Beer and history can both play a big role in determining what we do while we travel and discover a new place.
Many travel for beer to places like Germany and Belgium, while others might visit breweries around the country. I’ve done trips to Germany & Belgium primarily for beer and have also visited loads of breweries around the world.
When visiting a new place, unless you’re spending most of your time at the beach, there is a good chance that you will be visiting lots of historical sites. You might visit old towns, buildings, museums…
So how do beer and history come together? Beer has been made for thousands of years and there are many historic breweries around the world well worth visiting. They also come together in an article I came across from Thrillist.
The article is: The Oldest Bars In Every State (And DC!)
While looking over the article I found out that I’ve been to three of these bars including the oldest one in the United States.
Here are the oldest bars I’ve been to along with location & date of opening:
Old Ebbitt Grill– Washington, DC, 1856
The Old Ebbitt is a somewhat fancy restaurant and bar with very good food. Kim and I had dinner there and found it to not be so cheap while not being overly pricey. The inside is decorated with taxidermy over the bar which is pretty cool. Being in the Old Ebbitt felt like we were stepping back in time.
Jean Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop– New Orleans, Louisiana, 1772
We almost walked by the Blacksmith Shop not even realizing it was the bar we were looking for. The inside is pretty bare-bones with a brick bar and some seating in another area. I felt that it looked its age with the exposed beams on the ceiling. We weren’t allowed to stay inside the bar since we were with Lucas so we had a drink in the outside garden.
White Horse Tavern– Newport, Rhode Island, 1673
Kim and I stopped in for a drink at the White Horse a few years back. The menu looked great, something like a cross between a steakhouse and New England seafood restaurant with high prices to match. We sat at the bar for a bit and chatted with the bartender who had been at the tavern for many years. The bar definitely felt its age and the restaurant upstairs seemed to be pretty busy.
Have you been to any of the America’s oldest bars?
Find out more about the oldest bar in every state here.
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