New York State publishes every active liquor licence as open data and refreshes it daily, so every room below was proved open this morning by the state rather than by a review site. What the state will not do is settle a founding year, and four of these five turn out to be arguing with their own buildings.
- 1 · The Cold Open
McSorley's Old Ale House
The house pours one thing, its own ale, and it arrives two mugs at a time whether or not you asked for two, so light or dark is the entire decision. Have a cheese plate with it, because the rest of the kitchen is a footnote and the till takes cash only. The 1854 on the sign is the house claim, and the city's own landmark researchers set it beside the counter evidence rather than settle it: tax records show the lot vacant into 1860 and John McSorley first appears in the city directories in 1862. The building above the bar is dated to about 1865 and was put up by a speculator called John Wroughton Mitchell, whose estate sold it to the McSorleys in 1888 for twenty four thousand dollars. Protection here is exterior only, so the sawdust survives by habit rather than by law.
the building about 1865; the 1854 is contested and the records point to 1862 · Mon to Sat 11am till 1am, Sun noon till 1am, cash only · verified Aug 2026
- 2 · The Detour
Pete's Tavern
The house keeps a draught line for its own beer, Pete's 1864 House Ale, and that is what to drink standing at the front bar rather than sitting in the dining room. The 1864 is the date the tavern gives for the first licensed drinking house on this corner and it is the one date here nobody has knocked down. The rest wobbles badly: the building is put at 1829 by the AIA Guide, at 1846 by the city's landmarks database and at 1851 by the tavern itself. It was Healy's Cafe from 1899 and took the present name when Peter D'Belles bought it in the twenties. The house also says O. Henry wrote The Gift of the Magi in the second booth in 1903, which the AIA Guide calls apocryphal and which the story's own publication in 1905 does not help. Sit in the booth by all means, but sit in it for the beer.
the building 1829 to 1851 disputed, a tavern by 1864, Pete's since the 1920s · daily noon till 2am, kitchen till 11pm and midnight at weekends · verified Aug 2026
- 3 · The Anchor
Old Town Bar
Order the hamburger platter, grilled how you like it on a soft sesame bun with fries, and drink a beer under the pressed tin. A dumbwaiter still runs between the two floors, and the house posts a named special for every day of the week, which is how we know the door was open this morning. The 1892 in its own email address is the trading claim, but the city's landmarks database dates this building to 1901 and 1902, architect Richard Berger, so either the business moved in later or the number is wrong. Ladies' Mile covers it from May 1989 and that protection is exterior only, which means the famous tall urinals are not landmarked whatever you are told at the bar. Nobody eating here cares, and that is rather the point.
the business claims 1892, this building is 1901 to 1902 · Mon 11.30am till midnight, Tue to Thu till 12.30am, Fri till 1am, Sat till 12.30am, Sun noon till 10.30pm · verified Aug 2026
- 4 · The Wildcard
White Horse Tavern
White Horse Ale runs on the draught list under the house name, and a pint of it standing at the bar is the honest order in a room that now also sells a thirty five dollar burger. The 1880 on the sign is the bar's date and not the building's: the city's landmarks database puts this wooden frame at about 1817, built for Daniel D. Smith, inside the Greenwich Village Historic District designated in April 1969. It was a longshoremen's bar for seventy years before it was ever a writers' bar. The eighteen straight whiskies attributed to Dylan Thomas is a boast he is reported to have made rather than a measured fact, and he died on 9 November 1953 of causes his biographers still argue about. The tavern changed hands in 2019 and the neighbourhood held a mock wake for it, and what reopened is smarter and dearer than what closed. Come for the room and the ale, not for the ghost.
the building about 1817, a bar from 1880, relaunched 2019 · Sun 11am till midnight, Mon to Wed noon till midnight, Thu till 2.30am, Fri and Sat till 3.30am · verified Aug 2026
- 5 · The Last Call
Ear Inn
Ask for the eight ounce Ear Inn burger, which comes with home fries and a salad, take a beer with it and sit where the band sets up. The building is the James Brown House, an individual New York City landmark since November 1969 and on the National Register since August 1983, and both records date it flatly to 1817. The bar does not: its own history page says the house went up around 1770 and that Brown rowed with Washington, none of which the designation report supports. What is solid is that the ground floor has been pouring since the middle of the nineteenth century, and that the name is far younger than the sign, because the owners who took over in the late seventies painted out the round halves of the neon BAR rather than apply to the Landmarks Commission for a new one. The house calendar carries live music on Wednesdays and most Sundays, which is the surest way to find it open.
the building 1817, a tavern by the mid 1800s, the Ear Inn only since the late 1970s · the house says noon till 4am daily, though its own visit page still hopes to open every day again; music Wed and most Sun · verified Aug 2026