When one thinks of nightlife before World War II, one conjures up images of late-night hangouts serving food until the wee hours of the morning and music playing until dawn. Nowhere epitomizes being away from home like New York City in the 1930s and 1940s. It was a legendary moment in time.
After a four-year trial period was revoked, King Kong brought Faye Ray to the side of the Empire State Building, Duke Ellington performed every night at the Cotton Club on 125th Street in Harlem, and two witty cousins named Jack Kriendler and Charlie Berns legitimized a speakeasy at 21 West 52nd Street and dubbed it The “21” Club.
Although “21” had been raided more than once during prohibition, the federal agents could never pin the blame on Jack and Charlie. At the first sign of a raid, they activated an ingenious system of pulleys and levers, sweeping the bottles from the bar’s shelves and dumping the crushed remains down a chute into the New York sewer system.
Throughout the 1930s, “21” was frequented by many literary figures of the day, including: John Steinbeck, John O’Hara, Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, HG Wells, and Robert Sherwood. In fact, every mid-20th century notable made it to “21” at one point or another. It competed with sponsorship from other legendary New York City venues, such as the Stork Club and El Morocco, as one of Café Society’s most prominent gathering places.
In the 1940s, Spellbound hit theaters starring Gregory Peck and is one of the first movies to feature/mention the “21” Club. According to Jeff Kraft and Aaron Leventhal, co-authors of Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock’s San Francisco, Hitchcock had a long-standing connection to the “21” Club. Beginning with his first trip to the United States from England in the late 1930’s, he was a regular customer of the restaurant throughout his life. Humphrey Bogart frequented “21” as a struggling actor in his pre-Hollywood days. When he wasn’t out clubbing with friends, he was content to sit alone in ’21’, hunched over a notebook, smoking a pipe and drinking Scotch, picturing himself a budding playwright. His liquor tastes ranged from Scotch, Black Velvet (equal parts Guinness and champagne), gin martinis in the tub, beer, and Jack Rose cocktails.
Bogart would return to his old haunt in 1944 and propose to a young Lauren Bacall at Table 30. They first worked together on To Have and Have Not, based on the novel by “21” regular Ernest Hemingway ( who was caught making love to mobster Legacy Diamond’s girlfriend in kitchen “21” in 1931). Hollywood came to “21” years later, in the 1950s, to film scenes for the classic movies “All About Eve” starring Bette Davis and Anne Baxter and “The Sweet Smell of Success” with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. .
The first of 33 replica jockeys that stood guard outside the front doors of “21” was donated by sponsor Jay Van Urk in the early 1930s. In 1992, a jockey was robbed from the restaurant and that story ran on page 2 of the New York Post. The next day, a “21” regular was looking out his office window overlooking Washington Square Park and saw the jockey in a shopping cart and called the police. In 2004, there was a collection of 33 jockeys, most recently from Saratoga Stables representing the great New York horse Sunny Cide, winner of the 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness races.
In recent years, “21” has seen its share of renovations and remains one of the few remaining classic restaurants from the golden days of New York City nightlife. It’s still a refreshing throwback to the grand diner of a bygone era. Classic American food is still skillfully executed and the menu, with or without a great bottle of wine, remains a pleasurable experience for New Yorkers and visitors alike. It will certainly provide memories for generations to come.