McGees Pub

Description

McGee’s Pub, aka the watering hole that MacLaren’s Pub from How I Met Your Mother was based upon.  Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor), Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan) and Barney Stinson’s (Neil Patrick Harris) favorite hangout was actually modeled after four different Manhattan bars. McGee’s is the only one still in operation today (well, in its original state, at least) and the one most often associated with the show

How I Met Your Mother was the brainchild of producing partners Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, who, like main characters Ted and Marshall, met while attending Wesleyan University.  After graduation, the duo moved to New York together and landed a gig writing for the Late Show with David Letterman in 1997.  During their five-year stint there, they would often grab drinks at McGee’s, located right around the corner from the Ed Sullivan Theater where Letterman was lensed.  In 2002, the two headed to Los Angeles with the hopes of helming a television series.  They pitched How I Met Your Mother to CBS in 2005 and the rest is history.

Bay and Thomas named their fictional watering hole after Bay’s production assistant, Carl MacLaren.

McGee’s Pub and Restaurant, christened in honor of Ed Sullivan Show cameraman Willie McGee, was originally founded in a small space on the bottom floor of the Ed Sullivan Theater at 1697 Broadway in 1983.  You can see what it looked like at the time here.  (That site is now home to Angelo’s Pizza.)  When Letterman moved into the venue, the theater was extensively renovated and, in conjunction, McGee’s was forced to vacate in July 1995 in order to make way for a more high end restaurant.  Owner Pete Fitzpatrick subsequently found a new, larger space right around the corner at 240 West 55th Street.

While the bar’s exterior looks nothing like the exterior of MacLaren’s Pub (which was just a façade on the 20th Century Fox Studios backlot in Century City) . . . . . . the interior of McGee’s is very reminiscent of its onscreen counterpart. While not exactly carbon copies, MacLaren’s and McGee’s have a decidedly similar atmosphere.

For those location purists me who think a visit to McGee’s is a waste of time being that How I Met Your Mother never actually filmed on the premises, there are countless photos displayed of the cast hanging out at the bar (like the one below which comes from the restaurant’s Facebook page), autographs and clippings galore, as well as a myriad of HIMYM-inspired menu items, such as The Accidental Curly Fry Basket, The Bro Code Combo, and the Suit Up Sandwich, to satisfy any true fan.