White Horse Tavern (New

York City)
Coordinates: 40°44′09″N 74°00′21″W

For other uses, see White Horse Tavern (disambiguation).

The White Horse Tavern in 1961

The White Horse Tavern,

located in New York City's
borough of Manhattan at
Hudson Street and 11th
Street, is known for its
1950s and 1960s Bohemian
culture. It is one of the few
major gathering-places for
writers and artists from this The Interior in January 2007
period in Greenwich Village (specifically the West Village)
that remains open. The bar opened in 1880 but was known
more as a longshoremen's bar than a literary center until
Dylan Thomas and other writers began frequenting it in the
early 1950s. Due to its literary fame, in the past few decades
the White Horse has become a popular destination among
tourists.[1]

On July 8, 2020, the White Horse Tavern had its liquor

license temporarily suspended by the New York State Liquor
Authority for violating rules regarding social distancing and
food with liquor during the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]

Contents
1 History
1.1 Notable patrons
2 In popular culture
3 References
4 External links

History
The bar is one of the oldest continuously operating in New
York City.[3] Steve Croman purchased the building that
houses the tavern in 2019. Eytan Sugarman signed a fifteen
year lease for the establishment that year.[3] After assuming
the lease, Sugarman made cosmetic changes to the interior
and modified the menu.[4]

Notable patrons

The White Horse Tavern was renowned as a gathering place

for writers. It and the Lion's Head "were two favorite writers'
bars."[5]

The White Horse is perhaps most famous as the place where

Jason Mitchell drank heavily with Dylan Thomas, who
returned to the Chelsea Hotel, became ill, and died a few
days later of unrelated causes. Other famous patrons include
James Baldwin, The Clancy Brothers (who also performed at
the establishment), Bob Dylan, Richard Farina, Michael
Harrington, Matt Sullivan, Jane Jacobs, Seymour Krim,
Norman Mailer, Jim Morrison, Adam Leonard, Delmore
Schwartz, Hunter S. Thompson, and Mary Travers.[6][7][8]

Another of the White Horse's famous patrons is Jack

Kerouac, who was bounced from the establishment more
than once. Because of this someone scrawled on the
bathroom wall: "KEROUAC GO HOME!"[9] At that time,
Kerouac was staying in an apartment in the building located
on the NW corner of West 11th St.[citation needed]

About the same time, the White Horse was a gathering-

place for labor members and organizers and socialists, as
well. The Catholic Workers hung out here and the idea for
the Village Voice was discussed here. The Village Voice
original offices were within blocks of the White Horse. Much
of the content was discussed here by the editors.

In popular culture
When in Mad Men season 4, episode 2, Don Draper
returns to his Waverly Place apartment stumbling drunk
and his neighbor Phoebe (who helps him in) asks where
he's coming from, Don replies, "Work." She responds,
"Where do you work? The White Horse Tavern"?
In the How I Met Your Mother episode "Right Place,
Right Time", when Marshall goes through a phase of
creating all sorts of charts and graphs from work, he
makes a pie chart of his favorite bars. The White Horse
Tavern is listed on the chart as 12% "(In Percentage of
Awesomeness)".
In The Carrie Diaries Season 2 finale, there is a shot of
the White Horse Tavern in the final scene. It is also
referenced in the novel Summer and the City, in which
the show is partially based on.
The Tavern, and the drink of the same name, are
referenced by the characters Steve and Ghost in Poppy
Z. Brite's novel Drawing Blood.
“The whiskey was a good start. I got the idea from
Dylan Thomas. He's this poet who drank twenty-one
 straight whiskeys at the White Horse Tavern in New
York and then died on the spot from alcohol poisoning.
I've always wanted to hear the bartender's side of the
story. What was it like watching this guy drink himself
out of here? How did it feel handing him number
twenty-one and watching his face crumple up before
the fall of the stool? And did he already have number
twenty-two poured, waiting for this big fat tip, and then
have to drink it himself after whoever came took the
body away?”

― Michael Thomas Ford, Suicide Notes

References
1. White Horse Tavern - - West Village - New York
Magazine Bar Guide
2. [1]
3. ^ a b Mejía, Paula (22 March 2019). "West Village Locals
Hold Rally And Irish Wake For The White Horse Tavern".
Gothamist. Gothamist. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
4. Conti, Allie (11 December 2020). "The Standoff At The
White Horse Tavern". Curbed. Curbed. Retrieved 14
December 2020.
5. Banes, Sally. Greenwich Village 1963: Avant-garde
Performance and the Effervescent Body. Durham: Duke
University Press, 1993. Print. ISBN 0-8223-1391-X
6. Campbell, James. Talking at the Gates: A Life of James
 Baldwin. New York: Viking, 1991. Print.
7. http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5747
8. Wetzsteon, Ross. Republic of Dreams: Greenwich
Village, the American Bohemia, 1910-1960. New York:
Simon & Schuster, 2002. Print. ISBN 0-684-86995-0
9. Kortava, David (26 October 2018). "Literary Pilgrims
Visit the White Horse Tavern". The New Yorker. The
New Yorker. Retrieved 14 December 2020.

External links
Website
Profile from New York Magazine