“It was like Moses in the basket,” said O’Leary.

Pass by on any given day and you’re liable to see Hayden and his fellow employees sitting outside, taking in the neighborhood, and chatting in an Irish brogue.

Established in 1854, McSorley’s is full of New York history, including an original, framed invitation to the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge. For over 150 years, McSorley’s has attracted nightly regulars and tourists alike, all looking to enjoy the historic atmosphere and a cold beer.

The Irish pub has adapted well to the Covid-19 pandemic, setting up outside covered street seating. It continues to be well-frequented, with a steady flow of customers each evening, despite social distancing restrictions.

Employees now wear masks, and patrons sit outside, but little else has changed at this East Village icon. The cheese and raw onion plate is still a staple, and the drink menu remains charmingly simple – light or dark ale are the only options.

Hayden O’Leary (left) sits outside on a green ale barrel, next to his fellow McSorley’s employee, September 14, 2020. Photo by Tori Luecking

White tents stand next to the sidewalk outside of McSorley’s to allow customers to social distance during the pandemic, September 17, 2020. Photo by Tori Luecking

Self-described “regulars” sit and drink a beer outside of McSorley’s Old Ale House off of East 7th Street in East Village, New York, September 14, 2020. Photo by Tori Luecking

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, white tents stand outside of McSorley’s Old Ale House to accommodate outside seating and social distance requirements, September 14, 2020. Photo by Tori Luecking

McSorley’s patrons sit outside and drink the pub’s signature dark and light ale, September 17, 2020. Photo by Tori Luecking

Linda Badgley (right) sits with a friend at McSorley’s outdoor seating, September 17, 2020. Photo by Tori Luecking

A dog named Byron sits outside of McSorley’s – his owners having just enjoyed a beer, September 17, 2020. Photo by Tori Luecking

A McSorley’s bartender gives the check to a table of customers sitting under the outdoor tent, September 17, 2020. Photo by Tori Luecking

Two bartenders stand at the empty bar inside of McSorley’s Old Ale House. Due to the pandemic, patrons are no longer permitted to sit inside amongst the establishments many decorations. September 17, 2020. Photo by Tori Luecking.

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Truck drivers — essential workers that have continued to deliver goods during the coronavirus pandemic — have pulled into this lot in Centerville, Ohio since late March to grab anything from burgers to pulled pork cooked by Mackenzie Manley, owner of Mack’s.

“My parking lot is huge and empty,” said Manley, whose bar sits in a strip mall with a lot large enough for semis to easily enter and exit. “We’re only 2 miles off the highway… and we get a bunch of supply trucks going by.” 

“I tried to make it look nice and homey,” she added. “I even write jokes on [the] pizza boxes.”

Since Manley first opened the tavern in February 2015, she had kept late hours, offering drink specials and a sizable space for patrons to watch sports and play darts or pool. 

But after Ohio imposed a mandatory quarantine last month, Manley has had to change the way she does business. She had seen Facebook posts about drive throughs that wouldn’t allow large vehicles, and quickly got to work setting up a station to service truckers. She now closes six hours early and only has two employees scheduled to work per day—one to cook, and another to run food out and sanitize the table between customers.

“I’m on day 16 of [working] 12 hour days,” Manley said. 

The bar turned curbside food joint also features a new best-selling meal for Centerville’s locals: the take-and-bake pizza that customers can finish cooking at home. They can add on a 24 pack of beer too, which Manley sells at the state minimum to compete with surrounding grocery chains.

Pizza and a joke for Truckers and others who stop by Mack’s Tavern in Centerville, Ohio.

A large part of her success comes from the bar’s Facebook page, where frequent posts encourage people to stop by for a burger and chips.

“The response is overwhelming,” Manley said, who has even received some hand-drawn thank you notes from kids who live in the area. “We’ve got quite a few customers that have come here because of that post that have never been here before.”

Despite the outpour of support, Manley worries about the future of her business. 

“What am I gonna do? We’re not a food place. We sell the food to keep people here drinking,” she said.  “We don’t make a profit.”

“I’m just gonna stay open as long as I can so my employees have money to pay their rent,” she added. “And then the day we say we can open… I am opening at 5:30 a.m…. And I am going to have one heck of a party.”

Emily Glass is an NYU undergraduate journalism student.

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From mouthwatering sausage and pepperoni pies to blazing garlic parmesan chicken wings, New York City bars and restaurants are prepping to satisfy the thirst and appetites of hungry football fans this Sunday when the New York Giants take on the New England Patriots for the Super Bowl XLVI.

“I like the Super Bowl, it’s crazy,” said pizza maker Danny Asitimbay of Fat Sal’s Pizza on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. “I have no time to watch the play because it’s busy here, but I’m working hard.”

This year, specials at Fat Sal’s include a large pie and 10 wings for $21 or, for wings only fans, a bucket of 40 wings for under $26. Asitimbay, who has been working in the pizza business for the past seven years, said Fat Sal’s usually sells up to 2,000 wings on Super Bowl weekend alone. He added that the wings served at the pizzeria are “always fresh, never frozen,” and that extra ingredients had to be bought in order to prepare for the second biggest eating day of the year, following Thanksgiving.

