The oldest still-operating pub in New York City, McSorley's guards its Gotham legacy with fanatical diligence. McSorley's delicious ale (available in light or the bitter dark brew) is served in demitasse mugs, two at a time, along with several antique munchie options (a cheese plate, served with saltines, is one favorite). Although the clientele, mostly college students, is somewhat anomalous here, the effect of the setting is truly overwhelming, suggesting the gruff, tough drinking experience of the Irish immigrants of the nineteenth century. You might as well be sitting on barrels, sliding across sawdust. McSorley's inspired probably the best piece of New York color journalism ever written, "McSorley's Wonderful Saloon," which the inimitable Joseph Mitchell wrote for the New Yorker in the forties, when the place was still a men's-only institution. The piece is the lead item in his anthology Up in the Old Hotel; read it before you come, and you'll be able to imagine yourself deeper and deeper into the past with every beer.