Peter McManus Café

The old wood bar and the Tiffany stained-glass cabinets behind it are original, including the cabinet with the bullet hole¹. Peter McManus founded the business in 1911 as what his great-grandson Justin calls a longshoreman's bar, at 46th Street and 11th Avenue². It weathered Prohibition as a general goods store, and when the current spot became available, Peter moved it there; it has held the northwest corner of Seventh Avenue and 19th Street since 1936².

We knew it as a traditional working man's bar for shots, pints and sports. In December 2016, after a meeting with the landlord, Justin McManus said it would live for another year³. It has lived for several more^{2, 4}.

In late January 2026 the actor Will Arnett gave it a shout-out on the YouTube series Hot Ones, and it had a viral moment². That March a Cornell alumni profile billed it as the oldest family-run bar in NYC, now run by Justin, the fourth generation². It's still on its corner, at 152 Seventh Avenue⁴.