NYC's West Village Serves a Variety of Spirits

New York City has a long, eventful past and the city's West Village is no exception. Riotous gangs, murderous politicians, drunk writers and nutty speak-easy owners have all made their mark on this corner of Manhattan and some think that they never really left.

And while New York is not one of the many cities known for their fabulous ghost tours, you can still find a few good ones. In the West Village, the best way to do a tour is with beer. So I recently took part in a haunted pub tour -- orchestrated by a friend of mine in celebration of her 30th birthday.

The group of us met in front of a Starbucks before the sun went down and were greeted by a man in a top, long black cape and a cane. He was a tour guide from Ghosts of New York but he was ready to have a few beers, too. From the moment we shook his hand, he had stories for us about places in the immediate vicinity.

The first official stop was in front of one of the city's most romantic restaurants: One If By Land, Two If By Sea. The restaurant was once the carriage house of infamous Vice President Aaron Burr. According to our guide, Burr still hangs out there along with his daughter (who was lost at sea) and an unidentified man who some believe to be one of Burr's servants. Burr's daughter sometimes steals women's earrings and supposedly once pushed someone down the stairs.

The restaurant is a little too expensive for a group like ours, so we headed to the Barrow Street Ale House right next door. Our guide revealed that he enjoyed Blue Moon and, being in an American history kind of mood, I ordered myself a Yuengling, a beer brewed by the oldest, continually operating brewery in the US.

For our second stop, we had a choice: we could head to Marie's Crisis and hunt for some ghosts in the piano bar where show tunes are favored or we could go to Jekyll & Hyde for a bit of a kitschy haunted theme. Jekyll & Hyde won the duel. And, yes, it was kitschy but it was also fun. A group of us even opted to take shots from giant (fake) syringes. I chased it with a Brooklyn Lager from Brooklyn Brewery.

Our final stop of the night was White Horse Tavern, a bar famous for its dead clientele. As the story goes, Dylan Thomas loved this bar and he spent many a night here. He used to turn the tables sideways to make it easier for him to write while he sipped his drink. But one night, Thomas entered that bar and before he left, he'd downed 18 shots of whiskey before heading home -- and dying.

The legend says that Thomas still haunts the bar but does nothing more than move around the tables after closing. So we headed to the bar and I ordered up a pint of Anchor Steam Beer -- which is always good. Eventually we ended up back at the Barrow Street Ale House to round up the night.