Old Town Bar

Old Town Bar is a historic tavern and restaurant at 45 East 18th Street, between Broadway and Park Avenue South, just north of Union Square in Manhattan. The business traces its history to 1892, although research into its early years has shown that its origins are more complicated than the traditional story that it simply opened at its present address under the Viemeister name. A predecessor operated nearby as Burckel Brothers’ Cafe, followed by L. E. Reichenecker Cafe, while saloon keeper Harry Viemeister moved his business into the present building, which dates from 1901, around 1912. During Prohibition the establishment operated as Craig’s Restaurant, officially serving food while continuing as a speakeasy, and several of the wooden booths still contain compartments beneath the seats that were used to conceal bottles. The Lohden family took over after Prohibition and established the Old Town Bar name in 1933, with its familiar neon sign following later in the decade. Larry Meagher began managing the struggling bar in the late 1960s and helped revive it, with the Meagher family eventually taking ownership and continuing to run it. Much of the interior has changed remarkably little, including the 55-foot mahogany and marble bar, high pressed-steel ceiling, bevelled mirrors, tiled floor, wooden booths, antique cash registers and an old working dumbwaiter connecting the bar with the upstairs kitchen. Even the enormous Hinsdale urinals in the ground-floor men’s room date from 1910. This unusually intact old New York interior has made Old Town Bar particularly attractive to filmmakers looking for a genuine Manhattan tavern without having to recreate one on a soundstage.

Old Town Bar has appeared in State of Grace (1990), Q & A (1990), Mad About You (1992–1999), Bullets over Broadway (1994), The Devil’s Own (1997), The Last Days of Disco (1998), Sex and the City (1998–2004), Boiler Room (2000), Bored to Death (2009–2011), Gossip Girl (2007–2012), Person of Interest (2011–2016), Man on a Ledge (2012) and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017–2023). Some productions allow the bar to remain recognisably itself, while others turn it into fictional establishments ranging from Riff’s Restaurant in Mad About You to Rex’s in The Last Days of Disco. Its preserved interior has been particularly valuable for period productions such as Bullets over Broadway and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which can use the real bar with relatively little alteration. Old Town Bar has also appeared prominently in music videos, including House of Pain’s «Jump Around» (1992) and Madonna’s «Bad Girl» (1993).

In State of Grace (1990), Old Town Bar appears during Frankie Flannery’s attempts to expand the business activities of the Irish-American criminal organisation controlled by his family in Hell’s Kitchen. Frankie, played by Ed Harris, visits the bar carrying five cases of Bushmills whiskey that he wants the reluctant proprietor to buy. The bartender has little interest in becoming involved in Frankie’s schemes, but Frankie’s position within the neighbourhood makes refusing him difficult. The scene fits naturally into the film’s depiction of old Irish New York, with the genuine nineteenth-century-style tavern requiring virtually no transformation to become part of the Flannery family’s world.

In Q & A (1990), Old Town Bar is used for a quieter but important conversation between young Assistant District Attorney Aloysius “Al” Reilly and Leo Bloomenfeld. Reilly has been assigned to investigate the killing of a Puerto Rican drug dealer by veteran NYPD detective Mike Brennan and gradually begins discovering that the apparently straightforward police shooting is tied to a much broader network of corruption. He meets Bloomenfeld at Old Town for a corned-beef lunch while attempting to understand the people and relationships surrounding the case. The preserved Manhattan tavern gives the meeting the feeling of an established neighbourhood institution where information can be exchanged away from official offices and interrogation rooms.

In Mad About You (1992–1999), the exterior of Old Town Bar represents Riff’s Restaurant, the regular neighbourhood hangout used by Paul and Jamie Buchman and their friends. Riff’s becomes a recurring location throughout the sitcom and is also the restaurant where Ursula Buffay, played by Lisa Kudrow, works as an exceptionally absent-minded waitress. Although exterior establishing shots were filmed at the real Old Town Bar on East 18th Street, the scenes inside Riff’s were filmed on a recreated set at The Culver Studios in California. Old Town therefore provides the recognisable New York façade while the interior seen throughout the series is not the actual bar.

In Bullets over Broadway (1994), Old Town Bar becomes a 1920s speakeasy where playwright David Shayne meets ageing Broadway star Helen Sinclair after rehearsals for his new play. Helen has agreed to appear in the production but quickly begins exercising influence over both David and his work, flattering the inexperienced playwright while encouraging him to rewrite her role. Over drinks at the bar, she draws David deeper into the theatrical world he desperately wants to belong to, while also beginning the personal relationship that complicates his engagement to Ellen. The almost completely preserved Old Town interior is especially effective here because relatively little needs to be added to make the bar look appropriate for Prohibition-era New York.

In The Devil’s Own (1997), Old Town Bar appears during Frankie McGuire’s secret efforts to purchase weapons for the IRA. Living in New York under the alias Rory Devaney, Frankie meets arms dealer Billy Burke at the bar while negotiating the purchase of Stinger missiles that he intends to smuggle back to Northern Ireland. Frankie’s outward appearance as an ordinary young Irish immigrant contrasts with the clandestine purpose of the meeting. The traditional New York tavern setting also fits naturally with the film’s Irish-American milieu, making the encounter seem like an ordinary meeting over drinks even though it concerns a major illegal arms deal.

In The Last Days of Disco (1998), Old Town Bar becomes Rex’s, a quieter alternative to the fashionable Manhattan nightclub around which much of the film revolves. After their evening at the club is disrupted, Alice Kinnon, Charlotte Pingress and several members of their social circle end up at Rex’s, where their conversations continue over drinks. In one of the most memorable exchanges, Alice, Charlotte, Des and Jimmy become involved in an extended discussion about relationships, gender and feminism, typical of the intellectual arguments that run throughout Whit Stillman’s film. The deliberately old-fashioned atmosphere of Old Town provides a strong contrast with the enormous disco where the characters normally spend their nights, replacing flashing lights and crowds with wood panelling, booths and a traditional neighbourhood-bar atmosphere.

