{
  "id": 12672283,
  "title": "103-year-old veteran’s bar you can’t copy today",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/07/103-year-old-veterans-bar-you-cant-copy-today",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-10-07T16:52:06.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Economic Times",
    "slug": "the-economic-times",
    "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/new-updates/us-news-103-year-old-world-war-ii-veteran-still-runs-his-maryland-basement-bar-after-63-years-why-no-one-can-open-one-like-it-today/articleshow/134770704.cms"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Irvin Koch, a World War II veteran, is widely recognized as the world's oldest bartender at the age of 103. His bar, Irv's Basement Bar, is located in the basement beneath his home in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, on the outskirts of Baltimore. Koch, who served in the Navy during the Pacific Theater, bought the property in 1963 when it was already an inn, and the basement bar had been operating since. The bar, which still functions as a cash-only establishment with a jukebox, pool table, and messages from visitors, has survived despite modern zoning and business rules that would likely prevent a new bar from opening in the same residential location.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}