the old town bar.

The stretch of 18th Street between Broadway and Park Avenue South is a scaffolding wasteland. Gray planking covers most of the storefronts. But a lone, neon-lit sign swinging from a high doorway marks an oasis: the Old Town Bar and Restaurant.

The Old Town has been serving New Yorkers in the Flatiron district since 1892, long before this trendy neighborhood was even called the Flatiron district. While other bars come and go as often as the wind changes, this old bar has been faithfully serving up burgers and beers for more than a century.

“I mean, this is it,” said John Fundus, who has been a patron for three decades. “This was here.”

Originally founded by the Lohden family, the Old Town was bought by its longtime manager Larry Meagher in 1970. After he died in February, his family carried on the business. On any given day, chances are you’ll find one of the Meagher grandchildren serving up your tuna melt ($10.50) and pint of Brooklyn lager.

The restaurant’s interior is pure Old New York. Squint through the dusty front window and you can see the original pressed-tin ceiling and the sprawling 55-foot-long mahogany and marble bar. The menu is classic and unfussy: burgers (from $10.25), salads (from $5.25) and hot and cold sandwiches ($8.50 to $13.25) are prepared in the second-floor kitchen and lowered to the dining room in New York’s oldest dumbwaiter.

The Old Town’s burgers are longtime restaurant review heavyweights for good reason. Grilled to pink perfection, the juicy burger is smothered in gooey American cheese and nestled in a toasted bun. A generous portion of golden fries and a long slice of pickle accompany this model of good old American cuisine.

Even though the burgers have remained the same, the crowd has changed with the times. In the 1980s, the Old Town played host to a motley crew of regulars, truckers and artists from Andy Warhol’s nearby Factory. These days, it continues to resemble a Noah’s Ark of sorts. On Friday evenings, every imaginable demographic group is crammed into the bar area. “Everything and everyone here is changing so quickly,” Stewart, an Old Town bartender for 23 years, said. “I used to know everyone at this bar. But I only recognize one person here tonight.”

On the night in question, West Village hipsters squeezed next to regulars nursing glasses of Maker’s Mark. Frat boys and their 50-something counterparts bonded over pints of Guinness, while PR types clicked away on their BlackBerrys. Grizzly-bearded men discussed Tina Fey’s "Saturday Night Live" imitation of Sarah Palin, while elderly ladies sipped on small glasses of red wine and compared the Old Town’s burgers to those of the fast food chain White Castle.

But patrons agree – while the scene is constantly evolving, this old place will always attract a crowd. Fundus, who plans to keep coming for a few more decades, gestured expansively to the horde packing the bar behind him. “This just is New York,” he said.

did you watch history being made?

BE BARACK BLUE TODAY.

walking the flatiron.

Sunday dawns bright and cool, a perfect day to take advantage of the free Flatiron district walking tour sponsored by the Flatiron and 23rd Street Business Improvement District. It is a pleasant walk up Broadway from my apartment on 13th Street, and I join the tour group at the foot of a bronze sculpture of William Seward.

The group today is a diverse mix of elderly European tourists, students and young couples taking advantage of the sunshine. Our guide, a burly man with a steel-wool beard, greets us by holding up a postcard depicting a scene from 1908 and asking us to imagine the two ladies strolling down the street on a sunny day like this one. I try, but get distracted by the industrial truck parked where a hansom cab once sat.

Standing on a little traffic island in the middle of Broadway, our guide points out the original site of Delmonico’s restaurant, the gastronomic birthplace of Lobster Newberg, Baked Alaska and Eggs Benedict. As he describes waiters carrying dinners across Broadway to millionaire Leonard Jerome’s mansion on 24th Street, a young man rushes by with a cart of frozen dumplings. I watch a man feed a proliferation of pigeons, and learn about a sculpture of Chester Arthur, who became President after James Garfield was shot, earning the unflattering nickname of “His Accidency.”

Our tour circles Madison Square Park and ends under a tree in the park, where our guide says Gouverneur Morris once stood and devised the layout of New York City. Standing by some construction workers, Morris was inspired by the grid-like shadow cast by the sun shining on an abandoned sand sifter. There are no construction workers here today, but there is plenty of sun and a sand pit, where children play and impatient New Yorkers wait in a line that snakes around the park to the Shake Shack. After the tour, I debate joining the queue; all that talk about Baked Alaska has made me hungry for a milkshake.

election day in the flatiron.

The financial crisis has dominated headlines lately, but economic worries weren't the main issue for Flatiron retailers and customers this Election Day. "Business has been slightly slower than usual, but that's not my main focus in this election," Jlee Maldonado, 26, who works at Alma Salon and Spa on East 21st Street and voted for Obama, said. "My family is thinking about healthcare and education. I want to see the end of the war."

Obama's foreign policy was the deciding factor for Roseline Dipty, 28, a manager at the Universal Force Healing Center. However, the economic issue played a small role in her decision. "McCain's tax cuts just seem like what we're already seeing with Bush," she said. "Obama seems more focused on helping individuals, not corporations."

Hilda Davis, 51, who headed to the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park after voting, echoed Dipty's sentiments. "Obama just seems like he will create more jobs for regular people," she said.

But most agree that the economic issue isn't at the forefront of the election. Monica Gmochowska, a financial controller at Full Picture, one of the many Flatiron public relations firms, hasn't seen much change in business recently. She also doesn't think that the candidates' economic policies really matter. "Economic stimulus isn't so much about who the President is, but about Congress's actions. Bills have to pass the House and Senate first," she said.

Others were swayed by simpler reasons. "I have more good feelings about McCain," Amy Nelson, 21, a salesgirl at the East 20th Street pet boutique Trixie+Peanut, said. "I voted mostly on intuition."