Formerly: The Blue Pump Room · Blue Pump House · Neir's Social Hall
New York, New York · Founded 1829
A Woodhaven tavern with a contested 1829 lineage, saved from closure by its community and known for Goodfellas, Tower Heist, and Parts Unknown.
Neir's Tavern is an operating Woodhaven bar at 87-48 78th St. that traces its history to an 1829 tavern linked to the nearby Union Course Racetrack. The early story is part history and part unresolved local tradition, but its later Neir-era identity, its appearances in Goodfellas, Tower Heist, and Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown, and its repeated modern rescues make it one of New York's most durable neighborhood bars.
Neir's Tavern traces its claimed lineage to an 1829 Woodhaven tavern associated with the nearby Union Course Racetrack. Reviewed local-history accounts identify the predecessor as The Blue Pump Room and associate it with Cadwallader R. Colden; Blue Pump House appears as a later variant.
Source: QNS, 'A tavern that's been a fixture in Woodhaven nearly 200 years,' 2019; Turf History Times, 'Neir's Tavern in Queens, Opened in 1829 by the Union Race Course,' 2020.
Local histories report that Louis Neir acquired the establishment and renamed it Neir's Social Hall, though the exact ownership and site-continuity chain needs stronger primary documentation.
Source: QNS, 'A tavern that's been a fixture in Woodhaven nearly 200 years,' 2019; Clio, 'Neir's Tavern,' 2022.
Martin Scorsese filmed scenes for Goodfellas at Neir's Tavern; the bar appears as the setting where Jimmy Conway discusses the Lufthansa heist.
Source: Movie-Locations.com, 'Goodfellas filming locations'; Tasting Table, 'The New York Bar From Goodfellas Has Been Open Nearly 200 Years,' 2025.
Loycent Gordon purchases Neir's Tavern and keeps it from closing.
Source: 6sqft, '191-year-old Neir's Tavern stays afloat in Queens with new lease,' 2023; Promenade Speakers, 'Loycent Gordon - Owner of Historic Neir's Tavern,' 2019.
Tower Heist filmed at Neir's Tavern during the production of the Brett Ratner-directed film. Filming-location sources identify the bar as the setting for a scene involving Ben Stiller's Josh Kovaks and Tea Leoni's Special Agent Claire Denham.
Source: Project Woodhaven, 'Tower Heist Films in Woodhaven,' 2011; IMDb, 'Tower Heist' filming and production locations; On the Set of New York, 'Tower Heist Film Locations.'
Neir's Tavern appeared in the Queens episode of CNN's Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. Program materials say Bourdain stopped at the bar for beer and identify owner Loycent 'Loy' Gordon among the people appearing in the episode.
Source: CNN Press Room, Season 9 announcement, 2017; Explore Parts Unknown, 'Episode intel from Queens,' 2017; QNS, 'Anthony Bourdain will eat his way through Queens,' 2017.
A rent crisis threatens Neir's with closure; local and city support helps the tavern remain open.
Source: 6sqft, '191-year-old Neir's Tavern stays afloat in Queens with new lease,' 2023; Promenade Speakers, 'Loycent Gordon - Owner of Historic Neir's Tavern,' 2019.
Loycent Gordon signs a five-year lease, with an option for another five years, after negotiations involving landlords, public officials, and the Queens Chamber of Commerce.
Source: 6sqft, '191-year-old Neir's Tavern stays afloat in Queens with new lease,' 2023.
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
The 1829 date is widely repeated in local histories and by the tavern. Reviewed accounts identify the predecessor as The Blue Pump Room, associated with Cadwallader R. Colden and the Union Course Racetrack, but no complete primary-record chain has been located connecting the original 1829 business, later names and ownerships, the present building, and uninterrupted operation.
Filming-location documentation identifies Neir's Tavern as the Woodhaven location used for the Goodfellas scene in which Jimmy Conway discusses the Lufthansa heist. The film was released in 1990; location shooting took place during the preceding production period.
Neir's Tavern currently promotes itself as the place where 14% of Goodfellas was filmed, but the reviewed independent filming-location sources confirm only that scenes were shot there. No production record, scene breakdown, runtime calculation, or credible explanation of what the 14% figure measures was identified, so it should not be presented as a verified measure of screen time or filming share.
Contemporaneous Woodhaven reporting recorded the Tower Heist production filming at Neir's Tavern in early 2011. Filming-location records identify the Woodhaven bar as the location for the scene between Ben Stiller's Josh Kovaks and Tea Leoni's Special Agent Claire Denham.
