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Chumley's

Chumley's

86 Bedford Street, West Village.

Anonymously nestled in the heart of the West Village, Chumley's is a cool little spot I discovered sometime in college. A seemingly secretive little speak-easy, Chumley's makes you feel like you've stumbled into a portal into a different world. Truth is, however, that it's actually just as much of a toursity spot as McSorley's on the East side, and is hardly as undiscovered as it might seem (hell, my MOM used to go there). It still looks old world and rustic inside, but it's been renovated more times than can be quantified (Woody Allen once used it as an interior location for a film, but felt that it didn't look "authentic" enough, so had old cross-beams put in. They're still there, yet serve no discernible function). It's claimed that the term "86"....as in "that guy got 86'd"....originated here, being that it's the street number of the back door. If you got 86'd from Chumley's, that meant you were "shown the door," so to speak. Not sure if that's true, but it's a nice story, isn't it?

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