My Favorite Bar in America Is Closed, For Now

According to ABC7 New York CIty's oldest bar is closing for a short time due to health code violations. The reports says food at the wrong temperature and evidence of rats led led the health department to shut it down. The bar will have to request a special inspection to reopen.

McSorley's is my favorite bar, period, end of story. My family used to go every year for my Uncle Chris' birthday. It was our Mecca voyage. We would leave early in the morning, take the train down from Brewster twenty people deep and be standing out front before the doors opened. We would follow that with a full day of drinking and story telling. The day would usually end with my uncle's wrestling in the streets and me trying to find a restaurant that would let me use their bathroom as I wandered the streets of NYC.

This place is so historic. The walls are lined with photos of the famous faces that have enjoyed a pint over the years. There is a string above the bar that runs it's length with wishbones hanging from it. The wishbones symbolize the soldiers who left for war and never came home. The men who were lucky enough to make it back would come home and reclaim their bones. This place has sawdust on the floor, cats wandering here and there throughout the bar and a wood stove in the middle of the room. This is a real bar.

I hope they get their violations taken care of without destroying the charm of this place and reopen soon. When they do I may have to get down there. I am way overdue for a few pops at McSorley's.