In Sex and the City (1998–2004), Old Town Bar appears in the second-season premiere «Take Me Out to the Ball Game» (1999). Carrie Bradshaw is trying to recover from her breakup with Mr. Big and begins dating Joe, a player for the New York Yankees. Their evening takes them to Old Town Bar, where Carrie unexpectedly sees Big for the first time since their relationship ended. The encounter initially seems to give Carrie exactly the kind of post-breakup triumph she might have wanted: she is dressed up, accompanied by a professional baseball player and apparently doing perfectly well without him. Instead, seeing Big immediately exposes how emotionally unsettled she still is. She eventually leaves the bar in tears and later ends her brief relationship with Joe. The production deliberately chose a genuine New York institution for the scene, with co-executive producer John Melfi later citing Old Town Bar as an example of the real city locations the series wanted audiences to recognise.

In Boiler Room (2000), Old Town Bar becomes the setting for a confrontation between the young stockbrokers of J.T. Marlin and employees of the far more respectable J.P. Morgan. Seth Davis and his colleagues have been drawn into a brokerage firm whose aggressive sales culture rewards money, status and intimidation, and their swagger extends beyond the office. During a night out, Chris Varick and the other J.T. Marlin brokers trade insults with a group of J.P. Morgan employees at the bar, with the argument escalating into a physical fight. The sequence underlines the contrast between the young men’s enormous confidence and the dubious legitimacy of the company for which they work.

In Bored to Death (2009–2011), Old Town Bar appears twice in the first-season episode «The Case of the Stolen Sperm» (2009). Jonathan Ames meets his editor and mentor George Christopher there for drinks, only for their evening to be interrupted by George’s rival Richard Antrem and literary critic Louis Greene, who previously wrote a particularly hostile review of Jonathan’s novel. The encounter irritates George enough that he retaliates by publishing an insulting editorial about Richard. The feud rapidly escalates, and Richard later returns to Old Town Bar to confront George and challenge him to a boxing match. Jonathan responds by challenging Louis as well, while Ray enthusiastically tries to find a way into the fight. The bar therefore provides both the beginning and escalation of the ridiculous literary rivalry that leads directly into the following episode’s boxing match.

In Gossip Girl (2007–2012), Old Town Bar appears in the fourth-season episode «It-Girl Happened One Night» (2011). Serena van der Woodsen and Ben Donovan have been attempting to keep their new relationship relatively private, but their plans are complicated during Valentine’s Day. Serena meets Ben at the bar, where Blair Waldorf is involved with a W magazine event and deliberately draws attention to the relationship. Ben ends up behind the bar as Serena is interviewed, giving Blair the opportunity to publicly identify him as Serena’s Valentine. Serena and Ben later share a kiss, making the old Manhattan tavern an unusually modest setting compared with the luxury hotels, restaurants and Upper East Side parties that normally dominate the series.

In Person of Interest (2011–2016), Old Town Bar appears in the first-season episode «Matsya Nyaya» (2012). John Reese meets Detective Joss Carter at the bar while their increasingly complicated working relationship is still built on considerable uncertainty about how far they can trust one another. Their conversation turns directly to that question of trust before the Machine alerts them to a crime taking place around them. Reese and Carter intervene together, saving the intended victim and demonstrating in practice the partnership they have been discussing. The scene forms a small parallel story within an episode otherwise centred on Reese going undercover with an armoured-car crew.

In Man on a Ledge (2012), Old Town Bar appears in the final scene after Nick Cassidy has exposed businessman David Englander’s conspiracy and cleared his name. Nick, hostage negotiator Lydia Mercer, his brother Joey and Joey’s girlfriend Angie gather at the bar, where another deception is finally revealed: the hotel concierge who helped Nick during the elaborate operation is actually Nick and Joey’s father Frank, who had faked his own death as part of the plan. As the group celebrates, Joey proposes to Angie using a diamond ring apparently taken from Englander’s vault, and she accepts. The sequence turns Old Town Bar into the place where the film’s complicated heist, false death and corruption story finally gives way to a family reunion and celebration.

In The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017–2023), Old Town Bar becomes Joel Maisel’s regular drinking spot following the collapse of his marriage to Midge. It first appears prominently in the first-season episode «Doink» (2017), where Joel drinks with his friend Archie Cleary while struggling with the consequences of leaving his family for his secretary Penny Pann. Penny has learned that the bar is the easiest place to reach him and telephones there when she wants to find him, reinforcing the sense that Joel has fallen into a nightly routine away from both women. The bar returns in the second-season premiere «Simone» (2018), with Joel and Archie again drinking there while Midge, Abe and Rose are in Paris. The production takes advantage of Old Town Bar’s largely preserved interior to represent a late-1950s Manhattan watering hole without disguising the location or constructing an elaborate period set.

Old Town Bar also has several notable connections outside conventional film and television drama. Much of House of Pain’s music video for «Jump Around» (1992) was filmed inside the bar, intercut with footage from the group’s St. Patrick’s Day parade appearance in New York. Madonna used the same interior the following year in David Fincher’s video for «Bad Girl» (1993), with scenes of her drinking and moving through the bar. From the late 1980s into the early 1990s, Old Town Bar also appeared prominently in the opening montage of Late Night with David Letterman, with the camera showing both the exterior and the historic interior. Together with its many dramatic roles, these appearances have made the preserved tavern one of the more frequently photographed traditional bar interiors in New York.

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