ACCORDING to sources such as the late Richard McDermott of The New York Chronicle and Steve Redlauer and Ellen Williams of “The Historic Shops & Restaurants of New York”, the Bridge Cafe, at #279 Water and Dover Streets, is the oldest establishment in NYC that has continuously been run as a tavern. In a number of different guises and many different owners, it has been here, in this building, since 1794. McSorley’s Old Ale House (founded in 1854, though some sources date it to as late as the early 1860s) bills itself as “New York’s Oldest Bar. Meanwhile, Neir’s Tavern in Woodhaven claims the venue has continuously operated as a tavern since 1829, a date that’s tough to beat.
Previous tenants at #279 Water have included the Hole in the Wall, operated by One-Armed Charley Monell. An 1847 visitor to the Hole in the Wall would have had to contend with Monell’s two barmaid/bouncers, Kate Flannery and Gallus Mag. The latter was said to have a habit of biting off the earlobes of especially unruly customers. Charley kept a jar of pickled earlobes over the bar. The bar doubled as a brothel in the 1870s when it was run by Tom Norton. Dogfighting and ratbaiting were popular entertainments in that era.
It has been known as the Bridge Cafe since 1979. It was built on the water’s edge, as Water Street marked the original shoreline. The Brooklyn Bridge behind it went up in 1883. It was originally listed as a “grocery and wine and porter bottler”; in that era, groceries sold wines and spirits and were issued liquor licenses. More recently, Mayor Ed Koch liked the cafe and had lunch there a couple of times per week, according to the Tribeca Citizen.
I haven’t been in the Bridge Cafe since FNY Tour #17 in lower Manhattan, when it served as the venue for the “postgame show.” The cafe closed when Hurricane Sandy flooded the region in October 2012. Though the Weprin family, which owned the building, sunk a great deal of money into its repair, the task was never completed and the family sold the building in 2021. When I stopped by a few years ago and peaked in the window, a motorcycle was parked in what had been the barroom. In spring 2025, the windows were all papered over with Chinese-language newspapers, though that’s no indication of current ownership.
Netflix fans will soon get a glimpse of the Bridge Cafe, as it will be standing in for the Black Rabbit bar owned by brothers played by Jason Bateman and Jude Law in a miniseries of the same name. The series is scheduled to debut in September 2025. Meanwhile, an entity known as Bridge Cafe NYC LLC has been approved to reopen the cafe; but that’s a tune we have heard played before.
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8/4/25
4 comments
A bar in Ireland claims to be the world’s oldest at over a thousand years old. Its claim is based on the fact that a wall uncovered during renovations decades ago had been built using a construction method first developed over a thousand years ago, though this method continued in use for several hundred years.
“Sean’s Bar” in County Athlone has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest bar in Ireland. It has been officially dated at 900AD; so far no other bar has been deemed older.
I remember in the 1960s there was an ancient old hole across from
where the fishing boats would tie up.My Dad when he was in the area
would always drop by because he “got a kick out of the place”.Ornate
hand carved bar with a mirrored back wall.By then it was a wino bar and
only served cans of Bud.A single overhead light.It didnt survive the 70s.
That whole area looks phony as hell now.The harder they try to make
something look authentic the more fake it looks.
south street seaport
I started working around there in 1979. The Bridge was a welcome addition to what was then a pretty desolate area for restaurants.