NEW YORK - It may be the city's oldest bar, but the Department of Health says it has to get up-to-date.
City officials have temporarily closed McSorley's Old Ale House on 7th Street in the East Village.
They say the more than 160-year-old watering hole, which lays claim to being the city's longest continuously operating bar, was shut down on Wednesday for numerous health code violations.
Those include evidence of rats, conditions which allow insects to thrive, and food being stored under the wrong temperature.
The DOH says McSorley's can reopen once the owners fix these conditions and request a new inspection.
McSorley's is said to have been patronized by everyone from Woody Guthrie to John Lennon to Abraham Lincoln.
It was also the center of a major U.S. Supreme Court case in 1970 where the court ruled that women must be allowed into what was previously a men's only saloon.
A spokesperson for McSorley's says the owner will submit a request for re-inspection on Monday.