Chicken wings take the spotlight as the most popular game-day food. According to a report from the National Chicken Council (NCC), Americans are expected to eat 1.25 billion chicken wings – 100 million pounds – this weekend.

By noon on Saturday, Atomic Wings already had 50 pre-orders for Sunday’s game.

“We regularly sell six to eight cases of wings a day,” said owner Christopher Lyn. “But for the Super Bowl, we’ll sell around 100 cases of wings – a substantial amount.”

With around 250 wings in each case, Lyn projects around 25,000 wings will be sold and devoured by consumers during the biggest wing-eating day of the year, despite a price increase on poultry. The NCC said wing prices always surge during the year’s fourth quarter, when eateries start to prepare for the Super Bowl.

Lyn added that the Giants, being from the Empire State, would impact Sunday’s sales because “we’re in a New York market.”

But while pizza and wings may be on the minds of most Americans this year, bars are also expecting a business boost. On Friday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg temporarily renamed Brady’s Bar in uptown Manhattan to Manning’s for the weekend, declaring it “the luckiest bar in New York City,” just as he did when the two teams battled on the gridiron in 2008.

“If I wasn’t going to be in Indianapolis, I would be spending my Sunday afternoon where I think a lot of you should spend it, and that is here at Manning’s,” Bloomberg said.

Owner Dan Brady, an avid Giants fan, said yesterday that altering the name of the bar is a fun change.

“We did it four years ago, and everybody loved it,” he said. “Everybody finds it to be a great thing. Hopefully it’ll bring the Giants good luck.”

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More than 3,000 people attended the 2011 Kennett Brewfest in Kennett Square, Pa., sampling beers from upwards of 60 breweries from across the country. Photo by Chris Palmer

But this afternoon, she proudly joined her children and friends at the 14th annual Kennett Brewfest in Kennett Square, Pa. enjoying a day full of family, food, music and, of course, beer.

“This is really neat,” said McKnelly, grasping onto the two-ounce mug given to each of the nearly 3,000 guests who attended the festival. “We got our family here, it’s a great day, and this is just a lot of fun.”

The McKnelly’s used the festival as a reunion event. Cathy’s children, who have moved to various parts of the country as they’ve grown up, flew in for the weekend, and this afternoon they all donned matching tee-shirts with drawings of a ham on the front, dubbing themselves “Team Hambone,” an inside family joke.

Jeff Norman, the executive director of Kennet Brewfest, created the event 14 years ago as a way to raise funds to support the town of Kennett Square, and said that the profits from the event bring in about a third of the revenues needed to stage parades, summer concerts and other community events.

“This event is really important for us and the town,” he said.

Cathy’s son Tim, who is 34 and lives in Huntsville, Ala., said the festival was a perfect event for the family to enjoy together.

“We’re just here having a good time,” he said. “It’s a nice homecoming event for us.”

“This is a neighborhood thing,” said Steve Healey, 55, from Downingtown, Pa.

Healey has attended the brewfest for the past two years with his poker buddies, and he was quick to emphasize that getting drunk was not the main point of the event.

“It’s just a nice time being with friends, tasting different beers,” he said.

He told a story about how he tried an ale from the Magic Hat brewery last year that he really liked, and it has since become one of his go-to beers. If he was concentrating on the quantity of drinks he consumed rather than quality, he might have never made that discovery.

“If you’re too drunk, you can’t even taste anything,” he said.

“People are definitely here for the flavor of the beer, the joy of beer, rather than the inebriation,” said Mike Hiller, the head of Bavarian Barbarian, a brewery from Williamsport, Pa. that was distributing beer at the festival.

Hiller attends about 12 festivals per year, and though this was his first time attending the Kennett Brewfest, he noted that this crowd was different from other festivals he’s visited.

“There’s a more knowledgeable crowd here,” he said. “It’s not a total drunk-fest.”

But some people misunderstand the event said Gina Goodall, 58, who works with the town and helped out at the festival.

“The idea of thousands of people drinking beer in your town sometimes is not what you want,” she said.

Ben Thackara, 32, of Oxford, Pa, said he saw a girl getting sick earlier in the day, and as the event drew into the evening, there were several visitors stumbling around with stickers on their foreheads and waning memories.

“I don’t really remember what they had,” said Kit Murdock, 59, of Downingtown, Pa, when asked which beer he had just finished.

But overall, visitors were consistent in their praise for the community-oriented feel of the afternoon.

“I love it,” said Dennis Meixell, 63, who drove up from Newark, Del., with his adult children for the afternoon. “The people have been really nice.”

And McKnelly said if they can manage to get everyone together again, her family will have another reunion at Brewfest 2012.

“I’m 61, my youngest is 26, and we’re all having fun,” said McKnelly. “It’s a local, family-run event, and it crosses generations. It’s just a good time.”

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