Irvin Koch is 103 years old and still serves beer in the basement of his home.
He lives in Pasadena, Maryland, just outside Baltimore. In 1963, he bought a waterfront house that already had a bar in the basement, and he hasn’t stopped tending it since. That’s more than six decades behind the bar. By many accounts, that makes him the oldest bartender in the world.
There’s no set schedule there: Irv opens when the first customer arrives and closes when the last one leaves. The lights are low, the drinks are cheap, the jukebox is usually on, and it’s cash only. Koch, a World War II veteran, tends bar with quick-witted humor and a half-smile.
The house was built in 1912, forty years before the county adopted its first zoning ordinance. A bar like this wouldn’t get a permit today. It exists because it was there before the rules, and it will stay there until Irvin decides otherwise.