O’HARA'S is a restaurant and pub close to Wall St. in the financial district of New York City. It opened in 1983 and was badly damaged during the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001.
We stumbled upon O’Hara’s when we visited the nearby 9/11 Memorial on Saturday July 27th 2024. As we crossed Liberty St. to view the memorial on the side of the FDNY Ten House for the 343 NYFD members who lost their lives on September 11th 2001 we spotted the O’Hara’s sign but the place looked closed. Nobody was sat outside and we saw no signs saying ‘open’.
Then we peeked in a window and got a shock: the place was heaving inside!
We ventured through a sticker-covered door at the side of the property and stepped into a bustling restaurant. O’Hara’s was clearly a popular place, despite what the misleading exterior portrayed.
The few tables we saw had reserved signs on them, but we told the friendly member of staff who greeted us that’s we’d like to sit at one of the two bars and he pointed us through.
After a bit of toing and froing (thanks to an undecided couple who tried usurping us to the seats), we managed to find two stools together and ordered some much-needed draft Blue Moons.
O’Hara’s was a fascinating place to visit: literally every spare inch of wall space was covered in fire department and police department patches! We spotted many familiar American city and county names, as well as several foreign and British ones. We later discovered that the tradition of putting patches on the wall started a year after 9/11 when a construction worker stapled an NYFD patch to the wall.
From our prime spot at the bar, we studied the badges and watched the Olympic Games on the TV, while taking in the comings and goings. Service was very quick and friendly, and we eventually ordered some food.
Our check was as follows:
🍔 Staten Island burger with fries = $17.00
🥪 Reuben sandwich with fries = $17.00
🍺 Blue Moon (x3) = $27.00
😢 Tax = $5.00
👍 Service charge = $12.00
💰 Total = $78.00
We had to wait a while to have the food brought to us but it was worth it.
The burger was flavorsome, with a thick pattie covered in Swiss cheese and sautéed onions. The Reuben sandwich was packed full of corned beef, Swiss cheese and sauerkraut and was equally as tasty as the burger. In the U.S., corned beef is a salt cured brisket, sliced. It was as chewy as hell and each bite of the sandwich was a challenge to eat, but the flavor was so good it was worth enduring.
There was literally two inches of meat in the Reuben! We greedily would have liked a few more of the home-made fries, but the portion size of the meals was more than adequate.
O’Hara’s had a great atmosphere and there was a good mix of customers, ranging from families, small groups and singles.
We had been travelling 20 hours with very little sleep, so the beers went straight to our heads. We could have stayed much longer but we were literally exhausted and almost falling sleep. We reluctantly left for the long hot journey uptown back to our hotel.
We know we will revisit O’Haras when we’re next in New York City, not just for the food and beer, but for its friendliness in what is normally a brusque city.
📌 O'HARA'S PUB & RESTAURANT, 120 Cedar St., NY 10006
🌐 Unknown
🚇 NEAREST SUBWAY: Rector St.
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