bronx, long since converted to apartments.
Next up:
Neir’s Tavern, possibly THE oldest bar in New York City. It’s a matter of verification, they say, and it’s another chapter of my book Bars, Taverns and Dives New Yorkers Love, which you can order right here. Limited-edition signed prints of the bars are available here.