Jimmy Fallon reached a “Fever Pitch” of celebration at the Manhattan pub, capping his bachelor party with an unexpected kiss for the owner.
The Mean Fiddler is marking two decades in the Theater District, celebrating its lively past and the long list of celebrities who have passed through its doors — sometimes on their feet, and occasionally less steadily. Among them is the “Tonight Show” host.
Fallon spent his 2007 bachelor party watching a UFC bout with roughly 25 friends and relatives, including his brothers, brother-in-law and father-in-law. The group gathered in the pub’s downstairs bar, where another customer was celebrating her 30th birthday.
As the evening came to a close, Fallon walked over and kissed co-owner Patrick McNamee on the lips. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this is the first time a guy ever kissed me,’” McNamee recalled.
Fallon then told him, “Man, I love you. This place rocks.”
“That’s my favorite part of the story,” Patrick’s brother Mike said. Fallon stayed with the birthday crowd, drank with them, played beer pong and eventually joined in for karaoke.
The McNamee brothers, who grew up in Dublin, Ireland, opened the pub in 2006 at West 47th Street and Eighth Avenue. The location had previously housed Stella’s, which Patrick described as a “raunchy gay bar.” Since then, the brothers have poured drinks for a steady stream of famous visitors.
“Bono came in with Johnny Depp, hammered,” said Patrick, 60.
Pierce Brosnan was another regular, often sitting at the bar to write. Patrick once asked why actors tended to sit on bar stools turned at a 45-degree angle. Brosnan explained that the position helped keep people from recognizing them — prompting Patrick to ask whether he had learned the trick in acting school.
Before the brothers renovated The Mean Fiddler in 2019, the pub welcomed even more celebrity visitors. The McNamees have since expanded their Manhattan hospitality empire with 11 additional bars and restaurants.
“I know it sounds crazy, but the more dive-bar-like we were, the more celebrities seemed to come in,” said Mike, 51.
“We still see famous people, just not at the same level as we used to.”
Broadway performers, sports fans and celebrities frequently stop by before or after shows and events at Madison Square Garden.
Mark Cuban, the billionaire and minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, was a familiar sight whenever his team faced the Knicks at MSG. During those visits, he could transform the bar into what Patrick called a full-scale dance club.
“He’s the nicest guy ever,” Patrick said enthusiastically.
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Whenever the Mavericks were in town, Cuban would reportedly visit every night, buy drinks for the room, hand the DJ $400 and take over the music with his own playlist. “The place would be pumping,” Patrick said.
Cuban also joined customers for beer pong and pool, Mike added. He usually arrived with friends, often women, and tended to appear late at night.
Not every celebrity guest embraced the pub’s party atmosphere. Patrick remembered one particularly serious visitor: “Game of Thrones” actor Peter Dinklage.
“He is not a happy guy,” Patrick said.
Dinklage had arrived with a striking six-foot-tall woman when one customer approached and asked, “Any chance I can have a photograph? It’s just for my kids?”
After Dinklage flat out denied the fan, Patrick called him out on his inhospitable behavior.
“I turned around and I said to him, ‘You’re big right now, but remember in 10 years from now, you’ll be wishing you did that photograph.’”
Most of the selfies taken with celebrities at The Fiddler were captured by its former security manager, Alex Serrano, because the owners prefer not to bother them.
Patrick, who worked at the now-shuttered Mickey Mantles Restaurant on Central Park South, said he learned not to pester stars when they come in to unwind after watching the baseball legend get bombarded for photos and autographs.
“Mantle would be in the middle of his chicken fried steak and people would come over once, twice, I’d say three times,” he recalled.
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, the bar is going back to its original, 2006 prices on the week of Sept. 21, so cocktails such as a cosmopolitan and an appletini will be marked down to $8 and shots like the red headed slut will cost $6.
After its staff recovers from that celebration, they will be gearing up for the bar’s favorite holiday — Halloween.
That night, the place is full of A-listers in costume, so customers can’t recognize them. But Patrick checks IDs at the door — so he knows their true identities.
“We have Oscar winners, I won’t name the Spider-Man … they come in, I pick up their ID, and I look at it. But I won’t say a word. The same guys come back every year, different disguises,” he said.