Mason Dixon

133 Essex St. · btwn Stanton & Rivington
Lower East Side, Manhattan

In 2026

Closed

Later here: Sons Of Essex (licensed 2024–26).

Checked October 15, 2026.

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Overview

A country and western bar from the owners of Spitzer's and Fat Baby. The draw here is the mechanical bull (only the 2nd in the city).

History

Dinner tables where the bull used to buck

Mason Dixon had the city's second mechanical bull and bartenders in ten-gallon hats¹. It was a Western-themed bar from the team behind Spitzer's Corner, and our listing called the bull the draw¹.

By May 2011 the always controversial bar was shuttered, and the board had voted 31 to 3 to approve Matt Levine's plan to replace it, with dinner tables where the mechanical bull had been^{2, 3}. That July the semi-anonymous street artist JR left his work on the rowdy bar's former home³.

The restaurant opened as Sons of Essex in 2011³, and that November the film The Longest Week, starring Olivia Wilde and Jason Bateman, shot there³. By 2017 it had a speakeasy vibe, thanks to a deli counter out front⁴.

Sources

Researched October 2026.

What's nearby

Fat Baby under 0.1 mi Closed; now Restocked
Rewind under 0.1 mi A different business is licensed at this address: Mazaar Bar And Lounge
Verlaine under 0.1 mi Still pouring
The Magician under 0.1 mi Still pouring
105 Riv (Hotel Rivington) under 0.1 mi Closed; now Tigre
Essex under 0.1 mi Moved to 124 Rivington Street
Laugh Lounge under 0.1 mi Closed; now Jazz Genius
Iggy's Keltic Lounge under 0.1 mi Still pouring
La Caverna under 0.1 mi Still pouring
Local 138 under 0.1 mi Moved to 181 Orchard Street