6. Old Town Bar, Flatiron District

Photo Courtesy of Delia Cabe

Old Town Bar, located on 18th Street between Broadway and Park, opened its doors back in 1892. Today the bar is owned by Brooklyn-native, Gerard Meagher– the family’s second generation owner. Cabe writes that Gerard, like his father Larry Meager, is proud of the “unpretentious, convivial watering hole,” that he and his father ran, and although its been kept low-key, “the writers do come to quaff.” Among Old Town Bar’s literary lineage is Dermot McEvoy, Frank McCourt and the late Irish Poet and Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heany– all of whom have signed book jackets on the walls along with several others.

However, its not only the tingles of authors past that make Old Town Bar special. Despite being the kind of establishment Cabe reports Gerard describing as “a beer and whisky kind of place,” some of Old Town Bar’s physical attributes might be their biggest draw. In 2010, Old Town Bar threw a lavish party, complete with champagne and all, for their urinals’ 100th birthday– porcelain mammoths roughly the size of bathtubs. Then, the “55-foot-long, marble topped, carved mahogany bar has much to tell,” as well, Cabe writes.

Old Town Bar does have a lot to tell. Read more in Cabe’s book, which you can buy on Amazon here.