Neir's Tavern appeared in the Queens episode of CNN's Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, Season 9, Episode 4, which first aired May 21, 2017. CNN's episode materials say Bourdain stopped at the Woodhaven tavern for beer and identify owner Loycent 'Loy' Gordon among the people appearing in the episode.
The story is regularly repeated in coverage of Neir's, but no contemporaneous playbill, theatre booking, newspaper notice, or other primary documentation was identified in the reviewed sources. It should remain local lore rather than a verified performance credit.
Recent reporting identifies Loycent Gordon as the owner who bought Neir's in 2009 and signed its 2023 lease agreement. The leased building remains owned by landlords, which is separate from business ownership.
Neir's Tavern was definitively founded in 1829 by Cadwallader R. Washburn as the Old Sumpter House.
Reviewed local-history accounts identify the 1829 Woodhaven tavern as The Blue Pump Room and associate it with Cadwallader R. Colden, manager of the nearby Union Course Race Track. Some later accounts use Blue Pump House as a variant, but the reviewed sources do not support Cadwallader R. Washburn or Old Sumpter House. The underlying 1829 primary records still need to be located, so the exact founding details remain unverifiable rather than documented.
Source: QNS, 'A tavern that's been a fixture in Woodhaven nearly 200 years,' 2019; Turf History Times, 'Neir's Tavern in Queens, Opened in 1829 by the Union Race Course,' 2020.
Neir's Tavern is definitively New York City's oldest bar.
Neir's is a major city-oldest claimant based on a reported 1829 lineage, but the evidence required to establish uninterrupted continuity is incomplete. New York City's oldest-continuously-operating-bar race remains unresolved.
Source: QNS, 'A tavern that's been a fixture in Woodhaven nearly 200 years,' 2019; Clio, 'Neir's Tavern,' 2022; McSorley's Old Ale House historical research.
The Goodfellas scene at Neir's showed a Lufthansa-heist celebration.
Neir's was used for a scene in which Jimmy Conway discusses the Lufthansa heist; it should not be described as the site of a heist-celebration scene.
Source: Movie-Locations.com, 'Goodfellas filming locations.'
Fourteen percent of Goodfellas was filmed at Neir's Tavern.
Independent sources confirm that Goodfellas filmed scenes at Neir's Tavern, but the reviewed record does not establish what the 14% figure measures or support it with a production document, scene count, or runtime calculation.
Source: Neir's Tavern website, current history and location copy; Movie-Locations.com, 'Goodfellas filming locations.'
Neir's has lasted because it remains a neighborhood institution with an unusually committed constituency. Owner Loycent Gordon saved the business in 2009, and when a lease crisis threatened it again, public support and negotiations with the landlords helped secure a new lease in 2023.
Neir's Tavern traces its claimed lineage to an 1829 Woodhaven tavern associated with the Union Course Racetrack. Reviewed local-history accounts call that predecessor The Blue Pump Room, associate it with Cadwallader R. Colden, and report that Louis Neir later renamed the establishment Neir's Social Hall in 1898. The continuous-history claim remains unresolved, but the bar is a documented filming location for Goodfellas and Tower Heist and appeared on Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown in 2017.
Neir's Tavern is one of New York City's leading oldest-bar claimants, based on its asserted 1829 lineage. The title is unresolved because the project has not found a complete primary-record chain establishing Neir's uninterrupted business and same-site continuity from 1829, while other historic venues, including McSorley's Old Ale House, have their own disputed origins and continuity claims.
Yes. Neir's Tavern in Woodhaven was used for a Goodfellas scene in which Jimmy Conway discusses the Lufthansa heist. The film was released in 1990, but the tavern's promotional claim that 14% of Goodfellas was filmed there has not been independently substantiated with a scene breakdown, production record, or runtime calculation.
Yes. Tower Heist filmed at Neir's Tavern during its 2011 production. Contemporaneous Woodhaven reporting and multiple filming-location databases identify the bar as the setting for a scene involving Ben Stiller's Josh Kovaks and Tea Leoni's Special Agent Claire Denham.
Yes. Anthony Bourdain visited Neir's Tavern in the Queens episode of CNN's Parts Unknown, Season 9, Episode 4, first aired May 21, 2017. CNN's episode guide says Bourdain stopped at the Woodhaven tavern for beer and spoke with people including owner Loycent 'Loy' Gordon.
Loycent Gordon owns and operates Neir's Tavern. He bought the business in 2009 and later secured a new five-year lease in 2023 after a rent dispute threatened to close the Woodhaven bar; the building itself is leased from separate landlords.
87-48 78th St, Woodhaven, NY 11421
(718) 296-0600
Neir's serves food and drinks in Woodhaven; check its current hours, event schedule, and Goodfellas-related programming directly before visiting.