Back In
1943, in his book McSorley's Wonderful Saloon, Joseph Mitchell stated this in
the chapter entitled The Old House At Home:
"McSorley's
occupies the ground floor of a red-brick tenement at 15 Seventh Street, just
off Cooper Square, where the Bowery ends. It was opened in 1854 and is the
oldest saloon in New York City. In eighty-eight years it has had four
owners--an Irish immigrant, his son, a retired policeman, and his daughter--and
all of them have been opposed to change. It is equipped with electricity, but
the bar is stubbornly illuminated with a pair of gas lamps, which flicker
fitfully and throw shadows on the low , cobwebby ceiling each time someone
opens the street door. There is no cash register. Coins are dropped in soup
bowls-one for nickels, one for dimes, one for quarters, and one for halves-and
bills are kept in a rose-wood cashbox. It is a drowsy place; the bartenders
never make a needless move, the customers nurse their mugs of ale, and the
three clocks on the walls have not been in agreement for many years."
At
McSorley's not much has changed since 1943. Yes, some of the frosted glass
windows on the mensroom door have been broken and replaced with clear ones. And
the beer is no longer brewed by Fidelio Brewery, it's now reportedly brewed by
Stroh Brewing Co. But I get the feeling that if John McSorley was still around
he would not be dissapointed by the way is pub is run.
