It should come as no surprise that the list here from USA Today of the top literary bars around the globe…well, mostly the US and Europe…includes many from New York City. I suppose the most surprising thing is that such an article would be found in USA Today at all. Although the article is really more about the pictures than the writing, so I suppose it makes sense after all. But anyway, the thing I liked best about this little photo essay and article is that a bar very near my old apartment, The White Horse Tavern, took top honors among the bunch. And what was more cool, is that I actually learned something about a place I thought I already knew well.
To wit: I was obviously aware of the demise of poet Dylan Thomas at the White Horse, where he famously drank himself to death. But I did NOT know that the bar was a favorite haunt of the late, great Hunter Thompson. How sad that I never had the chance to run into Hunter while I lived there.
Well, the list here goes on through a nice animated slide show presentation and takes you to some other famous watering holes like the Correspondent’s Club in Hong Kong (a favorite of PJ O(‘Rourke) and, of course, the Algonquin in NYC where years ago you might have run into Dorothy Parker and a horn-wielding Harpo Marx…the latter not being a literary giant, per se, but I do love the thought of running into Harpo Marx.