Haunted Pub Crawl Near Me: Theodosia's Ghost at One if by Land

One if by Land, Two if by Sea serves dinner by candlelight at 17 Barrow Street, a brick carriage house between Seventh Avenue South and West 4th Street, and its ghost list is longer than its wine list's first page. On a West Village haunted pub crawl near me, it is the elegant stop: open Wednesday to Sunday from 5 pm, with autumn cocktails from $22 at the bar and a $155 three-course prix fixe in the dining room.

The restaurant's own history page tells the founding legend: Aaron Burr, while serving as New York's Attorney General in the 1790s, kept his coach and horses in this carriage house, and lost the property after killing Alexander Hamilton in their 1804 duel. Time Out's 2026 haunted guide disagrees, saying the Burr link is a myth and that the building belonged to an inventor named Hallanan. Both versions are worth repeating at the bar; only one can be right.

Whoever owned it, the ghost stories are persistent. Legend holds that Burr and his daughter Theodosia haunt the rooms, and The Infatuation reported in 2024 that she is said to swipe earrings from women sitting at the bar. Time Out notes that a parapsychologist once claimed up to 20 presences in the building, and that guests mention a creaking staircase and picture frames that fall for no reason. Theodosia was lost at sea in 1813, which makes the earrings story stranger.

What separates this stop from the pubs on the rest of a crawl is the room. Time Out calls it a candlelit carriage-house institution, white-tablecloth formal and undeniably pricey, and The Infatuation describes dim lighting, mirrors everywhere and crisp white tablecloths. The bar area keeps an original hitching post that the owners uncovered during restoration, so ask the bartender to point it out. It is the only stop on most West Village crawls where diners are celebrating milestones.

For a crawl, sit at the bar and order from the cocktail list rather than committing to dinner. The autumn collection includes the Twenty-Four Carrot with vodka, house-pressed carrot juice, blood orange liqueur and ginger at $25, and The New Port with Black Seal rum, lemongrass-buckwheat honey and elderflower at $22. Autumn in Kyoto mixes Japanese wheat beer, Calvados, yuzu and fresh ginger, also $22, and drinks lighter than it sounds. The bar menu is served only at the bar.

The house classics cost more. Horse and Carriage, a Belvedere martini with horseradish, olive brine and blue cheese olives, is $28, and so is Two if by Sea, made with Grey Goose Pear, Green Chartreuse, St-Germain and lime. Skip the $85 Black Truffle Martini unless someone else is paying; it is a showpiece, not a crawl drink. Non-drinkers are well looked after with two mocktails at $16, including Madame Micheline with blueberry, lavender and lemon.

If the crawl doubles as a celebration dinner, the three-course menu is the way in at $155 per person, with an optional $85 wine pairing. The fall menu includes Hamachi Crudo, Steak Tartare with bone marrow butter and French Onion Soup to start, then a Beef Wellington with bordelaise, Pistachio-Crusted Rack of Lamb or Black Trumpet Mushroom Risotto. The Chocolate Chocolate Souffle with cherry ice cream closes the meal. Time Out recommends this menu over the longer tastings.

Timing is the key to visiting without a reservation. The dining room opens at 5 pm Wednesday through Sunday and closes at 9 pm Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and 10 pm on Friday and Saturday, so this is an early stop on any crawl. Monday and Tuesday are closed for dinner. Arrive right at 5 pm on a Wednesday or Thursday for the best chance at bar seats, then move on before the dinner rush takes the room.

For dinner, a reservation is close to essential, and the restaurant books through OpenTable from its website. The phone line, handles special requests, and the house notes that sending an email is not the same as a confirmed table. If you arrive to a full bar, do not wait around: Marie's Crisis, a cash-only piano bar at 59 Grove Street, is a short walk away and takes no reservations at all.

The building's history after Burr, as the restaurant tells it, is a crawl in itself. A firehouse went up next door and the carriage house became a stable and engine house, with firemen living upstairs. In the late 1890s the city sold it and the new owner quietly ran a house of ill repute. Around 1910 it became a silent movie house, then a bar and restaurant several times over, before the current owners bought it in 1970.

The restoration took several years, and the owners say they found old coins, handmade horseshoes and bottles from the early 1800s along the way. The restaurant opened in 1973 and has stayed in the same hands since. Its website also describes a stone-lined, barrel-vaulted tunnel running from the Hudson Street side, of unknown origin, which it believes was used by the Underground Railroad. Treat that as house lore; the building does not give tours of it.

The crowd tells you how to behave. Expect couples marking anniversaries, out-of-town families on a big night, and a handful of ghost hunters at the bar who came for Theodosia. The quiet rule is to keep the crawl energy down: this is not the stop to arrive in full costume with a loud group. Dress for a nice dinner and keep the earrings fastened.

Turn the stop into a short Village loop. From Barrow Street, walk to Grove Street and the curve of Christopher Park, then on to the Stonewall National Monument at Christopher Street. Grove Court, a hidden row of 19th-century houses behind a gate on Grove Street, is worth a look through the bars, and Marie's Crisis sits nearby for a sing-along nightcap. Hudson Street, where the tunnel story begins, is a few blocks west.

One if by Land suits crawlers who want one romantic, beautiful room among the dive bars, couples who want a ghost story with their anniversary dinner, and anyone curious about the Burr debate. It suits big groups and late-night crawlers less well, because the kitchen closes early and the room is hushed. Come at 5 pm, order The New Port at the bar, ask about Theodosia, and leave before the dinner reservations arrive.