This list of the oldest restaurants in the United States includes currently operating restaurants that were founded before 1900. Most of the establishments are located in the Northeastern United States, many of them predate the Civil War, and a handful predate the Revolutionary War.
Samuel Cole opened Cole's Inn 390 years ago on March 4, 1634, and was the first tavern in America. It was on Washington St. (now Downtown Crossing) in Boston, Massachusetts. The building was destroyed by fire in 1711, 313 years ago. [1]
Buckman Tavern was built 314 years ago in 1710 by Benjamin Muzzey (1657–1735). His license was granted 331 years ago in 1693. It was the first public house in Lexington, Massachusetts. His great-granddaughter and her husband John Buckman owned it at the time of the Battles of Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775). Several dozen militiamen gathered there to await the arrival of the British troops. It ceased restaurant operations in the 1910s and is now a museum. [2]
Boston landmark Durgin-Park was founded 197 years ago in 1827, making it one of America's oldest restaurants. It closed its doors on January 12, 2019 after operating for nearly 192 years. [3]
Jack's Restaurant was opened 161 years ago in 1863 by George Voges in downtown San Francisco, California. [4] It became a brewery in 2002, and permanently closed in May 2009, 15 years ago. It has been a San Francisco landmark since 1981. [5]
The Jacob Wirth Restaurant was founded 156 years ago in 1868, operated for 150 years in Boston before permanently closing 6 years ago on June 9, 2018, after a fire damaged the building. [6] [7]
Jules Maes Saloon had been open since 136 years ago in 1888 and was possibly the oldest restaurant in Seattle, but it closed permanently 4 years ago in July 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. [8] [9]
A pub is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private houses from those open to the public as alehouses, taverns and inns. Today, there is no strict definition, but the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) states a pub has four characteristics:
A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ+) clientele; the term gay is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBTQ+ communities.
Fraunces Tavern is a museum and restaurant in New York City, situated at 54 Pearl Street at the corner of Broad Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The location played a prominent role in history before, during, and after the American Revolution. At various points in its history, Fraunces Tavern served as a headquarters for George Washington, a venue for peace negotiations with the British, and housing federal offices in the Early Republic.
The Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, LLC is a San Francisco, California, based hotel and restaurant brand owned by IHG Hotels & Resorts (IHG) since 2015.
Samuel Fraunces was an American restaurateur and the owner/operator of Fraunces Tavern in New York City. During the Revolutionary War, he provided for prisoners held during the seven-year British occupation of New York City (1776-1783), and claimed to have been a spy for the American side. At the end of the war, it was at Fraunces Tavern that General George Washington said farewell to his officers. Fraunces later served as steward of Washington's presidential household in New York City (1789–1790) and Philadelphia (1791–1794).
Jeremiah Tower is an American celebrity chef who, along with Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck, has been credited with pioneering the culinary style known as California cuisine. A food lover from childhood, he had no formal culinary education before beginning his career as a chef.
Michael Mina is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. He is the founder of the Mina Group, a restaurant management company operating over 40 restaurants worldwide. He is the executive chef at his two namesake restaurants in San Francisco and Las Vegas, which each have earned a star in the Michelin Guide. He authored his first cookbook in 2006 and has made numerous television appearances.
Ratskeller is a name in German-speaking countries for a bar or restaurant located in the basement of a city hall (Rathaus) or nearby. Many taverns, nightclubs, bars and similar establishments throughout the world use the term.
The Black Cat Tavern is an LGBT historic site located in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In 1967, it was the site of one of the first demonstrations in the United States protesting police brutality against LGBT people, preceding the Stonewall riots by over two years.
The Jacob Wirth Restaurant was a historic German-American restaurant and bar in Boston, Massachusetts, at 31-39 Stuart Street. Founded in 1868, Jacob Wirth was the second-oldest continuously operated restaurant in Boston when it closed in 2018.
The '76 House, also known as the Old '76 House, is a Colonial-era structure built as a home and tavern in Tappan, New York, in 1754 by Casparus Mabie, a merchant and tavern-keeper.
Ye Olde Tavern is a restaurant in Manchester Center, Vermont, US, that is listed on the Vermont Register of Historic Places. It was built by Aaron Sheldon from Dorset, Vermont, in 1790, making it the oldest inn in the state of Vermont. It was also one of the first buildings in Manchester to house telephone lines, and was once "the headquarters for the movement to license the sale of 'spirituous beverages'." It began as a tavern in 1790 called The Stagecoach Inn, before becoming Lockwood's Hotel circa 1850. In 1860, the building was renamed Thayer's Hotel by the new owner, Steven Thayer. It became the Fairview Hotel in 1902 and, in 1934, it was a hotel and antique shop run by the new owner Walter Clemons. In 1975, it was renamed Ye Olde Tavern by Peter and Susan Palmer, who renovated the place in time for the 1976 United States Bicentennial.
The Colts Neck Inn is a steakhouse located on County Route 537 in what is now Colts Neck Township, New Jersey. Established as the Colts Neck Tavern in 1717, the inn became known as the Colts Neck Hotel before becoming a restaurant. A separate Colts Neck Inn Hotel was incorporated in 1997.
A lesbian bar is a drinking establishment that caters exclusively or predominantly to lesbian women. While often conflated, the lesbian bar has a history distinct from that of the gay bar.
Taverns in North America date back to colonial America. Colonial Americans drank a variety of distilled spirits. As the supply of distilled spirits, especially rum, increased, and their price dropped, they became the drink of choice throughout the colonies. In 1770, per capita consumption was 3.7 gallons of distilled spirits per year, rising to 5.2 gallons in 1830 or approximately 1.8 one-ounce shots a day for every adult white man. That total does not include the beer or hard cider, which colonists routinely drank in addition to rum, the most consumed distilled beverage available in British America. Benjamin Franklin printed a "Drinker's Dictionary" in his Pennsylvania Gazette in 1737, listing some 228 slang terms used for drunkenness in Philadelphia.