Scavenger Hunt: McSorley's Old Ale House

This place has been on my list since I first read about it several months ago.  If you follow this blog, you know that my MiL and I went while she was in town for vacation.  This is a more detailed description of that adventure. The saloon was opened in 1854 by John McSorley and is the oldest pub still operating in NY (note that this is a correction to my earlier post about the nation.... got a little carried away there....).  (Ch. 57).  When it first opened, it did not allow women (and in fact didn't until 1970) and had a motto of "Good Ale, Raw Onions, and No Ladies". (Ch. 57)  That's good because between the ale and raw onions, ladies wouldn't want to be near that anyway.  Am I right?!  To get into the saloon you walk through the original wood doors (think old-timey western movie type doors -- describing them as "saloon" doors seemed a bit circular).  As your eyes adjust to the darkness, you are immediately overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff on the walls and ceiling.  Not to mention you have the strange sensation of walking on large sawdust shavings.

In the book, I read about how there was an original wanted poster for John Wilkes Booth that was hung after Lincoln was assassinated (Lincoln supposed went for a drink at McSorley's after he spoke at Cooper Union).  I couldn't find it right away because it was hidden in plain sight right above the bar! Go figure.  At least the bartender didn't make too much fun of me.  Side note: It was actually not that touristy of a place (as I feared).  My MiL and I ended up chatting with some regulars and if you look in the background of our photo below, you can see them (albeit blurry).

Wanted poster amongst the other collection items.  This place was absolutely covered in memorabilia.

Teddy Roosevelt for VP!
He is the only U.S. president to be born and raised in NYC.

Had to add this photo again so you could see our little beer mugs.  The rule at McSorley's is that you have to buy your beer in rounds.  We ordered 2 light beers thinking that it was one round.  Wrong.  We got two beers a piece! Good thing they were in small mugs.  Another quirky thing is that you only have two choices - light beer and dark beer.  We chose light.

McSorley's had been the subject of much NY news/ blog attention in April because of Dept. of Health crackdowns.  Apparently, they didn't think that Minnie the Second was comporting with good health guidelines because McSorley's also serves food in addition to its two types of beer.  Another health crackdown was the dust on a chandelier.  First the photos and then the explanation.

Pre- April 2011.
Photo courtesy of the NY Times.

During our visit
July 2011

According to the NY Times, these bones had been placed on the chandelier (and not touched!) by soldiers going off to the Great War:

Joseph Mitchell, the inimitable chronicler of old New York, once wrote that the founder, John McSorley, simply liked to save things, including the wishbones of holiday turkeys. But Mr. Maher, who has worked at McSorley’s since 1964 — he predates some of the memorabilia — insists that the bones were hung by doughboys as wishful symbols of a safe return from the Great War. The bones left dangling came to represent those who never came back.

The chandelier supposedly now has wishbones hung from soldiers that went to Iraq and Afghanistan.  Mr. Maher was sad about the dust but he said that he was at least happy the bones could stay.  And, I have to say, that I am too.