How I Met Your Mother is kicked off their final season this week which means the gang is be back at one of their favorite hangouts – MacLaren’s.
Sadly, MacLaren’s doesn’t really exist. Like most of the show’s locations, it is just a set on the Twentieth Century Fox Studios lot. But, the bar is based on a composite of four real-life bars where showrunners Craig Thomas and Carter Bays hungout while living in New York.
McGee’s Pub was the inspiration for mural on MacLaren’s back wall, McHale’s inspired the fictional bar’s dark atmosphere, the real-life rustic touches of Chumley’s in the Greenwich Village and the round tables of Fez also made their way into the MacLaren’s set.
“I think for us HIMYM was a way to get super nostalgic for our time in New York and also to tell stories that felt personal,” Bays has said. Thomas and Bays met during an internship at MTV and later began writing together for The Late Show with David Letterman.
If you were hoping to plan a How I Met Your Mother Pub Crawl, you’re out of luck. Of the four bars that inspired MacLaren’s, McGee’s is the only one still in business. It is still located at 240 West 55 Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenues, right around the corner from The Ed Sullivan Theater and is open daily Monday though Saturday from 11 am to 4 am and on Sunday noon to 4 am.
You can check out McGee’s Menu here.
Mcgees is awesome!!!