McSorley's Old Ale House, East Village, New York

McSorley's Old Ale House is the oldest Irish tavern in New York City. It was established in 1854, and located at 15 E. 7th St. in the East Village.

It was one of the last of the "Men Only" pubs in America until 1970 when National Organization for Women attorneys, Faith Seidenberg and Karen DeCrow, took their case to allow women to patronize the bar to District Court and won.

Regardless of that ruling, the day I walked past it seemed like most of the patrons were still mainly men. In fact, there was a long line of men waiting behind a velvet rope off to the side waiting to be allowed in. As you can imagine McSorley's is a tourist attraction and a place that is a very popular to photograph.

The front bar area is standing room only, and there is a back area with tables and chairs where some pub food is served. There is a large fireplace in the back whose mantle has the pub's slogan of "Be good or be gone" carved in it in 3D.

Famous people have imbibed at McSorley's, including Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Boss Tweed, Woody Guthrie, Brendan Behan, Paul Blackburn, LeRoi Jones, and E. E. Cummings.

McSorley's serves only two ales, light and dark, and each glass is a half pint. The walls are covered with aged artwork, photographs, newspaper articles, album covers, a gold album from J. Giles, sheet music, etc., with the claim that no piece of memorabilia has been removed from the walls since 1910. There is a pair of famous magician Houdini's handcuffs hanging from the bar, and the floors are covered with sawdust.

There are some photos of the interior on their web site, but I'll have to go back on a less crowded day to take my own.

I was sitting in mcsorley's.

outside it was New York and beautifully snowing.

Inside snug and evil.

—ee cummings

'Tis a little bit of "Olde New York"!