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Jim Reynolds
America's Oldest Bar
The White Horse Tavern in Newport, R.I., makes a credible claim to being the nation’s oldest tavern, having been converted to that use in 1673. (The two-story building was built as a private residence in 1652.) For the next hundred years the large tavern also served as the meeting place for the Rhode Island colony’s general assembly, criminal court and city council, despite being run for 28 of those years by a former pirate named William Mayes Jr.
The tavern was given its present name in 1730, and it continued to serve "all sorts of strong drink" until November 1895, when it was turned into a rooming house. It fell into disrepair after that, but was re-opened as the White Horse Tavern in 1957, after being acquired by the Preservation Society of Newport County and meticulously restored to its colonial look, complete with clapboard walls and gambrel roof. Today it's an upscale eating and drinking establishment known for its wine list and classic favorites like Beef Wellington and New England-style butter-poached lobster.
ADDRESS:
26 Marlborough St., Newport, RI 02840
PHONE:
401.849.3600
EMAIL:
thewhitehorse1@aol.com
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George Cheatle
Where Washington Drank
Fraunces Tavern in New York also dates back to a time when such establishments served as community centers, and not just places to buy ale.
This tavern, located in the Wall St. area of lower Manhattan, had its start in 1762, when the innkeeper Samuel Fraunces bought a three-story mansion and turned it into a local watering hole. Despite its original name, the Queens Head, the tavern soon became a popular meeting place for people contemplating a revolution. One such revolutionary was George Washington, who at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War famously celebrated the evacuation of the British from the former colonies at dinner held in his honor at the tavern in 1783. Later that year, at another formal meal there, Washington gave his farewell address to the officers of the Continental Army and retired as its general. (He would be inaugurated as the nation's first president in 1789.)
During the brief time in the new nation's early history when New York served as its capital, Fraunces Tavern was rented by the government and housed the offices of the departments of war, treasury and foreign affairs. Since 1907 the building has served as a museum, but it also still houses the Fraunces Tavern Restaurant, which has a bar menu that includes bluepoint oysters and lump crab cakes, as well as more modern fare like mozzarella sticks and pulled-pork sliders.
ADDRESS:
58 Pearl St., New York, N.Y. 10004
PHONE:
212.968.1776
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April Steele
A Pirate's Hideout
Jean Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop in New Orleans is by some accounts the oldest continually operating bar in the U.S., but, of course, the history of a business allegedly founded by a pirate as a front for his more nefarious activities must be taken with a grain of salt.
The National Park Service, which granted the bar landmark status in 1970, will say only that it is housed in a building that was erected sometime between 1772 and 1791, supposedly for the famous buccaneer Jean Lafitte and his brother Pierre, who are said to have posed as blacksmiths in order to provide cover for their true work as smugglers.
Located on the fringe of the tourist-laden stretch of Bourbon Street, the bar is housed in a structure that the National Historic Landmarks program calls an "excellent example of a French Colonial Louis XV townhouse of briquette-entre-poteaux (brick-between-posts) construction."
Because Jean Lafitte's survived the fires that ravaged New Orleans in 1788 and 1794, it is actually a remnant of the Crescent City's French past, whereas most of the French Quarter was actually rebuilt after those fires in a Spanish style in keeping with the people who were running the city at that time.
Today Jean Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop is known for its piano bar, ramshackle exterior, and an interior mainly lit by candles. Cocktail aficionados urge you to stick with the beer if you go there, and avoid the grape-flavored Voodoo Daiquiris. Some tourists beg to differ.
ADDRESS:
941 Bourbon Street, New Orleans, LA 70116-3120
PHONE:
504.593.9761
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Concepts By Staib, Ltd.
Liberty and Libations
City Tavern in Philadelphia had more high-minded origins. It was established in 1773 by some of the city's leading citizens, and by the following year it had become a regular meeting place for members of the First Continental Congress, who were plotting what would turn out to be America's War of Independence. Later it would play host to drafters of the U.S. Constitution.
New hotels in Philadelphia began to steal the City Tavern's business beginning in the 1790s, and after serving for a while as a merchant's exchange the place was demolished in 1854. But in 1948 Congress designated parts of downtown Philadelphia as a National Historic Park, and in the process commissioned an accurate reconstruction of City Tavern. The research and construction work took a while, but the rebuilt tavern opened in time for the nation's bicentennial celebration in 1976. Today it's an award-winning restaurant with seven dinning rooms, three wine cellar rooms and a menu inspired by 18th Century American cuisine.
ADDRESS:
138 South 2nd Street at Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19106
PHONE:
215.413.1443
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Where to drink in Philadelphia
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Boston's Bell in the Hand
Boston's oldest drinking establishment is the Bell in Hand, which was established in 1795 by Jimmy Wilson, a retired town crier whose former profession gave the place its name.
Daniel Webster, Paul Revere and William McKinley were among the famous Americans who frequented the Bell in Hand in its early days, even though there was only one beer on tap -- Smith's Philadelphia Cream Ale -- until after 1919. The Bell in Hand claims to be America's oldest continuously operating tavern, although it is not in its original location and did close during prohibition.
Now located in a building that was constructed in 1844, the Bell in Hand has an old-style atmosphere and serves traditional New England fare, but also caters to more modern tastes with amenities like plasma televisions and a karaoke machine.
ADDRESS:
45 Union St., Boston, MA 02108-2409
PHONE:
617.227-2098
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A Brothel Saves The Saloon
San Francisco's oldest bar, known simply as The Saloon, dates back to 1861. Located in the city's North Beach neighborhood, it was originally known as Wagner's Beer Hall. Legend has it that the building made it through the earthquake of 1906 due to its unusually stout structural timbers, and survived the fires that razed most of the city in the quake's aftermath because of the local firemen's fondness for the brothel upstairs.
Today the small bar is known as the kind of place where you are expected to order nothing fancier than a shot and a beer, and then pay in cash. It has also become a popular venue for jazz and blues musicians.
ADDRESS:
232 Grant Ave., San Francisco, CA 94133
PHONE:
415.989.7666
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Chris Weber
A Texas Biergarten
Scholz Garten, which bills itself as the oldest business in Texas, had its start in 1866, when German immigrant and Confederate Army veteran August Scholz built a public bar and café over an old boarding house in Austin.
The place became popular with the area's sizable German-American population, particularly after a biergarten was added, and later the establishment's proximity to the University of Texas and the state capital building made it a favorite of college students, professors and politicians of all nationalities. In fact, the 1966 Texas legislature marked Scholz Garten's centennial with a resolution defining it as a gathering place for "Texans of discernment, taste, culture, erudition." The next year the establishment was named a Texas Historical Landmark.
Scholz' beer garden now plays host to live music, as well as sports celebrations and (mainly) friendly political discussions. There's Wienerschnitzel and barbecue on the menu, and plenty of beer on tap.
ADDRESS:
1607 San Jacinto Blvd., Austin, TX 78701-1414
PHONE:
512.474.1958
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