Whether you’re spending the week in New York City or taking a quick 24-hour foodie trip, there are a few must-visit restaurants that might land at the top of your list. Maybe it’s I Sodi for the city’s best Italian cuisine or Le Bernardin for an ultra-fancy night out. But if you’re a history nerd with a love for the American Revolution, then head to Fraunces Tavern. It may just be the oldest restaurant in Manhattan, and one of the only spots that claim to have once served George Washington. It even has an attached museum that gives an overview of the tavern’s revolutionary history.
This seemingly timeless restaurant sits at 54 Pearl Street in Manhattan’s Financial District. The building was constructed by the De Lancey family in 1719, but it was Samuel Fraunces who is credited with opening and operating the original tavern. By the 1760s, it housed the tavern, of course, but also a hotel — and was, at one point, a private home. Washington visited the tavern multiple times. The first visit was in April 1776 while he was on a visit to New York. Only a few months later, the tavern hosted a banquet for Washington and his staff, who were then known as the Provincial Congress, as a thank-you to Washington for his defense efforts. He stopped there again in 1783, shortly after the last of the British troops finally left New York City and during the week of then-governor George Clinton’s “Evacuation Day” celebration.
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What is Fraunces Tavern like?
The Piano Bar at Fraunces – Fraunces Tavern / Instagram
Sure, Fraunces Tavern’s age doesn’t hold a candle to some of the oldest restaurants in the world, but it’s rich in American history. Today, the tavern still holds much of its revolutionary atmosphere. It’s a bit of a maze, so if you’re ever meeting friends there, good luck finding them without proper direction. Most revolutionary-era buildings didn’t have open floor plans, so the tavern is filled with small rooms that might have once held different eating and drinking purposes. But these days, the rooms are used as different dining spaces with varying menus, from a piano bar to a whiskey bar. It serves classic, hearty pub fare, and you can get dishes like a Scotch egg, fish and chips, and chicken pot pie. While pub food doesn’t often receive the same praise as the rest of New York City’s gastronomy, it’s certainly satiating enough when paired with the restaurant’s past. And it’s a cozy place to duck into during the winter.
The Independence Bar, Lafayette’s Hideout Bar, and the Tallmadge Room all serve a variety of drinks and traditional pub food like wings, pretzels, burgers, and steaks. The Upstairs Piano Bar only offers cocktails and dinner (the other rooms offer lunch, too), and the Whiskey Bar offers a variety of Scotch, Irish, and American whiskeys — totaling to more than 500 options — plus whiskey flights and an assortment of bar bites. Fraunces Tavern also has a private party space, but for those looking for a true revolutionary-style atmosphere, then it’s worth it to visit for lunch or dinner.
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Read the original article on Chowhound.