McGee's Pub and Restaurant

McGee's opened in 1983 in a small space on the bottom floor of the Ed Sullivan Theater, at 1697 Broadway, and took its name from Willie McGee, a cameraman on The Ed Sullivan Show¹. When Letterman moved into the theater, it was extensively renovated, and in July 1995 McGee's was forced out to make way for a more high-end restaurant¹.

The owner, Pete Fitzpatrick, found a new, larger space right around the corner, at 240 West 55th Street¹. The ritzier eatery that replaced McGee's in the theater folded in a scant 22 months¹.

Two of Letterman's writers found it anyway: Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, while writing for The Late Show With David Letterman, made the three-story tavern a frequent meeting spot². When they created How I Met Your Mother, McGee's became the inspiration for MacLaren's, with some rustic touches borrowed from Chumley's in Greenwich Village^{2, 3}.

When we listed it, we called it a standard Irish bar and restaurant in touristville. It calls itself "the home of How I Met Your Mother," and in 2018 it had 22 TVs, two bars, an internet jukebox and a private events suite called the Symphony Room^{1, 3, 4}. It's still at 240 West 55th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue⁴.