Last Call with Richard Crouse: We Were Here Before You Were Born

On this episode of "Last Call with Richard Crouse" we visit McSorley’s Old Ale House on Seventh Street in New York’s East Village. McSorley’s may not be New York’s oldest bar, the Bridge Café (dates to 1794), Ear Inn (circa 1817) and Chumley's (established 1830s) all predate John McSorley’s business, but it is one of the most colourful. It’s sometimes hard to sort between the fact and fiction that swirls around the bar’s legend, but one thing is for sure, there is no arguing with their motto, “We were here before you were born.”

At the afterparty Rafe Bartholomew stops by to talk about the bar where Abraham Lincoln once had a beer and its history. Rafe's father Bart worked there for 45 years, the family lived upstairs for a time and on the weekends he’d help his dad get the place up and running and later, in his twenties, he continued the f ...