Cheap Beer In New York City?!

In honor of the fact that another Friday is upon us and that there no doubt plenty of people taking a detour on the way home to get absolutely sloshed, I proudly present McSorley's, where you can still get two beers for 5 American dollars (cash only).

15 East Seventh Street
(Third Avenue)
New York, N.Y. 10003

Like any good old ale house, McSorley's and its patrons do not have a record of when the place actually opened; the sign says 1854, however, and I'm sticking with that.  When rioting Irish-Americans pretty much burnt many parts of lower Manhattan to the ground during the draft riots of July 1863, they were careful to keep their watering hole and veritable community center largely intact.  The place has stood and gathered dust ever since, one of the few physical things in New York that has passively resisted change by simply not changing.  Its a lovely experience, and for just five dollars, you can get a light and a dark (or two of each), the only beer they serve.  Perhaps it was the awareness of being in what is pretty much the closest thing to the heart of Irish (North) American history, but that beer tasted pretty damn good the first and every time since that I have had it.

The walls are covered in various pictures and paintings, many of them with as much dust on them as the rest of the place.

And of course, the floor is covered in sawdust.

Those pictures though, some of them give hints that there have been visitors here beyond what the management claims.  One particular New Yorker who first showed me the place insists that the Kennedy brothers came here for a victory drink after Jack won the presidency.  I have a pretty good feeling that Mr. Roosevelt the first came here now and then during his policeman days; there's no proof, but it just seems to fit his character.  While his sort was much more from the other side of town, and though he personally loathed populist politics, well, he was also no stuck-up rich snob.  In many ways, McSorley's was the beating heart of old New York.  Take what I say with a grain of salt, of course, because I've only been a frequent visitor and temporary resident in the city.  The best way to experience the place, as usual, is to come see it.   They have food.  I've never had it.  It's probably good stuff, though I usually wander around the neighborhood later and find rare odd-ball things like Khyber Pass, an Afghan restaurant just around the corner.  There is nothing like having Afghan cuisine served to you by a Russian waitress...

Oh, and did I mention that there are restrooms on the premises?  The gents have urinals that you pretty much can't miss, no matter how many lights and darks you have had.  The first time I saw them I nearly burst out laughing.  Like the urinals, the other best free part about McSorley's is that it is really off the beaten path while still largely accessible.  Most tourists don't head anywhere near here, which is not to say there is nothing to see here.  The cheapest attraction in New York City is just walking around and enjoying the experience, and there is no shortage of great shops, restaurants, art, music, and pieces of history to be found in East Village.  It's also probably one of the best places, aside from Harlem, to see how average Manhattan people exist (at least until rezoning and gentrification really get underway).   

A Priest Among The Temple Of The Secular

Continuing with some off the beaten path New York coverage, we come to Time's Square.  A little bit on the beaten path, you might say?  Maybe if one focuses entirely on the neon signs, huge advertisements, people lining up in restaurants and shops to spend, spend, spend...  But among the noise and glitter, right in front of everything and everyone stands a statue of a Roman Catholic priest, Father Francis P. Duffy.

Like your author, he was born in Canada, moved to the United States to live there, and responded to a divine call to become a priest in the Roman Church.

He felt very passionately about his adopted homeland and served as a military chaplain for her.  He proved himself every bit as much the leader on the battlefield that he was in a parish or seminary and was regarded highly in this respect by his Irish-American regiment.  Back home in New York he was among the most influential speakers in the public sphere to convince the country that Irish-Americans and other Catholic Americans could be and indeed were patriots and in love with their country, a rather uphill battle for anyone to fight until well into the 20th century.

Times Square, like so much of New York, has been paved over and illuminated to attract tourists, commerce, and perhaps help the city get rid of the memory of its difficult rise to global prominence.  The prosperity and immensity of today's New York, however, has been built on a foundation of racial and cultural conflict, environmental destruction, and the illumination of history.  The arduous and often bloody struggle to help define American liberty and purpose saw New York burned and turned into a pit of people against people in segregated bastions of neighborhoods.  Men and women like Father Duffy were there as American consciousness awakened here in the heart of her historical imagination and memory.

He is honored by a statue that no one looks at (not a single person took even a passing glance in the ten minutes that I stood near it just to see if anyone cared) in the northern part of a square that bears his name.  In some ways we are like a Rome of Late Antiquity, too concerned about the politics of the moment to pay any attention to the statues in our forums that record our past, even while we continue to build more monuments to the glory of our people.

If ever you find yourself among some great wonder of the human world, do not be afraid to question where the foundation lies for what you stand upon and have come to appreciate!