It’s been nearly ten years since McArthur’s American Grille and Michael’s Tavern, two longtime Pleasantville pillars and prime village venues to grab a beer and watch the game, closed their doors. Tom Miller, a resident of the village for nearly 20 years, believes Pleasantville has not had a true sports bar since.
“Nothing has ever really filled that gap,” says Miller. “And we see a really strong interest and strong need for that style and that type of establishment not only in Pleasantville but in the surrounding area.”
This spring, Miller and John McCarthy, a -going on 20 year-Pleasantville resident, will open The Pleasantville Tavern, a bar and restaurant they hope will give thirsty local sports fans exactly the venue they’ve been looking for since 2016. It will take over the location of Lucy’s, the long-time bar and music venue on the corner of Bedford Road and Wheeler Avenue, right in the downtown and just minutes by foot from the Pleasantville Metro-North Station.
That location is a prime reason that Miller and McCarthy–longtime pals whose college-age eldest sons are best friends–purchased the spot from Lucy’s former owner. Miller & McCarthy both have been looking to open a sports bar in the village for years, and considered several prior opportunities including buying Michael’s when it closed. None came to fruition until last year, when McCarthy learned that Lucy’s location might become available. McCarthy began speaking to the owner last January, and in August approached Miller to see if he was interested. Four months later, the pair had closed on the purchase.
“I saw the opportunity. I know everybody in town has been crying for a place like this,” says McCarthy. “We felt like there was a need for an American pub grub type of place.
Elevated Pub Food
Miller and McCarthy’s goal, they say, is to create a venue that is a great place to watch a game, or to grab a nice meal with the family.
Though a sports bar, it will eschew the sports bar cliches that might make it less inviting to patrons simply interested in having dinner or drinks.
“We like to call it a sports bar without the sports memorabilia,” a place that seamlessly blends authentic charm with vibrant community appeal with memorable experiences in a warm and inviting atmosphere,” McCarthy says.
The Tavern will have 12 screens, making it a prime destination for friends with varying viewing interests.
“We definitely want to be the kind of place where you can go with your group of friends, and if I want to watch the baseball game and they want to watch the college football game, we will be showing all of them,” says Miller.
But the screens are spaced out, as the owners sought to avoid the kind of wall-to-wall overload that one finds at a Buffalo Wild Wings or, in the past, an ESPN Zone.
The restaurant will include two bars and will comprise a main area and a back room, which will be used for private events. When there are no private events, that room will serve as an overflow or family dining room, with a little bit of a buffer between the sports fans screaming at the TVs at the front bar.
The opening day menu has not been finalized, but Miller and McCarthy say the selection, at least to start, will focus on simple bar food done well.
“You’ll be able to get a really good burger, really good wings, good chicken sandwiches,” said Miller. “Elevated pub or tavern food.”
In addition to serving local patrons, Pleasantville Tavern’s owners will look to source from local businesses. Captain Lawrence, the Elmsford-based craft brewery originally launched in Pleasantville, sold its first keg at Lucy’s, and Miller and McCarthy plan to continue that tradition with two Captain Lawrence beers on tap. They also plan to serve brews from Soul Brewing Company in the village, and they are also reaching out to local farms to fill out the menu.
In addition to its location in the heart of Pleasantville’s downtown, the tavern has a 30+car municipal parking lot in the back.
Business & Bartending
McCarthy, a director of field operations for a New York City construction management firm in his day job, has tended bar since he was too young to drink, working in the bar business when he was just 16 years old. He later became the manager of Joshua Tree, a popular sports bar in Manhattan’s Murray Hill that closed in 2020.
A father of four, he finally left the bar business when he got married in the early 2000s.
Miller’s only restaurant experience, he explains, is “on the opposite side of the bar.” But his business experience has complemented McCarthy’s bar and construction background.
“This period has been sort of exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. I’m certainly doing things that I don’t do on a daily basis,” Miller says. “But my business experience lends to a lot of the things we are trying to do.”
To McCarthy and Miller, there is nothing quite like The Pleasantville Tavern either in the village or in the surrounding municipalities, despite a plethora of gastropubs and great restaurants.
“We’ve been talking to neighboring towns, people in Briarcliff and Chappaqua,” McCarthy says. “They are almost a little jealous.”
