Julius', tagged the oldest gay bar in NYC and one of the oldest taverns in the city, is the cash-only dive-y joint with good burgers that made LGBTQ history and changed the law in 1966 when three Mattachine Society members staged a "sip-in" and were refused service. The men's challenge to the prohibition of serving alcohol to gays was reported in The New York Times under the headline "3 Deviants Invite Exclusion by Bars." The Society then challenged New York State liquor laws in the courts, winning and opening the way for gay bars three years before Stonewall. Now on the State and National Registers of Historic Places, it celebrates the sip-in annually and has a monthly Mattachine party. Music is by jukebox. The crowd is eclectic. Film buffs may recognize it from "Boys in the Band," "Next Stop Greenwich Village" or "Love is Strange."

juliusbarny.com