Which real Midtown tavern partly inspired MacLaren's Pub?

McGee’s, a Midtown tavern, partly inspired MacLaren’s Pub in How I Met Your Mother.

Series creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas drew on several New York bars they and other Late Show staff members liked. McGee’s was especially important because it stood near the Ed Sullivan Theater, where The Late Show was taped, and because the creators liked a mural inside the bar and wanted to incorporate that visual feeling into the sitcom’s fictional hangout.

MacLaren’s is therefore not a direct replica of one establishment. Its look and backstory combine elements associated with McGee’s, McHale’s, Chumley’s, and Fez. The show’s bar is an Irish pub in Manhattan where Ted, Marshall, Lily, Barney, and Robin repeatedly meet, but its name has a separate origin: it came from Carter Bays’s assistant, Carl MacLaren. The bartender is also named Carl, creating an in-show connection.

The common trap is treating McGee’s as the sole model. It was one major inspiration, while the fictional pub is a composite of several real venues.